Saudi boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh’s big promoter peace summit went down in London yesterday (Tue. June 30th, 2026), but at first glace it doesn’t look like it has h.ealed the rift between Zuffa Boxing and the old guard.
UFC CEO Dana White came into the boxing world declaring he’d crush the competition, and while the people running Matchroom, Queensbury, and Golden Boy have talked a lot of trash about Zuffa’s events thus far, there’s no denying that the UFC sister-company is slowly but surely
signing up a ton of top talent in the sport. Their Muhammad Ali Revival Act is on the verge of passing, allowing them to run boxing like they run UFC.
After less than a year in existence, Zuffa Boxing is already on its way to controlling a significant portion of the sweet science. So why would they agree to attend Alalshikh’s ‘peace summit,’ designed to bring down the temperature between all the different promoters as Alalshikh looks to deliver Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury for Riyadh Season 2026, which kicks off in October 2026?
Alalshikh owns a 60% controlling stake in Zuffa Boxing through Sela, as well as a 10% piece of DAZN. He also pays Queensbury, Matchroom, and Gold Star to run his Ring-branded events. Everyone is making a lot of Saudi money right now, so when Alalshikh called for a meeting in London, almost everyone came.
“Great meeting with our brothers and partners…will affect the future… for more than four hours we talked about everything,” Alalshikh tweeted. “big meeting today between DAZN, Queensberry, Matchroom and Gold Star.”
Noteably absent from the photo: Dana White, or any representative from Zuffa. But in a follow up post, Turki added a separate image of TKO board member, WWE president, and Zuffa boss Nick Khan.
A lot is being made online of how all the promoters got together for a photo except the Zuffa representative. The vibe? Everyone is unified other than Zuffa. But perhaps a more accurate reading is that there’s Alalshikh’s relationship with everyone else, and then there’s his relationship with Zuffa Boxing. Above the rest, we’d suggest.
We’ll see what comes of this peace summit. While it probably won’t stop Zuffa’s Dana White and Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn from sniping at each other, we could see less leaking of plans and an end to the drama surrounding Fury vs. Joshua that has overtaken the fight in the past month or so. Or maybe not. None of the promoters sound particularly interested in making peace, especially if that means shutting up and letting Zuffa eat their lunch.
It’s interesting times in boxing for sure.
