Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs just helped TKO nearly double their credit (facility) card to $350M. Record revenue, profits, and EBITDA for Ari Emanuel’s fighting death star known as TKO.
And, yet, Mark Shapiro is rapidly losing control of the public narrative regarding UFC and WWE.
The number one danger of Ronda Rousey as a public messenger in attacking Hunter Campbell and Mark Shapiro? Connecting lower quality fights and star power with lousy fighter pay. Once fans start to believe in that argument, it’s a difficult stain to remove.
This week on The MMA Draw Podcast, we dive deep into why 2026 is becoming the “year of the unhappy UFC fighter” and how the organization’s leadership is losing its grip on the narrative.
TKO made a calculation that removing the ESPN paywall and exposing the UFC product on Paramount would increase fan awareness and happiness. Instead, customers are less than satisfied with the action in the cage and, more importantly, the weekly production blunders.
But the biggest side effect of UFC on Paramount is that It is widely viewed as a political shop. Casual fans who would never spend any time paying attention to UFC business affairs are giving a fresh look at this TKO monster that Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro have constructed.
If TKO were delivering great fights, people would dismiss all this political scrutiny as white noise. The problem is that Mark Shapiro’s obsession with spreadsheets and margins has opened the door for a public conversation between fighters and fans about subpar fighter pay. Zuffa Boxing’s recent $15M signing of Conor Benn has changed some talking points. It’s allowing UFC fighters, past and present, to tee off on the suits.
Ronda’s Revenge and the ‘Love Triangle’ You Never Expected
One of the UFC’s most loyal former stars, Ronda Rousey, is officially on the warpath. We break down her public roasting of Hunter Campbell and TKO. What makes this compelling is how close Ronda’s business relationship with Dana White was or is.
From Rousey’s scorched-earth comments to UFC letting Ronda’s superfight slip through the cracks and land in the hands of both Netflix & Jake Paul, the dirty laundry is finally being aired in public.
The Three Mistakes Changing the Public Conversation
On this week’s MMA Draw podcast, Nate and Zach identify three strategic errors Mark Shapiro and TKO have made in the first quarter of 2026 alone:
The Death of the Aspirational Payoff: By moving to Paramount and eliminating the pay-per-view bonus structure, TKO has removed the “gold at the end of the rainbow” for top-tier fighters.
The $15 Million Slap in the Face: While UFC veterans fight in warehouses for “12k and 12k,” TKO handed boxer Conor Benn a reported $15 million for a single fight.
Prioritizing Margins Over Fights: Mark Shapiro has successfully branded TKO as a “promoter of money,” not a fight promotion. Fans are now connecting lousy fighter pay with the declining quality of the fights they see on screen.
Then there’s the turmoil in the Middle East and how it will impact TKO’s financing of fights.
We explore how the US/Iranian death match is impacting the UFC’s primary training and financial pipelines. A not-so-insignificant number of UFC fighters are headquartered in the UAE. With Bahrain, the Emirates, and Qatar getting hammered by suicide drones, suddenly, the tax-free paradise on paper has some real complications.
The UFC White House Debacle
Is the upcoming UFC White House card going to deliver the kind of subscriptions for Paramount Plus that David Ellison projected it might deliver? Or is this UFC White House event a political loser?
We will focus on recent comments Joe Rogan made and how TKO’s calculation to go all-in with this Trump 2.0 White House is creating fresh headaches. Politics and business can mix, but being a political mercenary also has its risks.
The major financial debt bomb for Paramount and Larry Ellison
Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake for UFC, Warner Brothers Discovery, Oracle, the Gulf States, Silicon Valley, and Paramount.
With this much financial risk on the table, the NFL is reportedly seeking a 50% increase in its current media rights deal. They want their money. More importantly, sports leagues are now going to use Paramount’s $7.7B overpay for seven years of UFC media rights as a sledgehammer against the world’s richest decision makers.
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Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.
Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.
