Dana White revealed how he plans to run the new TKO Boxing Promotion League he started with Turki Alalshikh. White says he will build it off the ground and use the UFC model as his blueprint for success.
Dana will sign fighters to the league, and they will compete and suffer defeats, just as fighters do in the UFC. He says they will get rid of the five different sanction bodies and have only one for his league. It will be impossible to create a monopoly In box where only one business works in isolation. It does not work in other businesses and does not work in boxing.
Career abortion risks
Fighters who are excluded from this click -like boxing league will still follow the four sanctions bodies, still fight on Dazn and be signed with the popular promoters now running the sport.
If they are in a league where a handful of quality fighters repeatedly face each other in grueling fights, they are likely to shorten their careers. Imagine that fighters like David Banavidez and David Morrell compete four or five times against each other in a boxing league following the UFC model.
Both their careers will be shortened because of the punishment they endure. Yes, it is entertainment for the fans, but it will be hell for the fighters who have been through repeated tough fights. The criminal boxers take much worse than in the UFC. If I were a boxer, I wouldn’t want to be in a league where I always fought “the best” every time. “You can’t do it in box without your career ending quickly.
“People want to see big battles. Boxing has become this thing where you should be unbeaten for people to care for you. It’s all going to disappear, ”Dana White said ESPN’s first recordingTalk about his new partnership with Turki Alalshikh to create a boxing league.
‘There are a lot of guys we look at what will be on this timetable that have a lot of O’s. They are all going to fight against each other, and what people want to see are big battles. They want to know who is the best in the world. “
Is it ‘best’?
If the fighters sign Dana White and Turki to this new Boxing League, they will only fight against other guys on that timetable, how will they prove that they are the “The best in the world?“It’s not the best. All they really do is prove that they are the best in that league with the limited number of fighters competing. Turki seems to be working better now, to take out big fighters, sign them on short contracts and set up compelling battles. You do not need an isolated league to do such things.
It is as with the AFL that ran separately from the NFL from 1960 to 1970. The only times the teams of the two leagues played each other were in the Super Bowl. During the season, you do not have teams of the AFL playing NFL teams until they have merged in 1970. The creation of a boxing league where the fighters only compete against other fighters in the league. The idea doesn’t work better than the current situation in the sport.
“I implement simple things, like the best struggle the best,” says White. “There is a lot of talent we look at now that no one knows. What I would like to do is build this thing off the ground as with the UFC. When we originally bought the UFC, we had twelve contracts. You started that everyone fits all. When you get to the top five, don’t deny who is the best five guys in the world, and then they all fight out to see who the world champion is. “
How can the top five in a small league be called the best in the world if you speak of a limited pool of fighters? White says he started with 12, and he claims that the top five were the best in the world? What is he talking about? They are just the best in that small business, but not the world. With this boxing league, if they only compete against other fighters in the league, you can’t call them the best.
The way things went in the current system is fighters with the top rank, match room, Golden Boy and PBC, often focused on setting up battles with guys within that promotional business. It was like four or five different leagues. This new league with Dana White and Turki, it’s just more the same thing we’ve seen. The only difference is that Turki has more money to play with to attract good fighters. If they are only going to compete with a limited number of guys in that league, it won’t be as interesting as it is now.
The legacy continues
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– Turki Alalshikh (@turki_alshikh) 5 March 2025
Last updated on 03/05/2025
