TKO Group Holdings, the owner of both WWE and top MMA promotion UFC, might soon dive head-first into another combat sports world.
TKO is in the process of putting together a “boxing league” in collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), per a report from the New York Times. Sources told the paper that an announcement could emerge in the coming weeks.
Many details about the league – including its name – remain unknown, although the Times report states that the boxing promotion would utilize “up-and-coming boxers tied exclusively to the league.”
TKO told The Times that it had “nothing to announce” at the moment, and PIF did not comment on the report.
Many inside TKO have previously expressed interest in pursuing boxing opportunities, with UFC CEO Dana White having a long history of eyeing the sport as his next major venture.
White has long discussed the idea of “Zuffa Boxing” since the 2017 crossover event between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, although such a brand has never fully materialized.
Talk regarding a boxing promotion continued for years, with White still mentioning in 2019 plans of an upcoming launch.
While discussion about a new boxing company has been in the background for years, it ramped up late last year after the high-ranking UFC figure said he was “coming in guns blazing” soon with boxing announcements.
Around the same time, TKO Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro also expressed interest in pursuing opportunities in the sport but had a much more subdued version of White’s “guns blazing” comments.
“Boxing is something we would do organically,” he said in December, per MMA Fighting. “Nothing to buy, just something we’d start up and likely take a partner from the Middle East that would serve as an investment partner for us.”
