Zuffa Boxing is expected to launch with its first event planned during the same weekend as UFC 324, which takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Jan. 24.
The first Zuffa Boxing event takes place one night earlier on Jan. 23, although no location or venue has been confirmed yet for the show. With UFC 324 happening in Las Vegas, it makes sense that Zuffa Boxing would also happen in Sin City but no formal announcement about the card has been made yet.
“We are planning to launch our first fight
on Jan. 23, which is the night before our first UFC fight on [Paramount+],” TKO president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro said during the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Tuesday. “So back to back nights, big weekend for TKO to say the least.”
Zuffa Boxing is being run by TKO Group Holdings — parent company to the UFC and WWE — with UFC CEO Dana White and WWE president Nick Khan handling the day-to-day operations with full funding for the promotion coming from Saudi Arabia.
Shapiro was quick to point out that TKO isn’t taking any financial risk by getting involved with Zuffa Boxing, because of the investment from Saudi Arabia, but he also added that with success and growth, the ownership stake in the company will change.
“We’ve been telling the street that roughly per fight we make about $10 million a fight,” Shapiro revealed. “I think there’s upside there as well because we’ve proven the model.
“We’re not taking any risk. We’re being paid a management fee. We’re going to build firm value. In the space of a couple of years, after we hit some thresholds that we’re well on our way to hitting, we will roughly be at about 50/50 ownership of that [joint venture].”
Right now, Zuffa Boxing is building a roster of fighters with signings underway ahead of the first event in January.
“Our plan is to build a promotion where we have a stable of 200 or so fighters that we are hard at work signing up,” Shapiro said. “Fans see the fights they want to see, which means the best fight the best. You move up in the rankings, you fight someone else that has moved up in the rankings. That’s really what we’re building here with Zuffa Boxing.”
While Saudi Arabia provides the funding, Zuffa Boxing under the TKO umbrella handles everything else from a business standpoint and that included the broadcast deal with Paramount, advertising deals, ticket sales and more.
“The way we’re going to build value here is one hand, you’ve got this partnership we have with our friends in Saudi Arabia, who are spectacular partners. Spectacular,” Shapiro said. “They say what they mean and they do what they say.
“We’re going to run it like we do the UFC, bring the whole platform in and sell tickets and sell media rights and sell partnerships and marketing and ultimately consumer products and licensing off of our brand and our individual fighters and ultimately monetize the site fees the way we do UFC and WWE. Real opportunity there.”
Shapiro also confirmed plans for “two to four” superfights per year similar to the recent Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford card that aired on Netflix.
There’s no word yet when the first “superfight” might happen but Shapiro confirmed that there are numerous broadcast partners interested in airing the event, including Netflix, after building a good relationship through the Canelo vs. Crawford card.
