The one boxing guy fighting TKO's takeover just quit

How long before one of boxing's Big Four throws in the towel, too?

The boxing and MMA worlds have two very different takes on TKO’s planned entry into pugilism via Zuffa Boxing.

MMA fighters are working to oppose TKO’s proposed changes to the Muhammad Ali Act, which regulates boxing. Boxers, at a minimum, are slow in organizing opposition against the Ali Revival Act, or just don’t seem to care.

TKO is seeking a rewrite of the bill that would allow them to run Zuffa Boxing as a UBO or “unified boxing organization,” which, in exchange for meeting minimum payout requirements and providing health insurance, would allow them to function as both fight promoter AND sanctioning body.

This is exactly what the original Ali Act was written to prevent.

It’s also a necessity for bringing the UFC model to boxing.

You know, the model that’s made TKO billions and Dana White millions and left many of the UFC’s fighters in the poorhouse, despite TKO paying out a $300+ million settlement in an anti-trust class action lawsuit (and facing two more such suits).

The crazy making part is how little the boxing industry insiders we’re talking to understand what’s coming their way.

I’ll make the case for why Zuffa Boxing and TKO have an overwhelming advantage over the “big four” boxing promoters after the paywall, but there’s a lot of science to drop for you deserving cheapskates first.

Boxing writer Sean Zittel’s lonely battle against Zuffa Boxing

Most MMA fans first became aware of boxing reporter Sean Zittel in late September when he confronted Dana White at the Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford press conference. Sean’s recap of that interaction drew more attention to his arguments.

MMA Draw regulars have been aware of Sean since at least July, when Zach and I gave a shout-out to Sean over his principled and outspoken opposition to changes in the Muhammad Ali Act.

Post the Muhammad Ali Boxing Revival Act hearing, Zittel has continued to be the smartest and most outspoken opponent of the changes Ari Emanuel is threatening to wreak on boxing.

And now he’s saying he’s done.

But he fired some parting shots on his way out, including a decent plan for how boxing’s “Big Four” could compete with TKO’s Zuffa Boxing.

Here’s Sean’s proposal to the “Big Four” boxing promoters Top Rank, Golden Boy, Matchroom, and PBC (technically a manager and media broker, not a promoter):

Sean Zittel: You need a commission. You need a commission of the four families, all right?

And you need to mix and match and do business with each other to form this union. And just like join or die. You could still be separate, but form this union of American boxing under Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Prime?

PBC could still have their own shows, Top Rank could still have their own shows, Matchroom and Golden Boy, to build their young talent.

Build your own talent, feed them some easy fights on the way up, development fights, before they’re ready to just be thrown in championship-level fights.

But what Amazon would need is quality control. They would need someone to oversee that to make sure that, ‘Hey, you want these budgets, you want these paydays, you’re going to have to put on the right kind of fights and mix and match between each other.’

We could have what everybody’s been asking (for).

The reason why we’re in this predicament is these guys wouldn’t do it on a consistent basis. The 12th hour is here. You’re all going to get muscled out.

You have to be honest with yourselves. You can’t compete against this machine called TKO Paramount, okay? Unless you join forces under Amazon Prime.

I think it’s a damn smart plan, but I see almost no chance of Bob Arum (Top Rank), Oscar De La Hoya (Golden Boy), Eddie Hearn (Matchroom), and Al Haymon (PBC) working together.

Sean also went into his theory for how TKO and Turki Alalshikh (aka the Saudi General Entertainment Authority) are combining forces to take out boxing in the U.S. and why:

I think TKO is allowing the Saudi public investment fund to drive out all private competitors to where they can’t compete with these purses and eventually when DAZN and and the public investment fund are done hemorrhaging money…

Zittel went into an explanation of how Turki Alalshikh is losing money hand over fist when he has promoted without help from TKO (like at Canelo vs Crawford), but we’ve covered that here many times, so no need to repeat ourselves now.

Back to Sean:

Sean Zittel: How much longer will (Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salmon) be okay just overpaying fighters, that well will run dry.

(Then) TKO can take over a dead market in the US and buy up everyone for cheap. And that is why TKO is attending the nationals tomorrow. They know the long play is to get all the young fighters coming out of USA Boxing, the same program that made Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather, and all of them and get them under this umbrella where they’re going to be tied into those UBO contracts for the long term. And that’s how they can run it like they do the UFC.

Sean’s right about one thing: the Saudis do not have an infinite money supply — just a lot of oil, a commodity facing long-term downward price pressure.

But TKO’s critics are making a mistake if they think TKO is dependent on the Saudis. Turki Alalshikh, I’m sad to say, is just one money mark among many to an international player like TKO capo-di-tutti-capo Ari Emanuel.

The Saudis aren’t even the only petrol-dependent sovereign wealth fund that TKO could tap.

TKO has long-standing relationships with the Qataris, the United Arab Emirates, and Norway, among others.

Boxing heads dismissing TKO as a threat to take over their industry assume that TKO hasn’t got a Plan B, a Plan C, D, E, F, and G, if the Turki money tap stops producing.

Zuffa Boxing is a long-term play that intends to start at the bottom by locking in talent at the beginning of their career. They plan to build that talent into stars using their unmatched media access via the Paramount relationship.

Sure, it’ll happen faster if Riyadh Season is out there spending stupid money and stealing next year’s marquee fights away from the “Big Four,” but TKO’s event horizon for Zuffa Boxing to monopolize the sport is a decade, not a quarter.

We’ll get to my case for TKO, but first, let’s address the petrodollar crunch in global investment.

The Saudis *are* feeling the pinch

The boxing smarks are thinking that overspending and lower margins on oil mean Turki Alalshikh and Zuffa Boxing are no threat to their sport.