Queensberry / Frank vs SELA / Turki

Telegraph is reporting the following. Frank is not happy about the SELA (Saudi) and TKO partnership In one corner is Frank Warren, the Londoner who has Tyson Fury, the former world heavyweight champion, in his stable, and has promoted fighters including Frank Bruno, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn. In the other corner are Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, the Saudi state-funded events company Sela, and the US’s £30bn combat sports giant TKO Group, whose key figures include Dana White, a man so close to Mr Trump that he is about to stage a cage fight on the White House lawn. Mr Warren’s company Queensberry is claiming Sela and TKO breached contracts they had signed with him and went behind his back to form a venture that aims to revolutionise and dominate boxing. Mr Alalshikh, together with Mr White, is running the new venture. Legal letters have been traded like jabs in the first round of a bout, and unless TKO and Sela throw in the towel, Mr Warren intends to take his case to the High Court. The Telegraph understands Queensberry, chaired by Mr Warren and run by his son George as chief executive, will seek up to $1bn compensation for income the company claims it would have made had the contracts been honoured. The joint venture between Mr Alalshikh, Sela and TKO, called Zuffa Boxing, has already poached Conor Benn, who hopes to fight for boxing’s welterweight title this year, from Mr Warren’s rival Eddie Hearn, and some within the sport believe other big names will follow, lured by Zuffa’s financial might. Zuffa has signed a $500m (£370m) five-year deal with the streaming service Paramount+ to show its fights. The Telegraph understands Queensberry, chaired by Mr Warren and run by his son George as chief executive, will seek up to $1bn compensation for income the company claims it would have made had the contracts been honoured. The joint venture between Mr Alalshikh, Sela and TKO, called Zuffa Boxing, has already poached Conor Benn, who hopes to fight for boxing’s welterweight title this year, from Mr Warren’s rival Eddie Hearn, and some within the sport believe other big names will follow, lured by Zuffa’s financial might. Zuffa has signed a $500m (£370m) five-year deal with the streaming service Paramount+ to show its fights. In June last year, Mr Alalshikh co-founded Zuffa Boxing with Mr White, the chief executive of the cage-fighting organisation Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which is part of TKO Group. The Telegraph understands that Queensberry has sent what are known as “letters before action” to Sela and TKO warning them of its intention to sue them for breach of contract. Queensberry claims that in September 2023, it signed an exclusivity agreement with Sela to provide boxing services, giving the Saudis privileged access to Queensberry’s know-how as Sela looked to break into boxing. Separately, Queensberry claims it signed a contract with TKO, as part of which TKO was granted access to Queensberry’s online data, which included details of the contract with Sela. Queensberry alleges that Sela and TKO effectively went behind its back to sign a five-year deal with each other, breaching the terms of both contracts. Mr Warren did not have any contracts with Mr Alalshikh. A Sela spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the unfounded claims brought by Queensberry and Frank Warren. We reject them in their entirety and are confident that the facts will fully vindicate our position.”