It’s been an eventful week for Zuffa Boxing as the promotion moves from promoting its standard events at the Meta Apex to preparing its 3-4 super events with the help of Riyadh Season head Turki Alalshikh. And while paychecks for those Meta Apex events are pretty lean, the paychecks Alalshikh is co-signing are very serious.
Take Conor Benn as proof of that. The Matchroom Boxing standout just defected to Zuffa Boxing for a reported $15 million dollar one-fight deal which left Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn feeling emotional, betrayed and more than a little bit angry. He lashed out at UFC CEO and Zuffa Boxing founder Dana White, and now White is firing right back.
”I think you saw this week, I am really beating up babies,“ White said with a smile. “Is there a bigger pussy than Eddie Hearn? This guy [Benn] is supposed to be your friend. You’re f–king crying. He made more money. He’s gonna make more money, and [Eddie] had the right to match it. He could’ve matched it.”
When the press noted that Hearn claimed he was denied the opportunity to match, White declared “What a crock of s–t. Yeah, we’re literally beating up babies.”
There’s more big signings coming, with heavyweight Anthony Ruiz reportedly being on the verge of joining Zuffa Boxing. But as we noted before, there’s a big difference between the Zuffa Boxing holding events in the Meta Apex and the Zuffa Boxing events with Benn and Ruiz, which are closer to the events Alalshikh has been running under The Ring moniker over the past year. There’s a good chance you won’t even be able to watch the bigger shows on Paramount+.
One big question we have is how UFC fighters will react to these boxers making eight-figures per fight while the top names in the sport strive to clear the five million range. And can TKO Boxing take the excitement generated from these big one-off events to draw fans to their less flashy Meta Apex shows?
“I said at the last press conference, judge us at the end of the year by the work that we do this year,” White said. “At the end of the year, you judge what you think we’ve accomplished in in one year in the sport of boxing.”
