UFC and WWE owners TKO ‘close to Saudi agreement on creation of a new boxing league’

TKO Group Holdings held a meeting with investors on Wednesday

Saudi representatives are keen to form a league after huge investment in boxing

TKO CEO Mark Shapiro confirmed they will be putting no capital into the project

TKO Group Holdings, which owns the UFC and WWE, have announced that they are ‘close to an agreement’ to form a new boxing league funded by Saudi Arabia.

There have been reports for some time that Saudi Arabian investors are interested in forming a league after the huge amount of boxing investment that has taken place in the kingdom.

The Middle Eastern country has become the new home of the sport in recent years with a number of huge fights taking place there.

Both the WWE and UFC also host events there and TKO CEO Mark Shapiro says a boxing deal is nearing completion.

‘Everybody knows we’re in talks with the Saudis but to give you a little more color,’ he told investors.

‘We are close to an agreement with the Saudis on a creation of a boxing league where TKO would be the producer, the promoter and responsible for all day-to-day operations of the venture, whereby we would receive a fee of $10m (£7.8m) plus,’ Shapiro said.

Mark Shapiro (right) says TKO are ‘close to an agreement’ with the Saudis for a boxing league

Shapiro (right) also confirmed confirmed that TKO will not be putting capital into the project

‘We’re not putting any money in, we’re not putting any capital in, we’re not on the hook for any [costs].’

Shapiro added: ‘We’ve just sent a delegation to London to meet with the Saudi delegation led by Andrew Schleimer, our CFO and Nick Khan, of course who runs WWE, and Lawrence Epstein who runs UFC.

‘They had a full day meeting earlier this week and we’re getting awfully close and when we have something official, we’ll come out.’

There is little to go on in terms of what the league would look like and who would be competing in it with the majority of boxing’s biggest names under contract with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom, Bob Arum’s Top Rank and Frank Warren’s Queensberry.

Shapiro also stated that TKO is set to oversee ‘four large scale super-fights’ across 2025 and 2026.

‘Those may or may not fall into the boxing league itself, they may just be one-offs, but we would be paid a fee to act as the promoter, the producer and the event operator,’ he added.

Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s general entertainment authority, has been the face of the increasing Saudi involvement in boxing over the past few years.

Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh (center) and the UFC have worked in partnership before, such as September’s UFC pay-per-view at Las Vegas’ Sphere

Along with Wednesday’s earnings call, TKO published a financial disclosure reporting total revenues of $642.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, with overall revenues of $2.804 billion for the whole of 2024.

The company’s 2024 net income of $6.4 million was a sizable decrease from the previous year, owing mostly to the $375 million settlement of the antitrust lawsuit against the UFC. Still, with the WWE’s 10-year, $5 billion deal with Netflix, combined with ongoing negotiations for a new broadcast rights deal for the UFC, TKO is targeting revenues between $2.93 billion and $3 billion for 2025.

As far as UFC’s next broadcast rights deal, Shapiro said the exclusive negotiating period with ESPN began on Jan. 15 and runs for 90 days.

“When we look at the outlook for renewal, I’d remind you that the market for premium content — despite ESPN shedding MLB and F1 — is hot. It’s quite strong,” Shapiro said. “The content, our content in particular, TKO, is unique because not only do we own and control it, but it’s year-round. There’s no off-season.

“Our content both at UFC and WWE, for that matter, has urgency. And the urgency allows us to attract subs and viewers, and also gives us a consistency to retain [subscribers] and viewers, reduce churn. Obviously, these are appealing attributes for buyers. The content, particularly with the streaming services, which is what it’s all about these days, when it comes to our overall deal? One package, two packages, half packages, four packages, NASCAR-style — whatever it might be, we’re focused on doing what’s best for the business in the long term. So that means a balance between maximizing our reach and engagement and monetization.”