If you plan to revolutionise boxing, you may as well come out swinging. It’s only fitting.
That is exactly what Dana White and Turki Alalshikh did last week, as they announced a new boxing league set to launch in 2026. “I trust [that] this league, in a short time, will crush everything,” Alalshikh said plainly.
The 43-year-old, often referred to as His Excellency, is the Saudi adviser behind the Gulf state’s aggressive entry into boxing over the last two years. He has directed the injection of hundreds of millions of dollars into the sport, as The Independent understands – an approach that has brought much-improved matchmaking but also accusations of sportswashing.
White, 55, is the UFC’s president and has aided the rapid growth of mixed martial arts’ flagship promotion in recent years. For the American, a friend of US President Donald Trump, business is booming; for his fighters, whose pay reportedly pales in comparison to athletes’ in other top sports, it is not.
In 2023, UFC’s ownership group Endeavor acquired WWE, merging the professional-wrestling brand with the MMA giant to form TKO Holdings. That juggernaut has forged ‘TKO Boxing’, as fans are calling it for now, but why is Alalshikh involved? Firstly: Sela, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is part of this new partnership. Secondly: it seems Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, wants to separate himself from boxing’s existing institutions while continuing to alter the sport.
In simpler terms: boxing has long had an issue of too many titles at each weight, as well as arguably too many weights in the first place. Alalshikh and White aim to solve these problems.
“It’s all going to go away,” White told ESPN. “We’re going to have the basic weight classes that started everything. There’s going to be one belt. It’ll be like the UFC, the model that we have [...] and you know how you’re going to know who the champion is? Because they’re going to fight their way up through the gauntlet. And once you get into the top five, you know who the five baddest dudes in the heavyweight division are. And then you’ll find out who the champion is. WBC, IBF, WBA, etc, they deal with those traditional promoters that are out there right now; we're not going to do that.”
Boxing’s original eight weight classes
From a simpler time...
•Flyweight (112lb / 50.8kg)
•Bantamweight (118lb / 53.5kg)
•Featherweight (126lb / 57.1kg)
•Lightweight (135lb / 61.2kg)
•Welterweight (147lb / 66.6kg)
•Middleweight (160lb / 72.5kg)
•Light-heavyweight (175lb / 79.3kg)
•Heavyweight (unlimited)
For context, pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford has held titles in four divisions, but he most recently boxed at 154lb. So, if these divisions were restored, he’d have to commit to lightweight (where he has not fought in 11 years) or middleweight (where he will test himself against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez this year).
White was referring to the World Boxing Council, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association, governing bodies that – along with the World Boxing Organization – each have world titles in boxing’s 34-odd weight classes (accounting for each sex). You can see how things get convoluted, especially with agents and promoters historically protecting their assets by keeping certain boxers away from each other.
Per White, it seems ‘TKO Boxing’ will operate as a separate entity, with fewer divisions and just one belt in each. That would be a clearer structure, yes, though one without the history and prestige of the afore-mentioned organisations. What would it mean to a fighter to be TKO champion? It’s hard to say. Maybe a boxer would trade prestige for substantial pay, if TKO can provide it.
Then again, the prestige of some of these organisations has already been dulled. The WBA, for example, is not recognised by boxing database Boxrec. On the other hand, some fans and pundits already question the integrity of UFC matchmaking, despite it being one of White’s main selling points regarding the new boxing league; there has been a rise in ‘kind’ match-ups for popular UFC champions – a neglect of the rankings, which challenges the idea that the promotion is a meritocracy.
In any case, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told ESPN: “I have absolutely no concern or no negative views whatsoever [about TKO’s boxing league]. I think anything that comes into boxing is sensational. I know a lot of people [...] started speculating and finding conspiracy theories or whatever, but absolutely not.
“I think the WBC should make its position public, which is [that this] is a good opportunity, because we have always supported any movement, any company, any tournaments that have been put together. I truly believe that with [TKO] and what His Excellency has done in just under two years, it should be a great thing for the sport.”
What about boxing’s current promoters? Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, the most influential in Britain, were rivals from afar for years, until Alalshikh forced them to work together to make the biggest fights. Alalshikh seemingly enjoys a good relationship with both, so what of his aim to “crush” boxing’s existing power structures?
Hearn told Boxing King Media: “I’ve had so many people phoning me up, ‘Did you hear what they said?! What are you going to do?!’ I’m so chilled. Like, call it arrogance, call it delusion: I’m the best boxing promoter in the world, bar none, so I have no fear if they want to try and crush me – which I don’t think is the agenda by any means. I’m bang up for it.”
White has said Alalshikh will leave him to run TKO’s boxing league from a business standpoint. The American has long wished to enter the boxing space in a serious way, though other ventures have materialised more quickly (see the much-derided Power Slap, which White continues to tout as a success while sharing questionable statistics).
Some have doubted White’s actual influence on the UFC’s boom, while dismissing his ability to build something from the ground up. Regardless, he has Alalshikh’s trust. Whether that trust is justified remains to be seen.
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