The broadcast agreement with Paramount+ for Zuffa Boxing is potentially a very good thing for boxing.
It means more boxing on a major television network, which is something I’m very optimistic about.
Paramount+ is now showcasing both boxing and UFC. Their rival networks won’t want them to be able to offer something they don’t, so boxing could yet receive further opportunities beyond Paramount+.
The business model Zuffa is speaking about regardless isn’t an original one. ProBox TV had already filled the vacuum left by ESPN’s Friday Night Fights and ShowBox, which built their reputations on being proving grounds for championship-level fighters – often involving fights between some fighters on the way up and others on the way down. There is no recognized “A side”, and they make fights in which the identity of the winner doesn’t matter. It’s boxing, certainly in a meritocratic sense, at its best.
But even with the existence of ProBox TV, if Zuffa also has the opportunity to provide that level of fight, and with it some real entertainment, to big audiences, it could be great for the sport.
Micky Ward would not have had the celebrated career that he did without that nature of platform. He was on course to be a journeyman, but he ended up making $1m to fight Arturo Gatti, featuring in one of the all-time great trilogies, appearing in contenders for fight of the year, and being the subject of a movie. As recently as March, Lamont Roach Jnr fought Gervonta “Tank” Davis after having thrived on ProBox.
For all that that business model makes sense, however, its execution is far from easy. Altruism doesn’t exist in boxing; when someone in a position of power claims they want to make a 50-50 fight it’s rarely true, because there are managers, promoters and other figures involved. Managers and promoters want to see their fighters win – they don’t want them involved in 50-50 fights. They want fights that appear to be 50-50s, but in which their fighters actually have the edge, and they often won’t risk their fighter in a fight of that nature. They also don’t want to help build the profile of a fighter in which they have no stake.
We’ve previously seen new ventures – not unlike the latest with Dana White and TKO – from those not involved in boxing enter it and realize how different it is to what they’d believed. Success in other businesses, or other sports, doesn’t mean success in boxing will follow. Boxing has been around for a very long time and has its own ecosystem; a lack of experience in boxing can prove costly in more than one way, particularly in the context of the budgets those leading those new ventures often have.
There’s also the rampant self-interest involved at every level of the sport. Plenty who have been involved in it for a long time like it how it is and don’t want it to change and will resist potential change. Some will be cooperative for the potential money involved; others will see Zuffa as a threat.
TKO, and Paramount+, are the nature of businesses that seek to make, not lose, money, and yet the model Zuffa is expected to oversee isn’t typically one that particularly does that. In the modern era we’ve seen those involved in Riyadh Season willing to lose lots of money, but a test of the commitment of TKO and Paramount+ may come when the time arrives for them to expect a profit.
White’s first true foray into boxing came with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Terence Crawford, which will prove the biggest fight of 2025 and was at the top of a good card. Yet during fight week we also saw how badly he responded to direct questioning from the boxing media which, unlike the media in the UFC, isn’t beholden to him. On fight night Lester Martinez-Christian Mbilli, a terrific fight, was over 10 rounds when it should have been 12 and deserved to be the chief support. Those were indicative of two major things he will need to learn from and improve upon.
As flawed as the four recognized sanctioning bodies all are, there’s also potentially something concerning about Zuffa’s plans to operate outside of them. Boxing’s ecosystem is so delicate that they are tempting considerable opposition from the very start; they are also risking denying good fighters – the reigning champions and leading contenders – the opportunities they deserve and making the sport even more disjointed, as well as risking denying their own fighters opportunities to grow.
They might even be guaranteeing that they end up working with a worse level of fighter than they plan to. Those who see themselves as capable of winning world titles aren’t going to want to work with promoters and managers who won’t give them the chance to, which means those with more modest ambitions will be those seeking the opportunities Zuffa can offer them instead. I can only speak with certainty about myself, but as an active fighter I’d have prioritised winning a world title over making more money without one.
That all written, I fully expect promoters outside of Zuffa to be supportive of the changes to the Muhammad Ali Act that have been proposed. It protects fighters; fewer rules mean more opportunities to exploit fighters. The Act does need changing but it needs to be expanded and tightening up, not weakened in a way that will harm those who actually fight. Fighters – and I speak from experience – get exploited enough as it is.
I fully expect Zuffa and Paramount+, like many of those who have come before them, to make a big impact and to make a lot of people and a lot of fighters money. But I don’t see them revolutionising boxing – I see them becoming part of the status quo.
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In the UK, Boxxer recently announced a broadcast agreement with the BBC. I like the way Boxxer have gone about their business; they haven’t had a great deal of traction but with the BBC behind them that could change. It ought to lead to more opportunities to their young fighters, and to more eyes on their fights.
Boxxer, incidentally, were previously with Sky Sports. It’s, similarly, very important for the health of the sport that Sky Sports continue to showcase boxing.
