Just one day after Paramount acquired the UFC in a major money deal, they look to suddenly be adding another piece of the TKO pie to their empire.
Per a report from Front Office Sports, Paramount is now being considered the "front-runner" to acquire Zuffa Boxing, the TKO-backed boxing promotion that is being overseen by Dana White, the CEO and president of the UFC, and Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia.
This news comes approximately 30 hours after the UFC inked a new $7.7 billion U.S. broadcasting rights deal with Paramount, which is slated to begin in January.
Terms of a deal are currently unavailable.
Zuffa Boxing is slated to begin as a fight league in 2026; however, they will serve as the main promoter for the upcoming Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight that takes place in Las Vegas on September 13 and airs on Netflix.
The FOS report states TKO will promote 2-3 "super fights" per year with Saudi Arabia.
Zuffa Boxing Nearing Deal With Paramount One Day After New UFC U.S. Broadcasting Agreement
"This is a low risk and TKO receives a roughly $10 million fee for serving as the managing partner and providing day-to-day operational management oversight," Shapiro said in an earnings call last week. "And that's all margin for us. TKO has no funding obligation.
"We get a fee to promote it, each one of these super fights. We get a fee to negotiate the media rights for each fight, which IMG does. So another reason we’re strong and proud that we brought IMG into the fold of our flywheel. We get a fee for On Location to sell hospitality packages. And we will put Zuffa Boxing fighters on the undercard of each of these super fights. We expect to net on average another 10 million [dollars] for every super fight we manage and promote."
The UFC's new broadcasting deal in the U.S. with Paramount, signed on August 11, will see 43 fight cards (13 numbered UFC events and 30 Fight Night cards) air on the Paramount+ streaming service. A number of those numbered cards (White and TKO executives Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro have given differing answers) will be simulcast on the linear CBS network.
Certain platforms, however, were not part of the agreement. Zuffa Boxing was one of these, as well as Dana White's Contender Series, The Ultimate Fighter, and Road to UFC.
White teased yesterday that a broadcasting partner for Zuffa Boxing had been agreed upon but not yet announced. This included speculation on if ESPN would be involved in airing Zuffa Boxing after it parted ways with Top Rank Boxing last month.
ESPN is the current home of the UFC, though that deal expires in December. Last week, ESPN signed a five-year, $325 million U.S. broadcasting deal with the WWE, also under the TKO umbrella, to broadcast their Premium Live Events (PLEs) on their new direct-to-consumer ESPN app that launched Thursday, August 21.
Like the UFC-Paramount deal, Alalshikh announced last month that all Riyadh Season boxing cards, which air on DAZN, will no longer be pay-per-view beginning in November.