Is Netflix’s vision of big-fight boxing distorting prize fighting?
An autopsy on Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua, Netflix, and DAZN.
“So, at the end of the day, despite it taking a little bit longer, what everyone expected came true. Sometimes that happens in life.” — Mauro Ranallo
Turki Alalshikh prides himself on being boxing’s new global caretaker. The man who buys the biggest fights. The man who views himself as restoring order and hierarchy in an out-of-control sport.
Celebrity boxing is a big thorn in Turki’s side. It irritates him greatly. He wants it gone. Finished. Eradicated.
Turki Alalshikh is boxing's judge, jury, and executioner
Those opposed to the rise of His Excellency have about six months to mount an opposition plan to stop his complete and total control of combat sports.
Turki Alalshikh wanted “Jack” Paul demolished. He got his wish in the form of a broken jaw courtesy of Anthony Joshua. He seemingly wanted Misfits Boxing neutralized.
Andrew Tate just lost on Rumble Premium in Dubai to Chase Demoor.
As The New York Times reported a couple of weeks ago, the Brothers Tate spectacle has been an utterly miserable political vortex for anyone in proximity to that circus. Even in this current White House political climate, Andrew Tate’s fight performance on Saturday was so humiliating that it’s going to be impossible for Barron Trump, Don Junior, Kash Patel, Rumble-backer Dan Bongino, and key Trump fixer Ric Grenell to remove this skunky stench from their public profile.
I suspect there is one very powerful person in the Kingdom who is grinning in sheer delight.
Riyadh Season wants Most Valuable Promotions and Misfits Boxing to go away. We’ll see about that in this upcoming 2026 combat sports campaign.
Turki Alalshikh is a much more powerful and dangerous version of AEW boss Tony Khan. Unlike Tony, he’s on the side of TKO. More importantly, the side of Nick Khan.
After watching the Jake Paul (A-Side, according to Nakisa Bidarian) vs. Anthony Joshua fight last Friday night on Netflix, I’m left asking two big questions:
First, what is the pathway for Most Valuable Promotions fundraising in a challenging 2026 economic and media climate?
Second, has Netflix been good or bad for boxing?
Both are really heavy questions that deserve a lot of probing — but I’m not sure there is a clear-cut answer to either.
What I do know is that MVP has generated the kind of cash few could dream of making in celebrity fight sport.
What I also know is that Netflix’s impact is everywhere in global culture and finance. From their massive bid for Warner Brothers Discovery assets to promoting the biggest boxing spectacles, an impact report for combat sports is warranted.
For our paid subscribers, we’ll focus on the financial timeline for Most Valuable Promotions and how MVP fits in this 2026 boxing world — should TKO get their ultimate wish of amending the Ali Act for good.
We will also address the significant impact of Netflix on boxing and how results from this past weekend’s fights set the table for Nick Khan and Turki Alalshikh to be positioned as the “adults in the room.”
What the loud — and growing — number of TKO boxing critics misunderstand about the positioning of Zuffa Boxing and Riyadh Season is that TKO is not playing a game of substance. They don’t have to. They are playing a process game. The Ali Revival Act is very much a reflection of TKO’s desire to grab a monopoly in boxing using an entirely different financial and regulatory system.
Jake Paul getting smashed and Andrew Tate getting humiliated were the absolute best-case outcomes for Zuffa Boxing to clear their own pathway in 2026 against the rest of the professional players in the boxing scene.
Here’s the crazy part: we have spelled out TKO’s road map step by step, word by word, and fight by fight for anyone in boxing to read, and the powers-that-be still can’t or won’t comprehend why institutional financial heavyweights are buying into it.
A three-horse race for Tier 1
In 2026, we are going to see a dramatic change in boxing. Some of it is going to be led by Zuffa Boxing and Riyadh Season. Most of the change, however, is going to be the result of a war of attrition. Forced retirements, fire sales, a few bankruptcies, and an allocation of heavyweight financial resources slotted behind two or three key players.
