TKO Has Moved Beyond the UFC and WWE
Some promoters get $16 billion dollars guaranteed and suddenly quit trying.
“Money ruins everything… Conor made so much money, and that was it. Then Khabib made a load of money, and that’s it,” Dana White to Nick Turturro, November 2025
Dana White trained a generation of fans to believe that fighters were too spoiled, that boxers got paid too much, and that fight sport needed to be centralized to keep them hungry. To book the best matches. To whip talent into compliance.
So, what happens when the promoters are the ones who make too much money?
Dana diagnosed boxing with the same overpay ailment
Dana White doesn’t just apply that reasoning to long-lost UFC stars like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor; he has also loudly proclaimed that excessive fighter pay has ruined boxing, telling the Pivot Podcast in 2022
Everybody wants more money. And one of the big problems with boxing too is that all those f***ing guys are overpaid. And every time they put on a fight, it’s a going-out-of-business sale.
‘We’re just trying to get as much f***ing money as we can from you guys, and then we’re out of here. We’ll see you in three years.’
You can’t build a league like that, you can’t build a sport. You can’t have 750 fighters under contract, making money, feeding their families every year, with that kind of mentality.
While Dana White’s been getting called out for lying to fans and the media for at least sixteen years, sometimes he tells the truth, and the quote above is one of those times.
With the caveat that it should apply to fight promoters as well as fighters.
Except now the shoe is on the other foot. The UFC and WWE won the battle over talent long before Ari Emanuel even considered buying either promotion.
A handful of UFC fighters and their attorneys have been fighting the UFC and its various parent companies in antitrust litigation for over a decade, and have never enjoyed significant support from fans or their fellow fighters.
Even after a $375M settlement payout for the Cung Le class, we are no closer to unionization or a fighter’s association than we were a generation ago.
What happens when it’s the promoters who have scored billions of unearned dollars, not because they promote great events, but because they offer the most political juice and Hollywood connections?
TKO’s Massive 2024-2025 Cash Grab
Just for review, let’s look at how much money TKO locked down for UFC and WWE media rights in the last two years.
UFC Broadcast Rights
Paramount+ & CBS (2026–2032): $7.7 Billion ($1.1B/year).
WWE Broadcast Rights
Netflix (2025–2034): $5.0 Billion ($500M/year).
ESPN (2026–2030): $1.6 Billion ($320M/year).
NBCUniversal / USA Network (2024–2029): $1.4 Billion ($287M/year).
The CW (2024–2029): ~$125 Million ($25M/year).
That’s a lot of bazoomba. All of it is guaranteed to the best of our knowledge.
We don’t know what kind of escape hatch clauses there may be in these agreements, but you can be assured that TKO, the political mercenary that it is, will continue to work the room to keep the rich and powerful on its side.
Ari Emanuel exposed to the world that it’s not about winning public sentiment. It’s winning the one-on-one battle with a Larry Ellison or a Bob Iger.
TKO’s triumphs of negotiation, their mastery of The Art of the Deal, has created an unprecedented situation.
With the caveat that it should apply to fight promoters as well as fighters.
For instance, Silver Lake’s Egon Durban recently purchased 7.5% of the Las Vegas Raiders and the option for first rights on buying the franchise from owner Mark Davis.
For those not paying close attention, Silver Lake owns the majority of WME Group (formerly Endeavor), the no-longer-publicly-listed corporation that owns the majority of TKO.
But it’s not just their corporate parent that’s got aspirations that go way beyond combat sports.
Additionally, Ari Emanuel and TKO COO Mark Shapiro have created something called MARI, per The Hollywood Reporter:
The new company is called MARI, and will house a number of significant tennis tournaments, including the Miami Open presented by Itaú and Mutua Madrid Open, as well as the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, Mubadala Citi DC Open, SP Open, and a number of other exhibition tennis events.
It also includes Frieze, the arts organization that Emanuel agreed to buy earlier this year, as well as a majority stake in Barrett-Jackson, the automotive auction house and lifestyle brand. The deals closed Wednesday in conjunction with MARI’s launch.
Emanuel’s WME and TKO partner Mark Shapiro will be a principal investor and board member of MARI
I wonder if Paramount, Netflix, and ESPN/Disney realize that their lavish payouts for UFC and WWE streaming rights are subsidizing Durban and Emanuel’s moves to take over more mainstream sports?
TKO made their cash grab and have moved on to the next score.
Their money is guaranteed for as far as they can see.
Any student of Dana White’s wisdom will not be surprised to learn that things have gone to shit vis-à-vis the quality of UFC and WWE products.
TKO Is Fat and lazy, and the product quality shows it
Like a young, overpaid and overpartied Mike Tyson getting fat and lazy before running into a lean and hungry Buster Douglas, TKO is putting their energy into everything except doing their job well.
Don’t take it from me, let’s look at what WWE fans are saying.
The Reddit reviews of Elimination Chamber were similarly brutal, with fans complaining that “The entrances last longer than the chamber. You had a 6 man match last less than 20 minutes” and “WWE is no longer about wrestling. It’s only about “moments” and slicing up the segments into 30-second to 1-minute clips for TikTok, Twitter, etc. The faster you come to this conclusion, the more logical WWE’s booking becomes to you.”
And the UFC is getting complaints too, even from ace bootlickers like Front Row Brian:
What’s our takeaway here?
Well, we have to agree with Dana White that too much money spoils the work.
Ari, Mark, and their fellow TKO board member Nick Khan scored over $16 billion in rights deals in their first two years of running the combined UFC/WWE holding company, so they have very reasonably concluded that their peerless media and political access is a winner.
They also seem to have concluded that fans are rooting for them rather than wanting to watch quality fight events.
Ari Emanuel’s fictional likeness, Ari Gold from the 2000s era show Entourage, is back with a vengeance. Mark Shapiro is the star of the show. Triple H. Nick Khan. These guys are now more important than Dana White, even if the MMA media refuses to admit it and insists on focusing their ire on punching bag Dana.
That’s because Dana White is the one who is openly and publicly linked to President Donald Trump.
The same Donald Trump whose polling numbers are setting disapproval records even before the full impact of his disastrous unprovoked war with Iran has been felt at the gas pump and grocery store.
Since POTUS Trump is expected to be in attendance at UFC 327 this weekend, we’ll get to see if UFC fans are among the younger MAGA voters who have reportedly abandoned Trump over the Iran War.
Will Paramount’s UFC production team be ready to bury the sounds of Trump being booed, or will he get a big pop from the UFC crowd like he did in 2024 and 2025.
As we recently warned on our latest MMA Draw podcast, it’s the young 18-24 year old Bro Vote that UFC relies upon the most that has turned the fastest on Trump 2.0.
Unlike Tucker Carlson and the other MAGA influencers who’ve turned against Trump, Dana White is all-in, and I doubt he’s even aware of Trump’s rapidly declining popularity with young males.
So if UFC management isn’t 100% focused on the fights, what is TKO brass really up to?
Dana White Still Hating on Tito Ortiz, Smoking Cigars
Some of us have accused Dana White of never leaving the 1990s behind because the UFC still uses Nu Metal in its promotional materials, but his Wednesday appearance on the Adin Ross Show shows it’s the UFC glory days of the 2000s that Dana has never left behind.
Dana and his old war stories. Dana and his addictions. Dana introduced Adin to an addictive drug (nicotine) on air and talked about a whole lot of topics except how great UFC 327 is going to be.
Given how distracted Dana is, what is his real boss up to right now?
Ari Emanuel Goes Full Vince McMahon? Or Ari Gold?
Well, maybe not full Vince, since that would be a felony crime in the world of public relations (or at least invite litigation), but Ari has suddenly inserted himself into WrestleMania. Again.
Here’s the Hollywood Reporter on the topic:
WrestleMania 42 is a few weeks away, and a surprise entrant has inserted himself into the Las Vegas action — and I’m only tangentially talking about Pat McAfee, the former NFL punter-turned-podcaster and part-time Monday Night Raw commentator.
On Friday night’s SmackDown, longtime WWE Superstar Randy Orton’s secret adviser putting even more voices in his head was revealed to be none other than McAfee, for some reason. For many fans, it felt out of left field, to borrow an analogy from a legitimate sports competition. Orton and McAfee don’t seem to share any particularly meaningful connection and they generally don’t even work on the same WWE show. In wrestling parlance, McAfee wasn’t even a heel until the reveal — a turn — he worked as Raw‘s babyface announcer. But McAfee is (storyline) guiding Orton’s wicked attempt to take down the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, the company’s top face, in the (first) main event of WrestleMania 42.
…
In a scathing promo on USA Network, Rhodes called McAfee a “stoner, grifter, Logan Paul-without-muscles, human hat rack fly-by-night,” and pretty much all in one breath.
“You and everyone who represents you, and I know who I’m talking to, can kiss my ass,” Rhodes added. “Oh no, was that too far? What are gonna do, fire me? It sure worked out for you the last time!”
…
On Monday’s Raw, WWE’s flagship weekly show now on Netflix, CM Punk called McAfee “Pat MAGA-Fee,” a reference to McAfee’s perceived political leanings.…
“You want to talk about ticket sales?” Punk continued. “Do me a favor. Call up that agent that was foolish enough to shoehorn you into this business and this show and tell him to lower the ticket prices.”
…
Both Punk and Rhodes were seemingly referring to McAfee’s agent Ari Emanuel, infamously the model for Jeremy Piven’s iconic character Ari Gold on HBO’s Entourage. A February Bloomberg report stated that Emanuel “is trying to turn Pat McAfee into the next Sylvester Stallone,” which appropriately includes a four-episode arc on Tulsa King, the Taylor Sheridan show that stars (the real) Stallone. It’s a two-way relationship: McAfee produces Emanuel’s own podcast, Rushmore.Endeavor CEO Emanuel is not just a super-agent — one that could conceivably turn a kickoff specialist into a top action star — these days. He is also CEO and executive chairman of TKO, the publicly traded company formed by the 2023 merging of WWE with UFC. Forget The Rock’s 2024 persona — Emanuel is the real “Final Boss” here.
Somehow, I don’t think Ari and Pat will be matching Vince’s legendary loser gets his head shaved bout against Donald Trump.
In fact, I don’t even think Ari Emanuel is all that engaged with the WWE drama. After all he’s busy with his new podcast:
And he’s got some irons on the fire with Elon Musk and OpenAI, per Semafor:
OpenAI is expanding its bitter legal dispute with Elon Musk to sweep in Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel and his talent agency WME.
OpenAI’s lawyers have instructed the firm to preserve communications about the ChatGPT-maker and explain the work it has done for Musk and his lawyers, according to a letter an OpenAI lawyer sent to WME’s chief legal officer on Tuesday. The letter, seen by Semafor, also directs WME to disclose whether it is working with Meta or other OpenAI competitors, claiming Musk is coordinating attacks on the company alongside Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Years after Dana White was busy being asked by media toadies about who would win an MMA battle between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, OpenAI is now reportedly setting the stage to try to argue that Zuck and Elon were "colluding” all along against them. And that Ari Emanuel was supposedly in the middle of this scheme.
Weird. Do we believe that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg may have been coordinating attacks on OpenAI at the exact same time Dana White was promising the two billionaires were angry enough to settle their differences in the Octagon, in the Roman Colosseum?
Dana White is on the board of Meta. Mark Zuckerberg is sponsoring the UFC APEX. Elon Musk is reporting routing press inquiries through WME.
The billions of dollars WWE & UFC are generating for these Hollywood and Tech Bro billionaires is traveling into high-stakes political and AI ventures to see who can run the world.
So yeah, Dana White is probably right about too much money ruining everything. He’s just wrong to assume that rule doesn’t apply to promoters as well.
Nate Wilcox is the Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded Bloody Elbow in 2007 and sold it in 2024.