Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn lands on Paramount

The TKO/Turki Alalsheikh merger & acquisitions phase of boxing with DAZN is hardening.

Twitter announcement of Garcia vs. Benn on The Ring account.

Paid subscribers to The MMA Draw newsletter got a heads up about TKO rushing to accelerate their takeover of boxing. Right on cue, we got fresh new evidence of how fast their game plan is changing.

If you haven’t already listened to this week’s MMA Draw podcast, check it out.

Over the last couple of weeks, the worst kept industry secret was that Paramount+ would be the landing spot for Conor Benn vs. Ryan Garcia fight. September 12th in Las Vegas.

Look carefully at the top of the mock-up fight poster. DAZN. Paramount Plus. Ring. Zuffa Boxing. Golden Boy.

DAZN will air the fight in the UK & Ireland while Paramount+ will air Garcia vs. Benn globally.

Dana White wanted to announce this fight a long time ago. What changed? Lots of things changed behind the scenes. A rumored management shake-up at DAZN. A change in strategy for SELA & TKO.

It doesn’t matter if TKO gets the Ali Revival Act passed in Congress or not at this point. If they get it passed, it will be the proverbial cherry on top of the monopolization sundae.

Besides, who is going to politically or legally enforce any potential current Ali Act violations against TKO? No one.

Stunningly, many of the key players in global boxing have little to no comprehension about what has just taken place under their noses. So, let’s spell out what the boxing terrain truly looks like now.

DAZN is the official boxing subcontractor for streaming

The biggest misconception is that DAZN is working against the interests of TKO and SELA. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

With all the major legacy non-Japanese boxing promoters under the DAZN umbrella, two key benchmarks are at play.

For DAZN, consolidation of boxing talent. Everything is tied into the DAZN silo. The promoters. Some big-name boxers.

But wait a second. How can DAZN afford this? They are continuing to lose money, right? Len Blavatnik is making some reported financial maneuvers in The Caymans. Per The Financial Times:

An executive familiar with the reorganisation said it would not mean a change to Access Industries’ ownership of DAZN. But the person added that the move was “intended to optimise the group’s corporate structure and enhance its flexibility to pursue future strategic and financing opportunities, including potential capital raises and a possible public listing”. The executive cautioned that no decision had yet been made on any IPO or its timeline.

DAZN has now a clean story to sell to future financiers. They are the Home of Boxing.

But wait, what about Zuffa Boxing? What about Netflix?

DAZN has officially positioned itself now as the global boxing subcontractor for streaming platforms. They will have rights to their boxing fights on the Ultimate Tier platform. However, DAZN will be producing monthly cards for TNT. The same TNT that is soon to become a Paramount property if David Ellison can fight off recently-filed antitrust litigation by California & New York.

(More on Paramount fight politics in a future article on The MMA Draw with our favorite streaming analyst, The Entertainment Strategy Guy.)

The July 4th fight in Cleveland was a successful trial run for DAZN as a streaming subcontractor. That fight on TNT drew a reported 661,000 viewers. Everything went pretty smoothly. It was a glimpse into the future.

DAZN will have plenty of boxing inventory and will be positioned to produce boxing inventory for other streamers. Building brand awareness on larger media platforms while positioning themselves as a content provider in live combat sports.

For TKO, DAZN is a very expensive boxing version of Fight Pass.

The biggest boxing fights will air on either Paramount or Netflix. During the Home Run Derby on Monday night, Netflix advertised the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury fight despite not having a date or venue booked.

Netflix has been receiving plenty of polarizing fan reaction regarding their vision and production of sports content.

Paramount and Netflix will have rights to the biggest fights. Natural tension will be created by two highly motivated streaming actors needing live sports content. A perfect business scenario for Ari Emanuel.

TKO will have access to DAZN’s top boxing talent and producers.

Dana White will become the face of boxing sooner rather than later thanks to Paramount and TKO politics. That works just fine for Nick Khan and Lawrence Epstein who are both busy working in the shadows.

Turki’s big U-Turn towards Zuffa Boxing

Ever since Turki Alalsheikh’s attempted boxing “peace summit” in London, the narrative has curiously changed regarding Saudi involvement in boxing.

Sure, there’s the wildly strange undercard fight announcements for Anthony Joshua’s July 25th fight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

However, the main talking point from the Kingdom’s big man of boxing has been about his proud ownership role in Zuffa Boxing.

“We own 60% of Zuffa.”

Funny how the politics and fog of war involving the United States and Iran has changed everyone’s financial calculus.

Now the focus is on making money. Turki’s rather conciliatory tone towards the American marketplace interests of Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua has been begging for a very late start time at Wembley Stadium. It’s all about having this fight air on Netflix in prime time.

Except Fury vs. Joshua is entirely a UK fight. If it lands in New York at MSG, it will draw. If it lands in Las Vegas, it might draw. It just won’t draw the same audience as Wembley Stadium.

Point being, the financial considerations of media entities like Paramount and Netflix matters a whole lot in July 2026 for Turki Alalsheikh.

Remember, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is part of a motley contingent of financiers bundled to finance Paramount’s purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery assets.

Turki wants Netflix to help finance his biggest boxing fights. If it isn’t Netflix, it will be Paramount.

TKO has media deals with Netflix, Paramount, and Sky Sports. In conjunction with DAZN, TKO is now gaining control of the industry’s process through financing, media, and talent.

In life, there’s the process and substance silos. TKO is always about controlling the plumbing.

What’s the next move for Eddie Hearn?

In this brave new world, there will be a few survivors.

Matchroom Boxing. Queensberry. Zuffa Boxing. Then everyone else (excluding Japan).

Dana White and Nick Khan are quickly utilizing the death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts strategy on Eddie Hearn. Poaching Conor Benn destroyed Eddie’s psyche before he recovered and managed to win the public relations battle.

Then TKO landed a deal with Sky Sports. TKO just signed Heavyweight Johnny Fisher from Matchroom and booked him for the upcoming ZBXG event at Copper Box.

Matchroom Boxing can’t afford to get into a financial pissing contest with TKO. Too much firepower.

It isn’t as if Matchroom is poor or broke. However, their reported negotiations with the Saudis over darts and snooker fell apart. Then came the most under-reported non-TKO business story of the year: Bruin Capital’s purchase of a 15% stake in Matchroom.

The Private Equity bean counters are now in the room.

Which means that Matchroom is going to have to get smarter about talent development and recruitment. The recent announcement of a Matchroom club boxing Project Series on DAZN tells you everything you need to know.

Zuffa Boxing has their garage. Eddie Hearn has Caribe Royale in Orlando. What’s old is new again.

The window before TKO monopolizes the American boxing industry is, at best, a few years. Nick Khan is quickly raising the stakes on how much money it will take any newcomers to enter into the boxing space as a major player.

TKO’s focus has been locking down the American marketplace in 2026. They just signed America’s best boxer, Shakur Stevenson. Whether or not TKO has a proper slate of opponents for Mr. Stevenson remains to be seen.

The larger purpose for TKO is to address the concerns of their current and future financiers by demonstrating that they have a master plan. They just signed the best boxer in the United States. Hey, Wall Street, put your money into this future boxing monopoly. TKO currently has two monopolies in UFC & WWE. Boxing is the third leg of this triple crown.

The marriage between Paramount, TKO, and DAZN to reach an agreement on Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn is a perfect encapsulation of how quickly and easily Zuffa is gaining global control of all fight sports. Depressingly so.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com. Contact Zach: fightopinion at protonmail dot com.