{"id":36901,"date":"2026-02-26T04:27:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/TKO-Exec-Saudi-money-funded-Conor-Benns-Zuffa-Boxing-deal-200266"},"modified":"2026-02-26T04:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:27:35","slug":"tko-exec-saudi-money-funded-conor-benns-zuffa-boxing-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/tko-exec-saudi-money-funded-conor-benns-zuffa-boxing-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"TKO Exec: Saudi money funded Conor Benn\u2019s Zuffa Boxing deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

The Zuffa Boxing signing of Conor Benn has been a controversial
\ntopic this past week.<\/p>\n

Benn reportedly received a $15 million contract for one fight,
\nwhich is significantly more than most \u2014 if not all \u2014 UFC athletes
\nearn on a per fight basis. Since Dana White is the head of both the
\nUFC and Zuffa Boxing, that sparked plenty of criticism from
\nfighters who go to work inside the Octagon. Former bantamweight
\nchamp Sean
\nO’Malley<\/a> was in
\ndisbelief<\/a> that Benn would be paid that much, while Michael
\nPage<\/a> expressed
\ndisappointment<\/a> that White would place such value on someone
\noutside of the promotion where he \u201cbuilt his reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

However, during a quarterly financial call on Wednesday, TKO Group
\nHoldings (the parent company of the UFC and Zuffa Boxing) president
\nand chief operating officer Mark Shapiro attempted to quell some of
\nthat controversy by revealing that Benn\u2019s signing was entirely
\nfunded by the company\u2019s partners in Saudia Arabia, which includes
\nentertainment conglomerate Sela and Turki Alalshikh. As a result,
\nit\u2019s no guarantee that Benn competes on a weekly Zuffa Boxing card
\nstreamed on Paramount+. The plan, instead, is for Benn to compete
\non a bigger card similar to the Terence
\nCrawford<\/a> -Canelo Alvarez event this past September.<\/p>\n

“First off, I would say this story has taken a life of its own, and
\nthat’s largely because Eddie Hearn is stirring the pot in a very
\nfictional way,” Shapiro said. “So, as you know, our partner in
\nZuffa Boxing is Sela \u2013 they’re the financial backer entity.
\nBeyond the year long series of fight cards that will appear
\nexclusively on Paramount+, we’ve described again and again on these
\ncalls and conferences that we also plan to stage approximately two
\nto four super fights per year \u2013 Canelo-Crawford being an example
\n\u2013 some of which TKO will promote and or sell the media rights,
\nfor of course incremental fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe at TKO with Sela collectively identified Conor Benn, as someone
\nwe wanted to sign for one of those super fights in 2026. That’s it.
\nOne fight in 2026. Conor was a free agent. Dana White and Nick
\nKhan, in that order, went out and signed Conor. Now, let me be
\nclear: we signed him for just one fight. That’s all we’re talking
\nabout here. Now, of course, we hope that eventually he’ll fight in
\nour Zuffa Boxing series exclusively on Paramount+, but for now,
\nthis is just one fight. No different than what we did with Canelo
\nand Crawford. No different than other super fights we’re planning
\nwith Sela. I would add to the reported purse, which I believe was
\naround $15 million, that the reported purse \u2013 I’m not
\nconfirming or denying \u2013 that Conor will be paid for this super
\nfight in 2026, is not TKO going out of pocket. Sela, led by our
\ngreat partner Turki Alalshikh, is covering the purse. Once again,
\nno different than exactly what we did with the Canelo-Crawford
\nfight.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Mark Shapiro confirms the Conor Benn deal is
\na one fight deal to be part of one of the super fights events. He
\nsays it’s not different than the Canelo\/Crawford event. Sela led by
\nTurki Alalshikh is covering the purse, not Zuffa Boxing. pic.twitter.com\/4wyow4rcfg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jed I. Goodman \u00a9 (@jedigoodman)
\nFebruary 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

The Roster So Far<\/h2>\n

The date for Benn\u2019s Zuffa Boxing debut has not been announced. The
\npromotion on Tuesday revealed a list of 96 athletes \u2014 Benn included
\n\u2014 that it has signed thus far.

<\/p>\n
\n

We’ve been BUSY! \ud83d\ude24<\/p>\n

Check out our full list of current athletes signed to Zuffa Boxing!
\n\ud83e\udd4a pic.twitter.com\/Nr53QYlbgw<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Zuffa_Boxing (@Zuffa_Boxing)
\nFebruary 24, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Zuffa Boxing signing of Conor Benn has been a controversial topic this past week. Benn reportedly received a $15 million contract for one fight, which is significantly more than most \u2014 if not all \u2014 UFC athletes earn on a per fight basis. Since Dana White is the head of both the UFC and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}