UK Promoter Sues TKO & Saudi Company
A $1 billion dollar lawsuit threatens to expose dirty laundry.
If you read news accounts about Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions these days, you might get the impression that Nick Khan & Turki Alalshikh didn’t have to do much homework to conquer the world of boxing.
As The London Telegraph is reporting, it appears Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren may have given Dana White the answers to the test questions in advance.
After our recent (and fabulous) MMA Draw podcast was published online detailing Eddie Hearn’s heartbreak over Conor Benn jumping to TKO, we got a blockbuster column from our own Blake Avignon detailing some of the rumored mechanics behind the jump.
Long story short: the powerhouse British boxing promoters let the Saudi fox in the henhouse, and a bunch of bloody carcasses were found shredded to the bone.
The craziest part, if you believe media reports like the one from The Telegraph, is that Frank Warren allowed both the Saudis (via SELA) & TKO to take a look at Queensberry’s data. Queensberry reportedly gave access to their trade secrets to both SELA & TKO, and then allegedly watched those two actors combine forces to utilize those business secrets to sabotage their British boxing partners.
If you are as bewildered as I am about Queensberry reportedly having separate contracts with both SELA and TKO, you’re not alone. But we’re about to find out a whole lot of dirt regarding the last three years of transactions related to Saudi financing of major boxing events in the UK.
That is, of course, if TKO doesn’t decide to quickly settle with Frank Warren. Things could get ugly given the impending, much-speculated announcement of a media rights deal between Zuffa Boxing & Sky Sports. Conor Benn is likely the centerpiece of Zuffa’s first big UK fight.
If you listen to Dana White’s sales pitch, he’s The Visionary in a boxing business that has none. Even Max Kellerman is starting to trash-talk Eddie Hearn, saying the TKO takeover of boxing is inevitable.
Boxing Scene reported that a TKO representative has reached out to the British Boxing Board to find out if they would recognize the legitimacy of Zuffa Boxing titles.
This is a completely different story from the narrative Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn are publicly spinning about their role in producing major boxing fights with Saudi financing.
Turki Alalshikh and SELA can finance the big fights, but can they produce these spectacles and fill stadiums without the support of the hometown establishment?
Whatever conclusion you take away from these latest stories, one thing is very clear: the only entity that can stop TKO is TKO itself.
Mark Shapiro may end up being his own worst enemy.
Remember Arnold’s black-letter law: TKO is an advertising agency first and foremost that functions as both a political mercenary and government contractor.
The story in The Telegraph was published the day before TKO’s latest earnings call with Wall Street investors. But there’s another story — involving high-stakes Paramount politics — that could very well drag TKO into another messy scandal.
The Cocaine Quarterback, aka Confidential Informant
Within minutes of The Telegraph publishing their Frank Warren billion-dollar blockbuster, The Hollywood Reporter had their own time bomb.
