October 1, 2025 • 23 mins
Dana White just announced Zuffa Boxing has signed a TV rights deal with Paramount and will start in January 2026. This is MASSIVE news for American Boxing and will change the sport FOREVER💥
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Folks, we are back on the way concept presented to
buy the Ring at magazine and today we have breaking
news as Dana White has found his TV rights deal.
And I think everybody knew this was kind of coming
down the line, but now it's official. Dana White has
partnered Zuofa Boxing their TKO's boxing arm with drum roll please,
(00:25):
Paramount Plus. I mean, yes, we expected it. It is
now official Dana White and Zufa Boxing to stream twelve
events on Paramount Plus in twenty twenty six as a
part of long term media rights deal. Now, Dana has
done a ton of interviews on this, so we're going
to look at this press release on The Ring Magazine's website.
Then we're going to take a look at some of
the soundbites from what he had to say about this deal,
(00:49):
because I think it is going to be a major,
major win for the sport of boxing, especially right here
in the good old US of A. What do I
mean the breakdown? Let's go. Paramount announced a partnership with
Zufa Boxing on Monday morning that will take the company
to the exclusive streaming and TV partner for the new
(01:11):
promotional company in January. So number one right there. ZUFA
Boxing kicks off in January twenty twenty six on Paramount
Plus twelve events. Like we said, the Dealer will begin
with twelve boxing cards on Paramount Plus in twenty twenty
six and is expected to grow in later years. It
is also possible that select boxing events will eventually be
broadcast by CBS was also owned by Paramount and other
(01:34):
linear Paramount platforms. So what does this mean? Well, Number one,
I assume because the way that the verbiage has been
tossed out right now, Dana White will have the contender
style boxing fights for Zoofa Boxing on Paramount Plus twelve
to start in twenty twenty six, maybe more as the
year goes on, but it's essentially once a month. And
there's a little easter egg in there that talks about
(01:55):
select boxing events eventually being broadcast on CBS, which right
now I don't think would be the boxing equivalent of
a Contender series, because the UFC has already signed a
streaming deal a TV rights deal with Paramount Plus, and
they had somewhat of a similar structure where the UFC
numbered events what used to be called the pay per
view events would be on CBS and the fight night
(02:18):
events and contender stuff and whatever else would be on
Paramount Plus. I have a feeling Dana's going to want
to do the same thing or something similar with this
boxing structure, So expect if there are massive select events
that it would potentially be like what you just saw
with Canelo Crawford with the Ring magazine backing with Turkey
Alas Shake involved Dana White, maybe using some of his
(02:40):
fighters from Zuofa, maybe not finding a way to use
Zoofa Boxing as the promotional backing for those massive fights
that he wants to do. Again, we'll see when we'll
see involving who and how the whole contract situation works out.
So before we get into anything else, let's talk about
this CBS Paramount Plus deal number one. Boxing really, through
(03:01):
its entirety of the last thirty plus years, really the
last one hundred years, has suffered from a lack of vision.
And I mean yes, on the promotional side, a vision
to grow the sport, of vision to reinvest into the sport,
a vision to have a one lane, straight through road
to the top of this sport, and talk about that
in a little bit. But what I really mean is
vision from the public especially since the rise of close
(03:25):
circuit television, pay per view and everything else. When you
put boxing behind a massive paywall, and yes, Paramount Plus
will still have a paywall, but when you made it
less and less and less affordable for the common man
to watch a common man's sport, less and less and
less people watch the sport in general. So not only
did you start to miss out on seeing some of
the biggest stars in the sport, and also you missed
(03:45):
out on creating the next generation of big stars in
the sport. And what I mean is the fighters on
the undercards of those massive pay per views that normally,
if you had seen them on syndicated television, could potentially
build into the next big superstar in the sport of boxing,
they weren't seen by as many people in general public,
so building them became that much more difficult. And sure,
(04:05):
you had your unicorns, you had your Mike Tysons, you
had your Canelo Alvarez's or Floyd Mayweather's, your Ascadala Hores
and a few more on that list that were big
stars in an American market, but you didn't have that
natural want from the American public to sea boxing. And
therefore you didn't have the want from kids to get
into the sport. When now you're going to see boxing
on Paramount Plus and eventually on CBS, on syndicated television,
(04:28):
on every single television and damn near every single home
in the United States, you're talking about an audience that
you can't even reach. With ESPN and all of those
people getting to see boxing without so many roadblocks. What
I think you may start to see is because there's
more eyes on this sport, because there's going to be
a familiarity in America with boxing again. Dana White Zufa
(04:51):
boxing consistently in front of your eyes. Not here's an
event one time a year, here's an event twice a
year and then we packed the bags and go home
until we can raise enough money and raise enough interest
for another major event. Consistently reinvesting into the sport, consistently
getting in front of an American public's eyes that not
only can showcase the next wave of boxing, but can
(05:12):
create the next generation of kids that want to be
their favorite athlete that may just so happen to be
one of the boxers they see on Zoofa Boxing, one
of the boxers they see on Paramount Plus, or CBS
in their household. That is why I think this is
such a major deal for specifically here in the United States,
because if we're being honest right now, the sport in
(05:32):
the United States specifically is an afterthought. And I hate
to say it that way, but it's just the truth.
And to really take boxing to the next level, just
like UFC, just like NFL, just like NBA MLB outside
of soccer, these are the most profitable sports in the world.
And I think even if you go league for league,
the NFL is the most profitable league in the world.
(05:53):
This market is the most advertiser friendly, it is the
most sports ready audience in the world. So you Needmerican
audience and again, you need Americans to be interested in boxing.
I think this is another step toward that TBS is
the most watched broadcast network in the United States. This
is what I'm talking about. This is why it is
(06:13):
so major. This is why you saw football grow the
way it did on CBS, you saw basketball grow the
way it did on ABC. This is why I'm so
pumped about this because CBS has hosted some of the
biggest sports in this country and they have grown exponentially
in their interest over the Paramount Plus and CBS will
also become the exclusive home of the UFC starting in January.
(06:33):
We talked about that and a seven point seven billion
dollars TV rights deal doesn't sound like a lot when
compared to the NFL or the NBA. But he has
the UFC sold in twenty sixteen for four billion, the
entire company sold for that note, and then turn around
and get a TV rights deal for seven years seven
point seven billion is absolutely insane. It should tell you
as a consumer what Dana White can potentially do with
(06:55):
boxing using a somewhat of a similar model to the UFC,
which I think is going to happen in box. And again,
there may be some drawbacks to that that we have
to address as well, but maybe I'm just being an optimist.
I can see this being a big reason why boxing
grows in the United States. This kind of exposure, this
kind of support, this kind of backing from Turkeyolas Shake
and Riance season and The Ring Magazine's Eko behind it.
(07:16):
It is almost no way this can really fail, especially
now that you have the TV rights deal. This was massive.
This partnership with Paramount reinforces our vision to redefine the
way viewers consume boxing. Turkeyala Shakes said in a statement,
more fight fans will now have access to watch some
of our most exciting boxers around. We will have seen
the proof that the appetite is there. This is the
(07:37):
future for live boxing coverage and will ensure that the
sport continues to thrive. And y'all are gonna say, because
I have a Ring magazine sign sitting right there, that
I'm glazing, but I agree with him. This I think
is a potential way for boxing to get reinvestment and
ensure the growth of the sport. That the sport continues
to grow and thrive. Not that necessarily specific promoters thrive
in the sport or at the very top end of
(07:58):
the sport survives and thrits, but that the sport from
top to bottom survives and thrives and growth. That is
what I see happening by proxy of really ZUFA Boxing
becoming the entity that I think it will become. The
ZUFA Boxing Paramount partnership will expose prospects, contenders, and eventually
world champions to an expansive audience. Announcements regarding Zupah Boxing's
(08:19):
first show on Paramount Plus will be made at a
later date. Here's a quote from Dana White. I'm excited
to bring great boxing events to a global audience. There
are millions of boxing fans that will now be able
to watch competitive fights with up and coming boxers as
well as the biggest stars in the sport. Paramount will
be the home of the UFC and boxing fans to
watch the greatest fights in combat sport. So again, you're
(08:40):
seeing potentially the trajectory of ZUFA boxing as it will
start with probably a prospect level roster. And again there's
been rumors out there. I think Dana White was in
an interview today with Brian Campbell that we're going to
watch in a second, saying that him and his matchmakers
we're looking at four hundred and fifty fighters that they
potentially could sign. Now, I don't know how that works
out over a twelve fight schedule, which I think you'll
probably cut the roster down. But being that ambitious to
(09:02):
start tells you how much they want to ramp up
their fight cards quickly, and it also shows you that
they're going to go at this alone. They are not
going to look to other promoters or anybody else. They
know Whide is going to take this ship with Turkey
Alla Shake and they are going to have ZUFA Boxing
be its own entity, be its own league. And I
assume when they talk about contenders and eventually world champions,
that means they're also going to have their own world
(09:23):
champions which is going to shake up boxing for sure,
because right now we have the alphabet sanctioning bodies, and
I gotta be honest, all four of them combined have
not done much to take boxing to another level. I
know that they're places for boxers to and fighters to
go to have more opportunities. I have never understood the
idea of having four different sanctioning bodies and each one
of them be able to call their champion the champion
(09:45):
of the world. To then have to have those four
go into like a superseded tournament and fight each other
to potentially then become the undisputed champion of the world.
And that should be your title as you win the
world championship. Any one pathway, one direct line to the chanceampionship,
and one battest man on the planet. That's how I
want to see the sport of boxing. I think that's
the most sensible way to see the sport of boxing.
(10:06):
Not mandatory for this sanctioning body mandatory. For this sanctioning
body mandatory mandatory, the belts get split up. Everybody is
a one fourth champion of the world, and no one
really knows who the baddest is because they don't have
to fight each other. So let's take a look at
some of these soundbites from Dana White as he was
on CBS Sports with our guy Brian Campbell.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I mean, look, if I'm being honest, boxing in this country,
the United States has kind of taken a hit in
recent years. I know everything under the tk O banner is.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
A kind of taking a hit. Boxing in the United
States over the last twenty thirty years from a viewership
and business standpoint, it's been abysmal.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Global thing UFCWWE. But are you looking mostly for us?
You know locations arenas. Could we see events at the UFCAPEX?
Could this be a shot in the arm? I guess
is what I'm asking right away for American boxing.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Here's the truth. If you want a successful boxing business,
and there's guys who've made money, and you know, my
idea of success and other guys idea of success are
completely different. And even if you're the Soudings, you cannot
have a successful boxing business without the United States. You
(11:18):
have to have a strong presence in the US. So yes,
that that is going to be my goal is to
rebuild boxing in the United States.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
He is absolutely one thousand percent correct. And what he
said there also makes sense, like, yes, you have your
match rooms, you have your Queensberry's, you have you're one
off promotions that will have success as a promotion. That
isn't success for the sport of boxing. That's success or
match room that success or Queensberry, that's success for whatever
it is they do with their roster of fighters and
(11:49):
their business dealings, not the entirety of the sport. Not
necessarily bad for the sport, but it also doesn't help
grow the sport, especially again in the biggest market in
the world, which is the United States. In the US,
we have Top Rank, we have Golden Boy, we have MVP,
now we have PBC, and they've all had successes and
individual circumstances. No centralized continued elevation of the sport and
(12:14):
viewership here in the US has happened. Ain't as right
about that? And to be successful, I think for Dana
doing it here would absolutely revolutionize the sport, no doubt
about it.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
When I was a massive boxing fan, I used to
watch USAYS Tuesday Night Fights. I talk about it all
the time. It was one of my favorite shows of
all time, and all the big boxing stars of the
nineties in pay per view came off of that show.
I felt like back then there were very competitive fights
with guys who should have been fighting each other at
(12:46):
that time. And that's what I want to do. I mean, basically,
as a boxing fan, the way that the UFC was
built was all the things that I loved about boxing
and all the things that I hated about is how
I built, you know, the UFC and the sport. So
(13:06):
I would expect a lot of what you saw early
on in the UFC to happen with boxing now.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
But and again you hear that, and that sounds pretty
damn good as far as again a consumer perspective, a
viewer perspective, what should we expect? Dana is saying you
should expect guys early in their career fighting tougher tests
than what we normally see in boxing. And again, I
think everybody would agree that having a guy that's a
(13:33):
high level prospect coming out of the amateur ranks and
then taking twenty fights to fight someone of similar talent
or similar skill level just because a certain promoter or
manager wants to build said high level prospect record up
to give them some sort of cachet in the sport,
because we've been conditioned over the same practices over years
and years and years, where fighters won't fight the best,
(13:56):
where they won't fight people of their similar skill level
until a certain point in their career, where we don't
believe that they're legitimate until they have a ten and
oer record, until they have a twenty to zero record,
and not knowing this well, sometimes that's detrimental for the
sport because once you get that pattern of fighters not
fighting high level competition until they have to for a
belt or until they have to for a world ranking,
(14:17):
and then they get their world ranking, then they get
their belt, and the same process happens again and again
and again, but it happens in four different sanctioning bodies,
So you have four guys with potentially the same mentality
about fighting the best when they're still making money for
their sanctioning body, and everybody's self interested in the way
of competition will hold on. If you lose that fight,
then the money goes away for not only you, but
(14:37):
for the promoter and the sanctioning body, and then the
sanctioning bodies percentage. We're seeing it right now with Tank
Davis fighting Jake Paul in an exhibition bout while he
is the sitting WBA Champion of the world, and the
WBA won't strip him. They won't strip him because you
know why, he is a money maker for them, and
until he tells them he's going to retire, they're going
to keep that belt on him because they want that
Tank percentage, and they think potentially they can still get
(14:59):
a La Motte Roach rematch. Potentially they can get a
Shakr Stevens fight. I think it's one of the more
corrupt things that happens in boxing.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
One of my biggest issues is we got seventeen or
if you count bridger weight eighteen divisions, there's four recognized
champions per division. Some of these sanctioning bodies have been
tossing out I guess the term is bastardized extra titles
for years. How many weight classes do you want in
zuofa boxing and I would assume we're going to be
(15:26):
looking at one champion per division. Is this going to
be a ZUFA championship You're going.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
To roll out By the way, Brian fantastic here with
the questions, with the laying out of questions, a sprinkle
of opinionated kind of what he wants to get across,
but also sticking the question on.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Dana literally had a meeting with my team yesterday on
this funny you're asking me this question. We're literally walking
through all of that right now. We're still in the
process of signing, you know, tons of fighters. They literally
showed me a list yesterday of like four hundred and
fifty fighters that they want to go after.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
This is crazy, Dana saying, again, I don't I'm I
don't think he's saying they want to sign four hundred
and fifty fighters. I think they're saying they're looking at
a list of four hundred and fifty fighters to who
they potentially want to sign. So there's like a rough
draft list, and I'm sure they're gonna cut that down
because how do you sign a roster if they come
out of the gates with four hundred and fifty You
want to talk about meaning business that's a statement in
(16:21):
its own right. I think if you got the balls
to go, you know what, four hundred and fifty all
let's go. You know, this is our shit, let's go
us versus the rest of the sport. That's ballsy as fuck. Because,
as Dana's talked about in MMA, you got to guarantee
fighters spots. You got to guarantee them two three fights
a year. And if he's gonna run this league like
he does the UFC, that would have to be the
same and running twelve events a year. There's no possible
(16:42):
way he can do that. So I think he means
he's gonna look at that big list and cut it down,
but still out of four hundred and fifty, if he
gets I don't know, one hundred and fifty of those,
that's a pretty decent sized roster.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And so they're put we met yesterday, they're putting together
a game plan off direction that I gave them, and
then next week me and Nick conn are going to
sit down with the team and start walking through weight
classes and you know all the other things that I've
sort of directed these guys to do in yesterday's meeting.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
By the way, they absolutely should cut down on weight
classes as well. I know I talked a lot about
the four sitting champions in these division. There's so many
weight classes in boxing it is ridiculously hard to keep
up with who is a champion at which weight class
and how many weight classes there are and the differences
between them when there's like eight and seven pounds sometimes
between Again, I understand the need for people to be
able to fight at their natural weight, but we have
(17:38):
to find a way to make things more concise. We
have to, and again I will give credit the UFC
has done that with their belt system. I think there's
ten champions or something like that, including the women's probably
twelve thirteen. Boxing needs desperately to condense. It needs a
condensed state. But we can recognize and understand these champions.
And again, the UFC employees a roster of like six
(17:58):
seven hundred fighters. They could easily do that in boxing.
So when Dana talks about having his own zoofa belt,
I like it, but I also think that you guys
need clarification number one. It's clear they want to do
away with the sanctioning body and have ZUFA Boxing be
the number one league in the sport. I mean, there's
no other reason you would want to have your own belt.
(18:19):
And also, I don't know if I covered it there,
but there's gonna be rankings based on the Ring magazine ranking,
So you're having a zuofa belt I assume whatever they're
gonna call it, and the Ring magazine belt. This is
I think a long term play to eventually try to
become the number one power player in boxing. And again,
some of people are going to look at that and go,
how are you gonna talk about getting rid of all
(18:39):
the sanctioning bodies when you're just adding more belts than
the sanctioning bodies exist. Yeah. For now, the idea I
think everybody knows is to replace the sanctioning with this
new way of doing boxing business, invite newer fans into
the sport based on the idea that ZUFA Boxing is
the one stop shop or where the best boxing happened.
They're not trying to just have their belts and then
(19:00):
sanctioning bodies have their belts and then you unify, because
that'd be the same thing that's already happened. This is
a clear sign and a clear message to the rest
of boxing that Dana is saying he wants to make
his league the best thing and boxing, and eventually if
the way that that I read, at least if you
win the Zoofa Belt, or if you become the top
tier of the zoofa League, you would then go and
fight in some way with Turkey Olah Shake, and four
(19:23):
potentially the Ring Magazine Belt, which is the lineal belt,
the most recognizable belt in box AB outside of the WBC.
But still, this is a very long term play to
introduce zuofa League and by proxy the Zoofa Belt as
the number one belt in the sport, the most important,
the most recognized. Again, it's a very easy comparison to
(19:43):
just say, look at the UFC. When you think MMA,
you think UFC, and again you it may not work
that way right now because boxing has a far longer
lineage and so do the sanctioning body. This isn't a
short term play, it's a long term one.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Will women's boxing be part of the zoof.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
For portfolio in the future, yep, definitely.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That is also interesting as well. Obviously right now there's
been a big surge in women's boxing with I mean,
let's be honest, MVP Jake Paul Nikisabadarian have really done
well to put and and focus on women's boxing. Dana
looking to come in and do the same. That'll be
an interesting battle as well, because again it's gonna be
it's probably gonna be exclusive, and here's Dana talking about that.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Listen. I live in my own little bubble. I'm gonna
do my thing. I'm not worried about what any of
those guys are doing. And to be honest with you,
I think those guys are all They don't think big enough.
They don't think big enough. These guys have been in
the business for however long, and I like Eddie Hearn
and I listen, I see what Eddie. Eddie Hearn went
(20:44):
like Oscar d la Hoya overnight. You know, but he's
got a lot of attention, so I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Hold on a second. As much as I like what
Dada's been saying about, you know this this TV rights
deal and what he wants to do is uva boxing,
Eddie Hearn did not go Oscar de la Hoya him,
at least not from what I saw. And I asked
Aana about this in the interview I did with him
on Radio Row in Vegas. Eddie has just essentially said
he what he thought. He was like, I just don't
know if Dana's if it's gonna work. You know, boxing
(21:12):
has been around for a long time. It's not the
UFC where he was kind of the only show in town,
and I don't know if what he's trying to do
is gonna work. But he also said that I want
to compete with Dana. I look forward to competing with him,
and that I like him. I don't think he came
out and was like doing clad back Thursdays like Oscar
dalea Hooya and taking personal shots at data. I didn't.
I didn't. Maybe I missed that, but I didn't see that.
I saw Eddie saying he wanted to compete, but Dana
(21:33):
has clearly taking offense to it.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
I think I think way bigger than you guys do.
So I'm not competing with the other promoters. I'm competing
with whatever takes the attention of the fans on the
night that we're on television. It could be a release
of a big movie, it could be the NFL. It
could be your wife or your girlfriend that you got
to take out that night, your kids. That's my competition.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I love it. I love that answer. Again, that's what
it should be. Dana is looking at this as a
business for consumers. We always call boxing the entertainment business.
Who are boxers meant to entertain? Who are fighters meant
to entertain by doing their sport? It's us the people,
it's the consumer of the product. How do you make
that better by giving the consumer more reason to watch
your sport? Now? I know my comment section in this
(22:20):
video is going to be very heated that I didn't
just sit here and dog Dana out or this ZUFA
Boxing announcement, But I don't care. This is a good announcement.
Whether you want to call me a sellout talking mouthpiece
of the Ring magazine or not, this is a very
good thing for American boxing. I don't see how you
can really look at it any other way. What Dana
is doing with ZUFA Boxing, the TV network you paramount
and CBS the most watched broadcast station in the United States,
(22:43):
having different sanctioning bodies removed from the league and only
recognizing one champion, and the Ring magazine rankings, which again
I think adds structure. It adds a bit more cohesiveness
to what it is they're trying to do. Think this
lends to the right way of doing business in the sport.
I think the sport can be healthier for it. I
think if you ever wanted to grab consistent interest back
(23:05):
into the sport of the United States versus your one
off massive Netflix show or your one off exhibition Jake
Paul fight, you have to add some structure and consistency
in the sport. And that's what Dana is trying to do.
And I have to say, at least from what I'm
hearing again, We'll continue to look at it and see
what the details are. But I like it. You guys,
let me know what you think down below. What happens
next for Zoova boxing? Can they find a roster that
(23:29):
is set to fit a lead? Well, they have one
major champion. What is Dana saying without saying it? What
is he not saying? Let me know in the comments
below As far as what happens next. Don't have those answers,
but I guess we'll find out
Folks, we are back on the way concept presented to
buy the Ring at magazine and today we have breaking
news as Dana White has found his TV rights deal.
And I think everybody knew this was kind of coming
down the line, but now it's official. Dana White has
partnered Zuofa Boxing their TKO's boxing arm with drum roll please,
(00:25):
Paramount Plus. I mean, yes, we expected it. It is
now official Dana White and Zufa Boxing to stream twelve
events on Paramount Plus in twenty twenty six as a
part of long term media rights deal. Now, Dana has
done a ton of interviews on this, so we're going
to look at this press release on The Ring Magazine's website.
Then we're going to take a look at some of
the soundbites from what he had to say about this deal,
(00:49):
because I think it is going to be a major,
major win for the sport of boxing, especially right here
in the good old US of A. What do I
mean the breakdown? Let's go. Paramount announced a partnership with
Zufa Boxing on Monday morning that will take the company
to the exclusive streaming and TV partner for the new
(01:11):
promotional company in January. So number one right there. ZUFA
Boxing kicks off in January twenty twenty six on Paramount
Plus twelve events. Like we said, the Dealer will begin
with twelve boxing cards on Paramount Plus in twenty twenty
six and is expected to grow in later years. It
is also possible that select boxing events will eventually be
broadcast by CBS was also owned by Paramount and other
(01:34):
linear Paramount platforms. So what does this mean? Well, Number one,
I assume because the way that the verbiage has been
tossed out right now, Dana White will have the contender
style boxing fights for Zoofa Boxing on Paramount Plus twelve
to start in twenty twenty six, maybe more as the
year goes on, but it's essentially once a month. And
there's a little easter egg in there that talks about
(01:55):
select boxing events eventually being broadcast on CBS, which right
now I don't think would be the boxing equivalent of
a Contender series, because the UFC has already signed a
streaming deal a TV rights deal with Paramount Plus, and
they had somewhat of a similar structure where the UFC
numbered events what used to be called the pay per
view events would be on CBS and the fight night
(02:18):
events and contender stuff and whatever else would be on
Paramount Plus. I have a feeling Dana's going to want
to do the same thing or something similar with this
boxing structure, So expect if there are massive select events
that it would potentially be like what you just saw
with Canelo Crawford with the Ring magazine backing with Turkey
Alas Shake involved Dana White, maybe using some of his
(02:40):
fighters from Zuofa, maybe not finding a way to use
Zoofa Boxing as the promotional backing for those massive fights
that he wants to do. Again, we'll see when we'll
see involving who and how the whole contract situation works out.
So before we get into anything else, let's talk about
this CBS Paramount Plus deal number one. Boxing really, through
(03:01):
its entirety of the last thirty plus years, really the
last one hundred years, has suffered from a lack of vision.
And I mean yes, on the promotional side, a vision
to grow the sport, of vision to reinvest into the sport,
a vision to have a one lane, straight through road
to the top of this sport, and talk about that
in a little bit. But what I really mean is
vision from the public especially since the rise of close
(03:25):
circuit television, pay per view and everything else. When you
put boxing behind a massive paywall, and yes, Paramount Plus
will still have a paywall, but when you made it
less and less and less affordable for the common man
to watch a common man's sport, less and less and
less people watch the sport in general. So not only
did you start to miss out on seeing some of
the biggest stars in the sport, and also you missed
(03:45):
out on creating the next generation of big stars in
the sport. And what I mean is the fighters on
the undercards of those massive pay per views that normally,
if you had seen them on syndicated television, could potentially
build into the next big superstar in the sport of boxing,
they weren't seen by as many people in general public,
so building them became that much more difficult. And sure,
(04:05):
you had your unicorns, you had your Mike Tysons, you
had your Canelo Alvarez's or Floyd Mayweather's, your Ascadala Hores
and a few more on that list that were big
stars in an American market, but you didn't have that
natural want from the American public to sea boxing. And
therefore you didn't have the want from kids to get
into the sport. When now you're going to see boxing
on Paramount Plus and eventually on CBS, on syndicated television,
(04:28):
on every single television and damn near every single home
in the United States, you're talking about an audience that
you can't even reach. With ESPN and all of those
people getting to see boxing without so many roadblocks. What
I think you may start to see is because there's
more eyes on this sport, because there's going to be
a familiarity in America with boxing again. Dana White Zufa
(04:51):
boxing consistently in front of your eyes. Not here's an
event one time a year, here's an event twice a
year and then we packed the bags and go home
until we can raise enough money and raise enough interest
for another major event. Consistently reinvesting into the sport, consistently
getting in front of an American public's eyes that not
only can showcase the next wave of boxing, but can
(05:12):
create the next generation of kids that want to be
their favorite athlete that may just so happen to be
one of the boxers they see on Zoofa Boxing, one
of the boxers they see on Paramount Plus, or CBS
in their household. That is why I think this is
such a major deal for specifically here in the United States,
because if we're being honest right now, the sport in
(05:32):
the United States specifically is an afterthought. And I hate
to say it that way, but it's just the truth.
And to really take boxing to the next level, just
like UFC, just like NFL, just like NBA MLB outside
of soccer, these are the most profitable sports in the world.
And I think even if you go league for league,
the NFL is the most profitable league in the world.
(05:53):
This market is the most advertiser friendly, it is the
most sports ready audience in the world. So you Needmerican
audience and again, you need Americans to be interested in boxing.
I think this is another step toward that TBS is
the most watched broadcast network in the United States. This
is what I'm talking about. This is why it is
(06:13):
so major. This is why you saw football grow the
way it did on CBS, you saw basketball grow the
way it did on ABC. This is why I'm so
pumped about this because CBS has hosted some of the
biggest sports in this country and they have grown exponentially
in their interest over the Paramount Plus and CBS will
also become the exclusive home of the UFC starting in January.
(06:33):
We talked about that and a seven point seven billion
dollars TV rights deal doesn't sound like a lot when
compared to the NFL or the NBA. But he has
the UFC sold in twenty sixteen for four billion, the
entire company sold for that note, and then turn around
and get a TV rights deal for seven years seven
point seven billion is absolutely insane. It should tell you
as a consumer what Dana White can potentially do with
(06:55):
boxing using a somewhat of a similar model to the UFC,
which I think is going to happen in box. And again,
there may be some drawbacks to that that we have
to address as well, but maybe I'm just being an optimist.
I can see this being a big reason why boxing
grows in the United States. This kind of exposure, this
kind of support, this kind of backing from Turkeyolas Shake
and Riance season and The Ring Magazine's Eko behind it.
(07:16):
It is almost no way this can really fail, especially
now that you have the TV rights deal. This was massive.
This partnership with Paramount reinforces our vision to redefine the
way viewers consume boxing. Turkeyala Shakes said in a statement,
more fight fans will now have access to watch some
of our most exciting boxers around. We will have seen
the proof that the appetite is there. This is the
(07:37):
future for live boxing coverage and will ensure that the
sport continues to thrive. And y'all are gonna say, because
I have a Ring magazine sign sitting right there, that
I'm glazing, but I agree with him. This I think
is a potential way for boxing to get reinvestment and
ensure the growth of the sport. That the sport continues
to grow and thrive. Not that necessarily specific promoters thrive
in the sport or at the very top end of
(07:58):
the sport survives and thrits, but that the sport from
top to bottom survives and thrives and growth. That is
what I see happening by proxy of really ZUFA Boxing
becoming the entity that I think it will become. The
ZUFA Boxing Paramount partnership will expose prospects, contenders, and eventually
world champions to an expansive audience. Announcements regarding Zupah Boxing's
(08:19):
first show on Paramount Plus will be made at a
later date. Here's a quote from Dana White. I'm excited
to bring great boxing events to a global audience. There
are millions of boxing fans that will now be able
to watch competitive fights with up and coming boxers as
well as the biggest stars in the sport. Paramount will
be the home of the UFC and boxing fans to
watch the greatest fights in combat sport. So again, you're
(08:40):
seeing potentially the trajectory of ZUFA boxing as it will
start with probably a prospect level roster. And again there's
been rumors out there. I think Dana White was in
an interview today with Brian Campbell that we're going to
watch in a second, saying that him and his matchmakers
we're looking at four hundred and fifty fighters that they
potentially could sign. Now, I don't know how that works
out over a twelve fight schedule, which I think you'll
probably cut the roster down. But being that ambitious to
(09:02):
start tells you how much they want to ramp up
their fight cards quickly, and it also shows you that
they're going to go at this alone. They are not
going to look to other promoters or anybody else. They
know Whide is going to take this ship with Turkey
Alla Shake and they are going to have ZUFA Boxing
be its own entity, be its own league. And I
assume when they talk about contenders and eventually world champions,
that means they're also going to have their own world
(09:23):
champions which is going to shake up boxing for sure,
because right now we have the alphabet sanctioning bodies, and
I gotta be honest, all four of them combined have
not done much to take boxing to another level. I
know that they're places for boxers to and fighters to
go to have more opportunities. I have never understood the
idea of having four different sanctioning bodies and each one
of them be able to call their champion the champion
(09:45):
of the world. To then have to have those four
go into like a superseded tournament and fight each other
to potentially then become the undisputed champion of the world.
And that should be your title as you win the
world championship. Any one pathway, one direct line to the chanceampionship,
and one battest man on the planet. That's how I
want to see the sport of boxing. I think that's
the most sensible way to see the sport of boxing.
(10:06):
Not mandatory for this sanctioning body mandatory. For this sanctioning
body mandatory mandatory, the belts get split up. Everybody is
a one fourth champion of the world, and no one
really knows who the baddest is because they don't have
to fight each other. So let's take a look at
some of these soundbites from Dana White as he was
on CBS Sports with our guy Brian Campbell.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I mean, look, if I'm being honest, boxing in this country,
the United States has kind of taken a hit in
recent years. I know everything under the tk O banner is.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
A kind of taking a hit. Boxing in the United
States over the last twenty thirty years from a viewership
and business standpoint, it's been abysmal.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Global thing UFCWWE. But are you looking mostly for us?
You know locations arenas. Could we see events at the UFCAPEX?
Could this be a shot in the arm? I guess
is what I'm asking right away for American boxing.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Here's the truth. If you want a successful boxing business,
and there's guys who've made money, and you know, my
idea of success and other guys idea of success are
completely different. And even if you're the Soudings, you cannot
have a successful boxing business without the United States. You
(11:18):
have to have a strong presence in the US. So yes,
that that is going to be my goal is to
rebuild boxing in the United States.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
He is absolutely one thousand percent correct. And what he
said there also makes sense, like, yes, you have your
match rooms, you have your Queensberry's, you have you're one
off promotions that will have success as a promotion. That
isn't success for the sport of boxing. That's success or
match room that success or Queensberry, that's success for whatever
it is they do with their roster of fighters and
(11:49):
their business dealings, not the entirety of the sport. Not
necessarily bad for the sport, but it also doesn't help
grow the sport, especially again in the biggest market in
the world, which is the United States. In the US,
we have Top Rank, we have Golden Boy, we have MVP,
now we have PBC, and they've all had successes and
individual circumstances. No centralized continued elevation of the sport and
(12:14):
viewership here in the US has happened. Ain't as right
about that? And to be successful, I think for Dana
doing it here would absolutely revolutionize the sport, no doubt
about it.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
When I was a massive boxing fan, I used to
watch USAYS Tuesday Night Fights. I talk about it all
the time. It was one of my favorite shows of
all time, and all the big boxing stars of the
nineties in pay per view came off of that show.
I felt like back then there were very competitive fights
with guys who should have been fighting each other at
(12:46):
that time. And that's what I want to do. I mean, basically,
as a boxing fan, the way that the UFC was
built was all the things that I loved about boxing
and all the things that I hated about is how
I built, you know, the UFC and the sport. So
(13:06):
I would expect a lot of what you saw early
on in the UFC to happen with boxing now.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
But and again you hear that, and that sounds pretty
damn good as far as again a consumer perspective, a
viewer perspective, what should we expect? Dana is saying you
should expect guys early in their career fighting tougher tests
than what we normally see in boxing. And again, I
think everybody would agree that having a guy that's a
(13:33):
high level prospect coming out of the amateur ranks and
then taking twenty fights to fight someone of similar talent
or similar skill level just because a certain promoter or
manager wants to build said high level prospect record up
to give them some sort of cachet in the sport,
because we've been conditioned over the same practices over years
and years and years, where fighters won't fight the best,
(13:56):
where they won't fight people of their similar skill level
until a certain point in their career, where we don't
believe that they're legitimate until they have a ten and
oer record, until they have a twenty to zero record,
and not knowing this well, sometimes that's detrimental for the
sport because once you get that pattern of fighters not
fighting high level competition until they have to for a
belt or until they have to for a world ranking,
(14:17):
and then they get their world ranking, then they get
their belt, and the same process happens again and again
and again, but it happens in four different sanctioning bodies,
So you have four guys with potentially the same mentality
about fighting the best when they're still making money for
their sanctioning body, and everybody's self interested in the way
of competition will hold on. If you lose that fight,
then the money goes away for not only you, but
(14:37):
for the promoter and the sanctioning body, and then the
sanctioning bodies percentage. We're seeing it right now with Tank
Davis fighting Jake Paul in an exhibition bout while he
is the sitting WBA Champion of the world, and the
WBA won't strip him. They won't strip him because you
know why, he is a money maker for them, and
until he tells them he's going to retire, they're going
to keep that belt on him because they want that
Tank percentage, and they think potentially they can still get
(14:59):
a La Motte Roach rematch. Potentially they can get a
Shakr Stevens fight. I think it's one of the more
corrupt things that happens in boxing.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
One of my biggest issues is we got seventeen or
if you count bridger weight eighteen divisions, there's four recognized
champions per division. Some of these sanctioning bodies have been
tossing out I guess the term is bastardized extra titles
for years. How many weight classes do you want in
zuofa boxing and I would assume we're going to be
(15:26):
looking at one champion per division. Is this going to
be a ZUFA championship You're going.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
To roll out By the way, Brian fantastic here with
the questions, with the laying out of questions, a sprinkle
of opinionated kind of what he wants to get across,
but also sticking the question on.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Dana literally had a meeting with my team yesterday on
this funny you're asking me this question. We're literally walking
through all of that right now. We're still in the
process of signing, you know, tons of fighters. They literally
showed me a list yesterday of like four hundred and
fifty fighters that they want to go after.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
This is crazy, Dana saying, again, I don't I'm I
don't think he's saying they want to sign four hundred
and fifty fighters. I think they're saying they're looking at
a list of four hundred and fifty fighters to who
they potentially want to sign. So there's like a rough
draft list, and I'm sure they're gonna cut that down
because how do you sign a roster if they come
out of the gates with four hundred and fifty You
want to talk about meaning business that's a statement in
(16:21):
its own right. I think if you got the balls
to go, you know what, four hundred and fifty all
let's go. You know, this is our shit, let's go
us versus the rest of the sport. That's ballsy as fuck. Because,
as Dana's talked about in MMA, you got to guarantee
fighters spots. You got to guarantee them two three fights
a year. And if he's gonna run this league like
he does the UFC, that would have to be the
same and running twelve events a year. There's no possible
(16:42):
way he can do that. So I think he means
he's gonna look at that big list and cut it down,
but still out of four hundred and fifty, if he
gets I don't know, one hundred and fifty of those,
that's a pretty decent sized roster.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And so they're put we met yesterday, they're putting together
a game plan off direction that I gave them, and
then next week me and Nick conn are going to
sit down with the team and start walking through weight
classes and you know all the other things that I've
sort of directed these guys to do in yesterday's meeting.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
By the way, they absolutely should cut down on weight
classes as well. I know I talked a lot about
the four sitting champions in these division. There's so many
weight classes in boxing it is ridiculously hard to keep
up with who is a champion at which weight class
and how many weight classes there are and the differences
between them when there's like eight and seven pounds sometimes
between Again, I understand the need for people to be
able to fight at their natural weight, but we have
(17:38):
to find a way to make things more concise. We
have to, and again I will give credit the UFC
has done that with their belt system. I think there's
ten champions or something like that, including the women's probably
twelve thirteen. Boxing needs desperately to condense. It needs a
condensed state. But we can recognize and understand these champions.
And again, the UFC employees a roster of like six
(17:58):
seven hundred fighters. They could easily do that in boxing.
So when Dana talks about having his own zoofa belt,
I like it, but I also think that you guys
need clarification number one. It's clear they want to do
away with the sanctioning body and have ZUFA Boxing be
the number one league in the sport. I mean, there's
no other reason you would want to have your own belt.
(18:19):
And also, I don't know if I covered it there,
but there's gonna be rankings based on the Ring magazine ranking,
So you're having a zuofa belt I assume whatever they're
gonna call it, and the Ring magazine belt. This is
I think a long term play to eventually try to
become the number one power player in boxing. And again,
some of people are going to look at that and go,
how are you gonna talk about getting rid of all
(18:39):
the sanctioning bodies when you're just adding more belts than
the sanctioning bodies exist. Yeah. For now, the idea I
think everybody knows is to replace the sanctioning with this
new way of doing boxing business, invite newer fans into
the sport based on the idea that ZUFA Boxing is
the one stop shop or where the best boxing happened.
They're not trying to just have their belts and then
(19:00):
sanctioning bodies have their belts and then you unify, because
that'd be the same thing that's already happened. This is
a clear sign and a clear message to the rest
of boxing that Dana is saying he wants to make
his league the best thing and boxing, and eventually if
the way that that I read, at least if you
win the Zoofa Belt, or if you become the top
tier of the zoofa League, you would then go and
fight in some way with Turkey Olah Shake, and four
(19:23):
potentially the Ring Magazine Belt, which is the lineal belt,
the most recognizable belt in box AB outside of the WBC.
But still, this is a very long term play to
introduce zuofa League and by proxy the Zoofa Belt as
the number one belt in the sport, the most important,
the most recognized. Again, it's a very easy comparison to
(19:43):
just say, look at the UFC. When you think MMA,
you think UFC, and again you it may not work
that way right now because boxing has a far longer
lineage and so do the sanctioning body. This isn't a
short term play, it's a long term one.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Will women's boxing be part of the zoof.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
For portfolio in the future, yep, definitely.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That is also interesting as well. Obviously right now there's
been a big surge in women's boxing with I mean,
let's be honest, MVP Jake Paul Nikisabadarian have really done
well to put and and focus on women's boxing. Dana
looking to come in and do the same. That'll be
an interesting battle as well, because again it's gonna be
it's probably gonna be exclusive, and here's Dana talking about that.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Listen. I live in my own little bubble. I'm gonna
do my thing. I'm not worried about what any of
those guys are doing. And to be honest with you,
I think those guys are all They don't think big enough.
They don't think big enough. These guys have been in
the business for however long, and I like Eddie Hearn
and I listen, I see what Eddie. Eddie Hearn went
(20:44):
like Oscar d la Hoya overnight. You know, but he's
got a lot of attention, so I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Hold on a second. As much as I like what
Dada's been saying about, you know this this TV rights
deal and what he wants to do is uva boxing,
Eddie Hearn did not go Oscar de la Hoya him,
at least not from what I saw. And I asked
Aana about this in the interview I did with him
on Radio Row in Vegas. Eddie has just essentially said
he what he thought. He was like, I just don't
know if Dana's if it's gonna work. You know, boxing
(21:12):
has been around for a long time. It's not the
UFC where he was kind of the only show in town,
and I don't know if what he's trying to do
is gonna work. But he also said that I want
to compete with Dana. I look forward to competing with him,
and that I like him. I don't think he came
out and was like doing clad back Thursdays like Oscar
dalea Hooya and taking personal shots at data. I didn't.
I didn't. Maybe I missed that, but I didn't see that.
I saw Eddie saying he wanted to compete, but Dana
(21:33):
has clearly taking offense to it.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
I think I think way bigger than you guys do.
So I'm not competing with the other promoters. I'm competing
with whatever takes the attention of the fans on the
night that we're on television. It could be a release
of a big movie, it could be the NFL. It
could be your wife or your girlfriend that you got
to take out that night, your kids. That's my competition.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I love it. I love that answer. Again, that's what
it should be. Dana is looking at this as a
business for consumers. We always call boxing the entertainment business.
Who are boxers meant to entertain? Who are fighters meant
to entertain by doing their sport? It's us the people,
it's the consumer of the product. How do you make
that better by giving the consumer more reason to watch
your sport? Now? I know my comment section in this
(22:20):
video is going to be very heated that I didn't
just sit here and dog Dana out or this ZUFA
Boxing announcement, But I don't care. This is a good announcement.
Whether you want to call me a sellout talking mouthpiece
of the Ring magazine or not, this is a very
good thing for American boxing. I don't see how you
can really look at it any other way. What Dana
is doing with ZUFA Boxing, the TV network you paramount
and CBS the most watched broadcast station in the United States,
(22:43):
having different sanctioning bodies removed from the league and only
recognizing one champion, and the Ring magazine rankings, which again
I think adds structure. It adds a bit more cohesiveness
to what it is they're trying to do. Think this
lends to the right way of doing business in the sport.
I think the sport can be healthier for it. I
think if you ever wanted to grab consistent interest back
(23:05):
into the sport of the United States versus your one
off massive Netflix show or your one off exhibition Jake
Paul fight, you have to add some structure and consistency
in the sport. And that's what Dana is trying to do.
And I have to say, at least from what I'm
hearing again, We'll continue to look at it and see
what the details are. But I like it. You guys,
let me know what you think down below. What happens
next for Zoova boxing? Can they find a roster that
(23:29):
is set to fit a lead? Well, they have one
major champion. What is Dana saying without saying it? What
is he not saying? Let me know in the comments
below As far as what happens next. Don't have those answers,
but I guess we'll find out
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