After years of swirling rumors, Dana White has finally stamped his approval on his boxing business idea. Yesterday, Dana White & Co. made a significant move in the boxing world when GEA head and boxing supremo Turki Alalshikh declared, “Today marks the new chapter in boxing history.” In his Instagram post this week, ‘His Excellency’ announced a multi-year partnership under the TKO umbrella to launch a new boxing promotion, where TKO’s expertise will provide “day-to-day operational expertise.” In a video, the duo shook hands to celebrate their new collaboration, aiming to reshape the future of boxing.
Recently, comments from boxing superstar and reigning WBC, WBA, WBO, and Ring Magazine super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez surfaced. The Mexican juggernaut, who is preparing for his upcoming fight against undefeated IBF super middleweight champion William Scull in May at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, sat down with CBS Sports. When asked about the Dana White and Turki Alalshikh partnership and the “kickoff event for September in Las Vegas,” Alvarez, whose name has been linked to the event, expressed his interest. He revealed, “Yeah, there’s always an opportunity to fight in September.”
Canelo is asked his thoughts of Dana White getting into boxing.pic.twitter.com/cEsDkQ4RMp
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) March 6, 2025
In the wake of this announcement, White also stated, “Everybody knows the format. The best fight the best. You work your way up the rankings and once somebody breaks into the top five, there’s no question who the top five guys are in each weight class and they fight it out. And once somebody holds that belt, you don’t need three letters in front of the belt. Whoever has the belt is the best in the world in that weight class. It’s a very simple model.”
And when it comes to the best slugging it out against the best, the thought of Alvarez and ‘Bud’ automatically comes to mind. And it seems that boxing insider Ariel Helwani is also on board with this sentiment. On his show, the journalist stated, “Remember what [TKO Group Holdings COO Mark Shapiro] said on that call last week: In addition to… that league, as they’re calling it, we’re also going to be doing super fights. Two this year, two next year. Massive fights.”
“Don’t be surprised if the first one is Canelo Alvarez vs. Crawford. And don’t be surprised if that first one is on a platform like Netflix,” he added.
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