TKO Group Holdings, which owns the UFC and WWE, says it is "close to an agreement" to form a new boxing league funded by Saudi Arabia.
It has been reported Saudi Arabian investors are keen to form a league after investing significantly to regularly host heavyweight fights including Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk in the kingdom.
The UFC and WWE hold events in Saudi, as do boxing promoters Matchroom and Queensberry, and TKO president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro told investors on Wednesday about the possible boxing deal.
"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.
"We're not putting any money in, we're not putting any capital in, we're not on the hook for any [costs]."
It is unclear what the league would look like and who would compete in it, with most of boxing's biggest stars under contract with key promoters such as Eddie Hearn's Matchroom, Bob Arum's Top Rank and Frank Warren's Queensberry.
Shapiro also said TKO would be responsible for overseeing "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 said.
Comments
Post a Comment