Boxing

TKO President Reveals How Much Zuffa Boxing Will Earn For Promoting Canelo vs Crawford

TKO president speaks on Zuffa Boxing's earning from fights, including Canelo vs Crawford
Apratim Banerjee|
IMAGO / Inpho Photography

TKO Group continues to strengthen their foothold in the combat business. Following WWE and UFC, they have now entered the world of boxing. In March 2025, TKO and Zuffa Boxing struck a deal with Turki Alalshikh's Riyadh Season to promote their events.

To kick things off, the company will promote one of the biggest fights in years: the highly anticipated superfight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford that is set to take place on September 13.

TKO president Mark Shapiro said that they plan on promoting super fights every year, and he also revealed just how much the company will earn from promoting similar fights to Canelo vs Crawford.

How much will Zuffa Boxing will earn?

Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford
IMAGO / Hoganphotos

Speaking with Sports Business Journal, Shapiro said: "This is low risk, and TKO received a roughly $10 million fee for serving as managing partner and providing day-to-day operational management oversight."

"That’s all margin for us. TKO has no funding obligation."

Shapiro added that they will get a fee to promote and negotiate media rights for the event, sell hospitality packages, as well as place their own fighters on the undercards of every event.

"Again, no risk to us on that deal. We get a fee to promote [it]. We get a fee to negotiate the media rights for each fight, which IMG does. … We get a fee for On Location to sell hospitality packages. And we will put Zuffa Boxing fighters on the undercard of each of these super fights. We expect to net, on average, another $10 million for every super fight we manage and promote."

Since TKO's involvement, the promotion has universally been termed as TKO Boxing. However, Dana White confirmed that Zuffa Boxing is the name of the venture.

"Yes -- it is Zuffa."

Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford being built as a super fight with Zuffa Boxing involved

TKO group
IMAGO / Zoonar

Zuffa Boxing is promoting Canelo vs Crawford with UFC CEO Dana White at the helm alongside Riyadh Season and Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) partner Sela.

The fight card will take place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, with 65,000 fans in attendance. Apart from that, it will be broadcast on Netflix, opening the door for a larger global audience.

Turki Alalshikh has previously revealed that the undercard for Canelo vs Crawford will be filled entirely with up-and-coming boxers who will get the opportunity to showcase their skills infront of the world.

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Apratim Banerjee
APRATIM BANERJEE

Apratim is a Boxing and Soccer reporter for On SI. He has been in the industry for five years, having also worked for The Sporting News, Sportskeeda, EssentiallySports, and more. After coming from an engineering background, he started pursuing a career in sports media. Apratim also holds an MSc. Sport Marketing degree from Loughborough University London and is a keen practitioner of social media and digital marketing. In his spare time, Apratim likes to play an array of sports and practice calisthenics. He is also an avid enthusiast of improving his martial arts skills.