“And now with UFC, we have a year-long sports strategy.”
Larry & David Ellison made a $7.7B gamble with Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro to grab seven years’ worth of UFC media rights for Paramount’s new 2026 sports launch. Zuffa Boxing was also added, perhaps as a sweetener?
The question we have is, where is all of this money going once it hits TKO? Because it has to be going somewhere. Not the fighters. Certainly not the fans. This past week, we found out some answers that raise new and serious questions about what the world’s richest people want to do in combat sports.
Leave it to Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro to marry their names Hollywood-style into a rich & famous sports holding company called MARI. Ari thinks AI will create shorter workweeks for those with wealth, meaning a bigger itch to scratch and spend cash on live sports. We’ll have some juicy details about this latest venture in a future MMA Draw article.
This week’s totally awesome and free edition of The MMA Draw podcast takes a look at UFC’s remaining two months with ESPN and what changes are in store for you in the new Paramount era.
UFC’s campaign with ESPN is ending on a marketing whimper. What will the Paramount Era look like for UFC? Radical change or more of the same?
There’s going to be a significant January event at Steve Ballmer’s Intuit Dome. We have the June 14, 2026, UFC White House event for President Donald Trump’s birthday.
This intense speed of burning through billions of dollars eventually has to produce some big winners and some big losers. Through Wall Street. Through private equity. Through sovereign wealth funds. Through taxpayer cash via committees like America250.
Something has to break. Is this new Nielsen Big Data + Panel ratings system the major black swan event for TKO’s advertising revenue?
Hollywood has been burnt to a crisp. Las Vegas has been value extracted. What will the final fate be for combat sports?
The powers-that-be continue to soak you for cash. The least you can do is grab a good laugh at their (occasional) expense.
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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.
