Per Frank Bay: Former Pug Paulie Malignaggi has been critical of Turki Alalshikh and Dana White on his Podcast Paulie TV lately. Paulie is a good watch because he is entertaining while also understanding the inner operation of boxing.
He appears as real, and he makes it known that he does not like Dana White. He mentions that there is a little bias against Dana and Turki because he works for Pro Box TV. Paulie makes it known that his platform Pro Box TV and Tuki Alalshikh are competitors within the boxing industry. He mentions that Turki Pro Box TV has banned from having access to his events. There were other boxing platforms on social media in the event that it did not kiss the ring that was also denied access to Turki’s boxing events. It has raised red flags in the industry, which Paulie tries to reveal.
Red flags
Paulie says that he will still talk as objectively as possible about Turki’s business with Dana White, TKO. When I listened to what Paulie had to say, my ears also came up. I want to share my mind about Paulie’s interrogation about the desired 2026 League of Turki and Dana White.
Rankings and pay scales
The questions that arose were based on the leakage of the incoming fighters’ pay scale and the ranking system through which the fighter will be paid. The reported wage scale was that of a newly signed starting fighter. For those who are not sure what it is, this is what an amateur who is ready to become pro is guaranteed based on minimum.
It is designed to pay fighters fairly based on a ranking system. It would start with the bottom of the bottom, and your wages would rise if, for example, you rose to #15, then #10, then #5, and so on. How it differs from, for example, a striking Olympian who is currently signed by a major promoter is that the terms would pay much higher for minor battles, simply because of the pedigree of the talent.
Paulie asks why a top talent would go with Turkey just to be an indication of at least equal to much less talent while traveling a much more difficult road? This new league system of pay and rankings would make no sense to top future talents if they start their careers with Turkis ‘TKO’.
Pros and disadvantages?
Paulie argues that the best talents fit better with established promoters such as the top rank, for example, because they are the best guides of talent. A top talent with the top rank will be paid much more in guaranteed minimum if they travel the road to a championship. During this run, the top rank will match them as carefully as possible, usually between 10 and 15 fights, which fans consider canon feed or fill the record level of fighting. Paulie says it’s good for the young upcoming fighter.
If they are expanded that once they get to the ranking of the sanction liggies, their payment will increase significantly. As a fan, see our top rank is one of the best to guide (manufacture) their talent. A set recently, Keyshawn Davis. Davis was considered a top talent on the Turning Pro. The top rank could build Keyshawn without much problems in a champion.
Keyshawn was able to record his record with 10 to 12 battles of relative cannon feed. So that he can be placed in an excellent position with a ranking organization like the WBO until he got a title shot. Davis was fortunate enough that he was at Top Rank, who also had the champion at the time, Denys Berinchyk, and thus made a struggle for the title to make easy to make. The warning is that Berinchyk was seen as the weakest link champion. Paulie would say this situation is good for the fighter. Davis was able to fight a small fortune fighting less than star competition, on his way to become a champion where he would make a lot more money.
Paulie says TKO has different plans
Depending on how you look at the Keyshawn Davis situation, fans can consider it good for the fighter but bad for boxing. Based on Paulie’s finding on how TKO plans to pay their young upcoming fighters, it seems like the old way of building a fighter will be a thing of the past. Paulie thinks that the way TKO plans to build their champions will eventually be good for the company, but bad for the fighters.
Young talent who signs with Dana White and TKO will not be paid well to celebrate on taxi drivers, they can pummel for a glossy 30-0 record with 27kos. No, the outline of the young fighters seems to be tough from the first day. They will be paid properly based on their performance. On the outside it seems fair, but not to Paulie. He considers it a big problem if you want to build big goat stars.
The most important argument, which makes a lot of sense, is the simple one, that by the time the young talent reaches the top. Paulie, after being a fighter, claims that in boxing it is not possible to fight tough after tough fight. A group of top boxers who are constantly fighting each other in grueling battles will result in no one being able to climb up and become a global superstar.
They will all beat each other, and their skills and bodies will erode too quickly to have long -sustained careers such as the legends of the past. The Durans, Leonard’s, De la Hoyas and Canelos, unlike the faith, were carefully linked and led. They did not fight the killer to murderer, believe it or not. They had pieces of mediocre opponents, took time or did not fight certain battles.
On their way to the ladder, they did not immediately fight against the top guys. Pauli says that’s just how boxing works, and that’s how you can drive guys and build with 10, 15 or even 20 years of careers. In the TKO format, you would be happy to have a ruling champion for more than 2 years. With TKO, yes, you would get wonderful matches from young contenders to champions, but it wouldn’t last long. After a few years, your talent pool would be severely exhausted. For young fighters, this means that you are going with TKO, you can do too much damage on your way to a championship that your run will indeed be very short. And what then?
Because the fans are Paulie correct or does he get too stuck in the old ways of the goat business? And if it was your son fighting, what route would you lead him? I mostly agree with Paulie. I think TKO will be good for the fans, but bad for the fighters in the long run.
Last updated on 03/28/2025
