It hasn’t even been a full week since TKO first announced its partnership with Saudi Arabia on a new boxing league.
But while the promotion remains in its infancy, that hasn’t stopped the combat sports giant from fielding suitors for its first media rights deal.
During the post-show press conference following Saturday’s UFC 313 pay-per-view, Dana White was asked about the state of the new boxing league. And while the UFC president — who will seemingly serve in a similar capacity for TKO’s boxing counterpart — admitted “we got a lot of work to do,” he also revealed that the company has already begun to shop the new promotion’s media rights.
“I didn’t want to talk about a lot of the stuff that we’re doing because we have to build some infrastructure first,” White said. “And we gotta get a rights deal. We’re out shopping a rights deal right now. A lot of work to do before we start announcing big things.”
Dana White is asked if he sees the new TKO boxing league being the dominant brand in boxing.
Says Turki Alalshikh and Saudi are the dominant players in boxing and he is gonna run and manage the business for them. pic.twitter.com/H696In3UOx
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) March 9, 2025
It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of deal TKO is able to secure for the new boxing league, which doesn’t currently have any boxers attached to it (at least not publicly). Nevertheless, the parent company of UFC and WWE clearly has a proven track record when it comes to combat sports, while Saudi Arabia’s deep pockets will undoubtedly aid TKO’s efforts in attempting to reshape the sport.
It’s also worth noting that TKO is also currently in the process of negotiating UFC’s next rights deal, with the MMA promotion’s exclusive negotiating window with its current partner, ESPN, reportedly set to expire next month. And while it was expected that UFC would be the last major sports property whose entire rights would be available for the foreseeable future, as it turns out, that may not necessarily be the case — although as White stated, the new boxing league still has work to do.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.