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Over the course of the last few weeks, several boxing stories have dropped. We watched Showtime air its last event after nearly 38 years of broadcasting the sport. From there, PBC, who had been calling Showtime their broadcasting home, ended up signing a huge deal with Amazon, so we’ve got one major promotion secured and accounted for. But what about the others?
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Is UFC in the market for a ready-made boxing promotion?
That brings us to Top Rank. Bob Arum, Top Rank’s founder and CEO, has been talking about selling the company for years. It would be a costly expenditure for whomever decided to take the plunge—Nash estimates the asking price to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200M-$300M.
The combat sports grapevine has had recent rumors swirling around that Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC, could be interested in snapping up the promotion with one of, if not the most extensive library in the sport. The roster that Arum has amassed is hefty, as well and probably more important than the roster are the many connections and unofficial partners Arum has cultivated.
His willingness to work with other promotions and fighters outside his stable has made news frequently, so potential buyers would likely be getting their money’s worth. The counter argument to the rumored purchase is how hard it is to make money—or should I say the kind of money that the lopsided split Endeavor/UFC has with the athletes currently under their roster affords them— when the Ali Act prevents them from operating the way they do within the confines of their MMA business.
Nash weighs all the pros of why Endeavor would be interested and the cons of why they wouldn’t. We even discuss why Golden Boy Promotions would likely never be in the running for a purchase.
Francis Ngannou has secured another bag
And of course we discussed Francis Ngannou’s big news of a boxing match with Anthony Joshua. The two former champs are set to clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this Spring (tentative date is March 8, 2024). Nash looked at how much Ngannou could be making and noted that there’s a very good chance that Francis could out-earn Conor McGregor this year and might be on track to make the Forbes list of highest paid athletes.
After seeing Ngannou’s coach, Eric Nicksick, take to social media to discuss the life-changing money he was paid for his services in preparing Francis for Tyson Fury, one has to wonder just how big the bag he got for that fight truly was. By our estimation, it must’ve been really big. Nash figures this upcoming bout with Joshua will easily dwarf the first and will likely be double or more than what that fight paid out.
Finally, we discussed the flood of Saudi money coming into both MMA and boxing that has allowed for mega events in the sport like when Francis Ngannou fought Tyson Fury. From pricey site fees to broadcast partners and what weight divisions they are laser-focused on, we tried to hit all the topics we could think of. Check out the FULL episode on our podcast Substack.
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