I’ve never encountered a news cycle like this in my 30 years of combat sports coverage.

Which is why this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast is a must-listen 60 minute summary of world affairs.

On the week of Wrestlemania 42 with over 80,000 fans paying extraordinary ticket prices in Las Vegas, we are still talking about the fallout from the UFC 327 event in Miami.

It was crazy enough that US President Donald Trump & Secretary of State Marco Rubio were cage side while Vice President JD Vance was in Islamabad for failed negotiations with Iranian leadership to stop a war. Things got even crazier after the event.

Carlos Ulberg, brand new UFC Light Heavyweight champion, blew out his ACL and now claims he lost his title belt while partying.

The fallout from the respectable, but muted reaction for President Trump by the Miami crowd continues to draw intrigue. For better and for worse, it was history in the making.

Fans are tired. Too much is happening. That is the overarching theme of this week’s podcast show.

TKO is too busy overwhelming your nervous system with a bombardment of advertising, promises, campaigns, and politics. UFC & WWE fans know something isn’t quite right but they can’t put their finger on why.

Look at how UFC is marketing the Josh Hokit vs. Curtis Blaydes fight from UFC 327:

This is embarrassing. The question is whether or not TKO’s public relations is working.

The world really did change right after UFC 327 and now it’s a race to see if TKO can keep up with a news cycle that’s totally out of control.

Dana White is doubling down on his relationship with President Trump and the upcoming UFC White House card. More people are talking about the use of AI for the White House ad than the actual fights booked.

Ari Emanuel is full-steam ahead with his campaign to control manipulate influence ESPN. A recent three-panel shot on ESPN told the story:

Pat McAfee, Governor Josh Shapiro, and Dana White made an announcement about an upcoming UFC event in Philadelphia.

* Pat McAfee is Ari Emanuel’s newest celebrity sports client, inserted into the main event picture of Wrestlemania 42.

* Dana White is Ari’s controlled asset for Boomer Republicans, spouting off Sean Hannity-isms and proclaiming that “if you love America” then you will love UFC White House.

* Governor Josh Shapiro is Ari Emanuel’s other favorite political candidate (sorry, Rahm) for the US 2028 Democrat Primary. Ari’s other favorite Shapiro (sorry, Mark). Governor Shapiro made sure that Mr. Emanuel and TKO are warmly embraced for doing business in Pennsylvania.

This is the kind of control that Ari Emanuel has right now in American politics and culture. He’s taken Hollywood politics and infused it into every aspect of combat sports.

That’s the focus of this week’s free portion of The MMA Draw podcast.

TKO’s Race Against The Clock

For our paid subscribers, we address the breaking news about Saudi’s change of financing big sporting ventures.

Wednesday’s American news cycle was flooded with report after report claiming that the Saudi PIF would be backing away from ventures like LIV Golf and Tom Brady’s flag football games. Here’s the Wednesday night headline from The New York Times:

The CEO of LIV Golf claims that everything will go as scheduled for players in Mexico City.

Tom Brady’s flag football deal involves Fanatics and Turki Alalshikh’s General Entertainment Authority. Front Office Sports claims the GEA is cutting the cord after the initial NFL flag football event was relocated to Los Angeles after the war started between the US, Israel, and Iran.

What does this re-calibrating of funding from both the Saudi PIF & General Entertainment Authority mean for SELA’s support of the Joint Venture with Zuffa Boxing? What does it mean for Wrestlemania 43 in Riyadh?

It’s a race against the clock for TKO to get the Ali Revival Act passed. Next week, Nick Khan and Oscar De La Hoya will be in attendance in Washington DC for a Senate hearing on the legislation.

TKO needs to get the Ali Revival Act bill passed to establish their Unified Boxing Organization. Can they get a UBO established with UFC-style contracts before Turki Alalshikh has to scale back his investments in boxing? Or will business continue as usual?

Buckle up and become a paid subscriber to The MMA Draw podcast. It’s worth your investment in this impossible to understand world.

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

It is really hard to understate just how much fight fans hate Hollywood politics. Almost as much as they hate US politics, rich people, and compromised influencers.

Now marry all these groups into one toxic brew, and that’s the fire Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro are playing with at TKO.

It’s one thing for us at The MMA Draw to highlight our articles from many years ago, such as ‘You are no longer the primary customer’, ‘Ari Emanuel, Wrestling Billionaire’, or ‘UFC’s Bizarre Connection to Trump’s Board of Peace.’

It’s one thing to read these articles. It’s another thing to see all of this action unfolding in front of your face.

Now the fans-at-large are catching on, and they don’t like what they are seeing.

Zach recently summarized how TKO functions in one simple Twitter post:

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast is all about the tide turning against the many faces Ari Emanuel has aligned TKO with.

Dana White. US President Donald J. Trump. The United Arab Emirates.

It doesn’t get any more powerful than that combination. Fans and social commentators are unloading on Ari’s biggest public assets. As seen in the embedded video at the top of this post, there is no more fear factor in criticizing Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro. Nick Khan is managing to avoid the heat, which illustrates what a deft political actor he truly is.

The Kings of Hollywood are starting to expose themselves a little bit too much. The $7.7B, seven-year UFC deal with Paramount was the permission slip for everyone who was previously biting their tongue to fully unload on what they really felt about the current state of affairs.

On the free portion of this week’s podcast, we focus strictly on the diminishing returns of Dana White as UFC’s brand ambassador and key man.

If Dana White can’t sell AI (as a Meta board member), sell fights (as UFC President), or sell politics, how much utility does he possess if fans understand that Mark Shapiro is calling the shots? Ronda Rousey’s recent comments have added fuel to that fire.

Executive Summary (free portion)

This podcast explores the intense balancing act of TKO as they navigate a volatile mix of high finance, Middle Eastern politics, and internal leadership crises.

Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro have prioritized data points and celebrity connections over the core needs of fight fans, resulting in a noticeable decline in product quality.

Significant emphasis is placed on the organization's alliance with the United Arab Emirates, suggesting that both the US/Iran war and economic downturns are threatening these high-stakes political bets.

The discussion also highlights a growing backlash against Dana White, fueled by independent influencers who are exposing issues such as low fighter pay and personal controversies. A whole new world of fans is reliving (or discovering) Dana White slapping his wife and bragging about supposedly forcing her to have an early C-section so he could attend a Chuck Liddell fight.

The current combat sports landscape is an unholy marriage of connections and geopolitical instability that is beginning to alienate its primary audience.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

For our paid subscribers, we have some additional notes and a deluxe Executive Summary of this week’s paid podcast portion regarding Ari Emanuel and the United Arab Emirates.

What’s a bigger threat to UFC’s future on Paramount: Piracy or Politics?

Our Monday special at The MMA Draw analyzes recent ESPN UFC PPV estimates reported by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer.

The big question is whether or not UFC’s biggest PPV draws on ESPN will also be key drivers in selling Paramount subscriptions.

TKO has an unholy political and business alliance with The White House, Paramount, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and AI (through Meta and indirectly with Oracle).

What happens in the cage fights is only partially the story about TKO. It’s a very strange, weird, high-stakes yet toxic witch’s brew, and there’s lots of collateral damage.

Remember when we started labeling TKO a government contractor and political mercenary years ago? We weren’t kidding. Everything in today’s world now has some sort of impact and connection to WWE & UFC. Dana White and AI (via his board seat on Meta). The US/Iran war and its impact on Gulf State financing of big business ventures… like Paramount.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast covers it all. No holds barred. We not only analyze UFC’s current top draws and how their success may (or may not) carry over to Paramount, but we also take a look at the impact of TKO’s politics on two very interesting media personalities: Ariel Helwani and Luke Thomas.

What kind of skill set is required to survive as a talking head in this incredibly fast-moving political, business, and legal environment? Issues we never dreamed of talking about 10 or 15 years ago are now mainstream in MMA discussions.

Dana White wants us to eat the AI sandwich. So let’s have AI give us an executive summary and run-down of topics from this week’s MMA Draw podcast.

Executive Summary

Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold discuss the evolving business landscape of the UFC and its parent company, TKO.

The hosts analyze the promotion's shift from ESPN to a new broadcasting deal with Paramount, questioning whether the current roster of stars can drive the subscriptions needed to manage Paramount's massive debt.

They critique Dana White's recent promotion of AI technology in broadcasts and examine how global economic shifts and political alliances might impact the organization's financial future.

The conversation also explores a growing rift in MMA media, contrasting the career trajectories and political stances of prominent figures like Ariel Helwani and Luke Thomas.

Finally, the duo reflects on the moral complexities of the fight industry, specifically addressing fighter pay, health risks, and rumors regarding Ari Emanuel's potential interest in acquiring OnlyFans.

Five big questions

This week’s podcast focuses on Paramount’s brand sustainability, Return on Investment, and the risks of extreme political and moral alignment of this climate TKO has generated billions of dollars from.

Here are the five most controversial questions from this week’s show:

* Is the UFC’s product actually worth the investment for broadcast partners?

* Are the UFC’s established stars “cooked” as major market attractions? The hosts specifically question the future value of veteran stars like Israel Adesanya. Can this new Paramount UFC generation of American stars, like Joe Pyfer, realistically drive the subscriptions Paramount needs, or is this current audience specifically limited to tech bros listening to BJJ lifestyle videos/podcasts?

* Will the push for AI production alienate the consumer base? Dana White as an AI salesman for Mark Zuckerberg is one of the funniest developments. Dana telling fans to “eat slop” in response to complaints about AI use on UFC broadcasts is a funny kind of customer service. Is the gamble on AI a viable solution for media cost-cutting, or will it create a lower-quality product that fans hate?

* Has TKO made an irreversible bet by aligning so closely with polarizing political figures and states? Nate and Zach question if TKO’s current political marriages will cause a massive blow-back as the “young bro audience” turns on US President Donald Trump and the Middle East.

* Should Ari Emanuel risk his reputation to acquire OnlyFans? The hosts raise the highly controversial possibility of Endeavor “kicking the tires” on OnlyFans. It’s exactly the kind of high-margin, monster Free Cash Flow exploitative business that Mark Shapiro could only dream of acquiring. It doesn’t hurt that various UFC talents are already on that platform.

The MMA Draw podcast is the perfect companion for your paid subscription to our newsletter on Substack. We are not controlled media assets. We ask questions nobody else will in this combat sports landscape. This is the place to be if you want a different perspective that nobody else can deliver.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs just helped TKO nearly double their credit (facility) card to $350M. Record revenue, profits, and EBITDA for Ari Emanuel’s fighting death star known as TKO.

And, yet, Mark Shapiro is rapidly losing control of the public narrative regarding UFC and WWE.

The number one danger of Ronda Rousey as a public messenger in attacking Hunter Campbell and Mark Shapiro? Connecting lower quality fights and star power with lousy fighter pay. Once fans start to believe in that argument, it’s a difficult stain to remove.

This week on The MMA Draw Podcast, we dive deep into why 2026 is becoming the “year of the unhappy UFC fighter” and how the organization’s leadership is losing its grip on the narrative.

TKO made a calculation that removing the ESPN paywall and exposing the UFC product on Paramount would increase fan awareness and happiness. Instead, customers are less than satisfied with the action in the cage and, more importantly, the weekly production blunders.

But the biggest side effect of UFC on Paramount is that It is widely viewed as a political shop. Casual fans who would never spend any time paying attention to UFC business affairs are giving a fresh look at this TKO monster that Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro have constructed.

If TKO were delivering great fights, people would dismiss all this political scrutiny as white noise. The problem is that Mark Shapiro’s obsession with spreadsheets and margins has opened the door for a public conversation between fighters and fans about subpar fighter pay. Zuffa Boxing’s recent $15M signing of Conor Benn has changed some talking points. It’s allowing UFC fighters, past and present, to tee off on the suits.

Ronda’s Revenge and the ‘Love Triangle’ You Never Expected

One of the UFC’s most loyal former stars, Ronda Rousey, is officially on the warpath. We break down her public roasting of Hunter Campbell and TKO. What makes this compelling is how close Ronda’s business relationship with Dana White was or is.

From Rousey’s scorched-earth comments to UFC letting Ronda’s superfight slip through the cracks and land in the hands of both Netflix & Jake Paul, the dirty laundry is finally being aired in public.

The Three Mistakes Changing the Public Conversation

On this week’s MMA Draw podcast, Nate and Zach identify three strategic errors Mark Shapiro and TKO have made in the first quarter of 2026 alone:

* The Death of the Aspirational Payoff: By moving to Paramount and eliminating the pay-per-view bonus structure, TKO has removed the “gold at the end of the rainbow” for top-tier fighters.

* The $15 Million Slap in the Face: While UFC veterans fight in warehouses for “12k and 12k,” TKO handed boxer Conor Benn a reported $15 million for a single fight.

* Prioritizing Margins Over Fights: Mark Shapiro has successfully branded TKO as a “promoter of money,” not a fight promotion. Fans are now connecting lousy fighter pay with the declining quality of the fights they see on screen.

Then there’s the turmoil in the Middle East and how it will impact TKO’s financing of fights.

We explore how the US/Iranian death match is impacting the UFC’s primary training and financial pipelines. A not-so-insignificant number of UFC fighters are headquartered in the UAE. With Bahrain, the Emirates, and Qatar getting hammered by suicide drones, suddenly, the tax-free paradise on paper has some real complications.

The UFC White House Debacle

Is the upcoming UFC White House card going to deliver the kind of subscriptions for Paramount Plus that David Ellison projected it might deliver? Or is this UFC White House event a political loser?

We will focus on recent comments Joe Rogan made and how TKO’s calculation to go all-in with this Trump 2.0 White House is creating fresh headaches. Politics and business can mix, but being a political mercenary also has its risks.

The major financial debt bomb for Paramount and Larry Ellison

Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake for UFC, Warner Brothers Discovery, Oracle, the Gulf States, Silicon Valley, and Paramount.

With this much financial risk on the table, the NFL is reportedly seeking a 50% increase in its current media rights deal. They want their money. More importantly, sports leagues are now going to use Paramount’s $7.7B overpay for seven years of UFC media rights as a sledgehammer against the world’s richest decision makers.

Subscribe to The MMA Draw today and be years ahead of the talking heads when it comes to the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding combat sports interference from Wall Street, The White House, Silicon Valley, and the Gulf States. For just $8 a month or $69 a year, you get insider analysis that Wall Street and TKO don’t want you to hear.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast sets the record straight about what UFC could — and should — have given the fans for their June 14th White House card.

There’s lots of internet rumors floating about Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, and Islam Makhachev. Putting those rumors aside, the dark truth about the UFC White House event is that it has sucked all the oxygen out of the room for UFC’s 2026 season.

TKO spent months… and months… hyping up a fight card that was supposed to sell millions of prospective subscriptions for Paramount.

What happened?

TKO management thought that dropping the ESPN paywall would usher in a new generation of UFC fans who would fall in love with their product.

The Paramount Era in Q1 has given UFC plenty of exposure… and the fans don’t like what they’re seeing.

2026 is proving to be the year that Mark Shapiro, despite building a substantial multi-billion dollar financial fortress, is starting to lose the public relations battle. Shapiro is obsessed with storytelling and controlling the narrative, especially when it comes to making the hard sell to Wall Street and Sovereign Wealth Funds.

The problem for Mark Shapiro is that money can’t buy the love of current UFC fans.

One constant factor UFC management could always rely on was fans taking the side of management over talent regarding fighter pay. Ironically, Eddie Hearn has turned the tables on TKO after they signed Conor Benn away from Matchroom Boxing for a reported $15M.

That nice, big, round figure — combined with the billion-dollar figures being advertised by Mark Shapiro and Paramount — has created genuine unrest. The key is that both fighters and fans are unhappy. Fans are starting to make the connection that the UFC product, by and large, stinks on ice because the U Fight Cheap model is eroding the quality of matchmaking by company management.

No Francis Ngannou or Tom Aspinall at UFC White House. Nakisa Bidarian outflanked UFC by booking a truly American First fight: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano.

Even if Hunter Campbell booked a somewhat respectable UFC White House fight card, it isn’t worthy of the marketing hype or firepower that TKO possesses. Fans are not buying their corporate excuses anymore.

The combination of fans connecting cheap fighter pay, along with TKO’s marriage to President Trump’s White House and David Ellison’s Paramount, is proving to be a difficult branding exercise for Mark Shapiro. Especially for fans paying thousands of dollars to attend a numbered UFC event in 2026.

People who normally wouldn’t pay attention to the current state of affairs at UFC are starting to wake up because of Paramount and White House politics. TKO miscalculated in believing that the political noise was white noise that could be easily dismissed. It is not.

At the heart of TKO & Trump White House policy is the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates is a key financial player for their business ventures. All those Middle Eastern site fees that Andrew Schleimer likes to hype up on TKO conference calls face great uncertainty because of the tens of billions of dollars in damage suffered by the Gulf States due to suicide drones in the American/Israeli war with Iran.

There is a major global oil shock right now. Nearly $100 a barrel. As The Financial Times recently reported, the Gulf States — like Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar — are suddenly reconsidering their American investments. This is why Tencent is reportedly back in the ball game to help finance Paramount’s giant debt bomb.

Everything in this out-of-control world of finance and cage-fighting is now interconnected. This is why it pays to be a subscriber to The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack. We put all of this insanity into context that is easier to understand.

Spend your money with us, not the billionaires. You’ll thank us later.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

The world is on fire. The media world is also on fire.

Larry & David Ellison have leveraged the Oracle family business on the premise of taking over the global media and entertainment space by spending nearly $120 billion dollars on the UFC, South Park, and Warner Brothers Discovery. No one else would have paid $7.7B over seven years for UFC. No one else would pay $31/share for Warner Brothers Discovery, a stock that was $8/share two years ago.

The MMA Draw provided five quick takeaways about the Paramount/WBD deal. All of those points are very relevant right now.

And your life as a fight fan is about to change in a hurry. All of this spending by major players involved in the AI boom means we are about to become guinea pigs as customers. It’s a race against the clock to see if AI can replace humans in producing original content that doesn’t exclusively involve political memes.

This week’s MMA Draw podcast is one of the most intensive news & analysis shows we’ve ever produced.

We’ve never experienced a combat sports news cycle like the one we’re covering at The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. Gain from our insider’s perspective.

There has been so much news going on that this podcast post is our attempt to fill you in on everything that transpired — including some late Sunday developments that caught our attention in a big way.

Executive Summary

On this week’s podcast, Nate and Zach discuss how military conflict in the Middle East complicates the financial stability of major players like the UFC, TKO, and Paramount, all of which rely heavily on United Arab Emirates funding.

Mark Shapiro and Nick Khan pulled a fast one on Eddie Hearn by signing Conor Benn, reportedly for a one-fight $15M deal. Netflix announced Benn will be fighting veteran Regis Prograis in the semi-main event of the April 11th Tottenham card headlined by Tyson Fury.

Eddie Hearn may have taken a flesh wound, but his premise that boxing-level money would cause some unrest among UFC fighters is absolutely proving to be correct. It’s a storyline that is starting to drive Mark Shapiro nuts. He constantly wants to control “the narrative.” Money talks. Saudi Arabian investment is disrupting traditional promotional power structures.

What Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren did for the Saudis was provide a carnival barking platform to sell fights. Without them, who does TKO currently have as a frontman to make the sale? They have a bunch of guys in their mid-to-late 50s who either have rabbit ears or are completely checked out. If Dana White’s video from Friday night is any current indication, he’s no longer the man for the job.

Ultimately, the business of fighting has become a primary tool for geopolitical influence and corporate power, often overshadowing the actual athletic competitions. All of the interesting content is happening outside of the ring and cage, not inside of it. Unless UFC can deliver Alex Pereira vs. Jon Jones, they don’t have a fight that can match the star power of Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano. So, what is UFC exactly delivering to Paramount right now?

Given Ari Emanuel’s unique and close relationships with both Ted Sarandos of Netflix and David Ellison of Paramount, TKO is in an extraordinarily unique position. For better and for worse.

Netflix reveals Paramount's financial promises and secrets

In a candid Sunday interview with Bloomberg, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos let it rip regarding his various reasons for dumping Paramount and letting it win the $111 billion fight over Warner Bros Discovery assets.

Long story short? Netflix wasn’t going to overpay. Ted Sarandos wasn’t going to fight an irrational actor like David Ellison. Most importantly, Mr. Sarandos framed Paramount’s bid as insanely over-leveraged. The cost? A lot of humans are losing their jobs. A bet against Hollywood and humanity at the expense of betting the farm on AI doing all of the work.

This agenda fits right into the ethos of Mark Shapiro’s TKO.

In December of 2023, Spreadsheet Shapiro made it very clear that AI was going to be rapidly integrated into WWE & UFC programming.

“Just think of how many events we televise, we put on, we bring the show on the road, we bring trucks out to different cities, whether it's a cloud or it's cameras or it's tape machines, replay, graphics, operators, stuff we can do AI back at our headquarters in either Vegas for UFC or our Stamford production facility for the WWE. There are a lot of production efficiencies. Even if our production chiefs want to tell me there's not, frankly, I worked at ESPN for 12 years, I oversaw all production. I've been through all the song and dance with every producer who treats every tape machine and camera like it's a baby and doesn't want to give it up. And we're here to improve our margins. So we're going to scrutinize every dollar on the production end of every single one of these events, every single one of these telecasts, and we're going to realize substantial savings.”

If Mark Shapiro could fire all the humans and replace them with a bunch of Mac Minis running Claude AI macros, he might consider it.

Human work product and quality don’t matter to the tech bros. Larry & David Ellison want to take over both the AI and media worlds. A mind meld. TKO is all too happy to grab billions of dollars in media rights fees to go along with this experiment under the guise of being fight promoters.

The Paramount/TKO marriage with the UAE & the Saudis

The war between America and Iran is bringing a clear focus on the financial and military relationships America has with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Iranian government is ready to burn Dubai down if it has to.

At The MMA Draw, we have spent the last two years’ worth of coverage talking about the nexus between Ari Emanuel, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Marty Edelman (of Trump’s Board of Peace), TKO, Turki Alalshikh, and the Trump White House.

Everywhere you turn, you see the same global players, no matter whether it’s boxing, wrestling, MMA, politics, military, or AI.

The UAE & KSA are key drivers behind Paramount financing. They are involved in powerful financial entities such as Mubadala, Silver Lake, and TKO (via Endeavor).

This financial dominance allows these Gulf States to punch way above their weight, becoming the sugar daddies that enable massive American media and sports mergers. Fight sport is at the heart of this project.

To impress Wall Street and continue the storyline that TKO is a growth stock, Mark Shapiro is rapidly increasing the EBITDA figure year-over-year on their spreadsheets by having an escalating media rights fee with Paramount for UFC.

Now the tech bros have to deliver real subscription numbers. For Paramount to even make a 50% dent on their UFC investment, Andrew Root of Penske Media recently wrote in Sportico that UFC would need to deliver approximately 23 million subscribers to Paramount.

This is why TKO is now obsessed with boxing. A year ago, Mark Shapiro didn’t even want to touch upon the subject. Then he dipped his toes into the water, saying boxing would be “value accretive” for TKO’s portfolio. Today’s sales pitch? Boxing is the next $20 billion growth property for TKO, a sport ready to be monopolized thanks to the Ali Revival Act. That piece of legislation is now ready for a floor vote in the US House of Representatives.

Boxing also gives TKO an additional tool to acquire media rights deals that box out any potential competition on (current) non-TKO networks.

Everything you need to know about TKO’s recent Wall Street earnings call is available on this week’s MMA Draw podcast.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

2026 is shaping up to be a costly year for both Golden Boy & Matchroom Boxing. If it’s not talent poaching by TKO, it’s going to be escalating costs keeping current talent in a war of matching offers by Zuffa Boxing’s Nick Khan and Harrison Whitman.

Meanwhile, Dana White is back with glee enjoying his role as court jester and rodeo clown. Like US President Donald Trump, Dana White loves the smell of weakness in his rivals. Mr. White smells blood in the water with Eddie Hearn.

It appears that the current players in the boxing world paid little or no attention to the trials and tribulations of UFC antitrust litigation over the past decade.

It doesn’t even appear that Oscar De La Hoya or Eddie Hearn fully understand the nature of the rival they are facing.

That’s the big theme for this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast. Our recent high-stakes boxing business coverage has won us some new subscribers and lurkers, so we welcome everyone to join our campaign of covering crazy billionaires in fight sport.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication telling the best stories about what is really going on behind the scenes in boxing, wrestling, and UFC.

Nate & Zach are back with three big topics for discussion. The free portion of this week’s podcast analyzes the current state of affairs in boxing and how TKO is playing an arbitrage game to maximize psychological pain on their enemies. Rule number one about monopolies: they’re just as happy creating new barriers to entry and destroying the competition as they are about growing the size of an audience. Whatever the size of the pie, TKO will find a way to value extract billions of dollars. There are a lot of lessons our friends in boxing can learn from their MMA counterparts.

The paid portion of this week’s podcast takes a closer look at Mark Shapiro’s fingerprints on both UFC & WWE 2026 matchmaking. Yes, we said matchmaking. It was Endeavor-friendly writer Joe Flint in the Wall Street Journal who reported that Mark Shapiro would be in charge of “freshening up” UFC & WWE. His definition of freshening up is a lot different than our definition.

Four shows into the UFC experiment on Paramount Plus, and Zach is getting ready to throw in the towel. TKO’s business model of convincing all of us to pay for 95% filler in order to get 5% viral moment highlights is out of control.

TKO is aware that they have a problem regarding declining interest in UFC & WWE products. However, reports about blackout policies for both Elimination Chamber and Wrestlemania PLE events signal some trouble ahead. Last year’s Wrestlemania event drew a reported $66 million. The pressure is on Spreadsheet Shapiro to constantly make the number go up.

So many long-time UFC fans are starting to tune out, which creates a perfect opportunity for Netflix to capitalize on a nostalgia fight with big star power like Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano. Our podcast this week expands upon Nate’s recent article about the upcoming Netflix mega-fight and why it’s going to draw a completely different audience than today’s current UFC fan base.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Six months ago, Tom Aspinall was a celebrated UFC Heavyweight champion. Today? A massive amount of internet trolls have completely turned the tables on him. Despite Peter Carroll of Uncrowned documenting Tom Aspinall’s recent double eye surgery, there is a growing cottage industry online accusing Aspinall of either faking or exaggerating his medical condition.

With a growing sentiment from terminally online MMA fans that UFC’s Heavyweight division should be put on ice, The MMA Draw podcast this week puts the blame exactly where it belongs for today’s sad state of affairs.

Today’s UFC created the current conditions of heavyweight depravity. Their historical refusal to pay elite heavyweights — think Fedor Emelianenko — combined with swallowing up their rivals who built empires on great heavyweight fights (PRIDE, Strikeforce) is what has led us down this depressing road.

Heavyweight MMA always has a valuable place in this sport. If the powers-that-be didn’t believe in this, The Rock wouldn’t have bothered to spend all his time and energy trying to win an Oscar for his remix of The Smashing Machine (Mark Kerr).

This current sad state of affairs for heavyweight MMA is actually abnormal by all historical metrics. Nate and Zach bring the heat this week by bringing up the past history of great heavyweight fights in Mixed Martial Arts and how it was major heavyweight fights that turned UFC from generating millions of dollars to generating billions of dollars.

If you love MMA history or want to learn more about MMA history, this week’s podcast hits the sweet spot in a big way.

For our paid subscribers, we take a look at the UFC’s 2026 calendar and juxtapose it to TKO’s current performance regarding site fees. With online fans spending so much energy talking about empty seats at the NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles and sluggish ticket sales for Wrestlemania 42 in Las Vegas, the obsession with process over substance among sports executives is finally starting to catch up to them. Throw in recent revisions on true American job losses in 2025 and you can quickly see a changing picture emerging for this 2026 economic climate.

Get ahead of this crazy combat sports news cycle months, if not years, in advance. You will thank us later.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

We’ve had our hands full lately at The MMA Draw and you can thank two full days worth of UFC testimony in Judge Richard Boulware’s Federal court room for that.

What’s at stake? A lot. More than people really truly understand.

Why was Dana White and Hunter Campbell testifying in Judge Boulware’s court room? Because there are years worth of missing text messages, e-mails, social media messages, and vanishing (or locked-out) phones.

Under FRCP Rule 37(e), Judge Boulware has the power to inflict sanctions upon UFC. These sanctions could impact current on-going antitrust litigation in his court. If Judge Boulware can prove that there was intent to deprive then he can inflict significant sanctions, including adverse jury instructions or striking pleadings. Reaching this threshold is extraordinarily rare, even in the Ninth Circuit.

This is why Team UFC has been focused so heavily on trying to create reasonable doubt in Judge Boulware’s courtroom. It’s gross negligence, not intentional destruction. UFC is not denying that data is missing but instead is arguing intent. It’s why Dana White claims he doesn’t know his own phone number and why Hunter Campbell tried to take legal heat off himself despite being raised around Nevada legal royalty. John Nash has a funny Hollywood analogy for Dana White’s testimony.

This week’s MMA Draw podcast gives you an inside look about the various legal issues currently outstanding in UFC antitrust litigation and why Judge Boulware is taking his role so seriously. He truly is the last man standing in TKO’s way.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication making headlines and proving our worth as world-class analysts. Nate & Zach have fight info others can’t or won’t give you.

Does it matter to TKO? At this point, they are extremely confident that they can do pretty much anything they want. Including taking over the world of boxing. Mark Shapiro and Ari Emanuel practically advertised their ambitions during Super Bowl week in San Francisco.

TKO is in a position to take over boxing because the US legacy players are weakened. Top Rank still does not have a media rights deal. Golden Boy is fighting for survival, both with DAZN and top star Vergil Ortiz. PBC has a PPV in late March on Amazon Prime but is facing death by a thousand paper cuts with both Zuffa Boxing and Riyadh Season signing their talent.

Which makes Floyd Mayweather’s recent $340M lawsuit against Showtime and Stephen Espinoza a shining case of symbolism regarding the collapse of the major boxing institutions from the 2010s.

For our paid subscribers, we comb through Floyd Mayweather’s lawsuit which alleges a vast and sprawling civil conspiracy worth hundreds of millions of dollars alleging Al Haymon as the key mastermind and beneficiary. And yet, Mayweather’s lawsuit doesn’t name Al Haymon as a plaintiff. The complaint also claims that Al Haymon suffered a stroke in 2023 and is currently incapacitated.

If you are as bewildered about this lawsuit as we are, you’re not alone. We break down the legal context of this lawsuit and focus on a key name in Floyd’s life who is getting named in multiple lawsuits across multiple jurisdictions: Jona Rechnitz. Jona is a consistent figure in Floyd Mayweather’s business dealings. The same Jona Rechnitz who plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud — in 2016 — and nearly 10 years later has still not been formally sentenced.

The same attorney (Bobby Samini) who filed Mayweather’s $340M lawsuit in Los Angeles also filed a defamation lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against publication Business Insider for their various claims regarding Floyd Mayweather’s financial troubles.

As the old guard collapses in the American boxing scene, TKO is ready to swoop right in and monopolize the industry the same way UFC and WWE have become $20 billion dollar sports properties.

Ari’s recent video chat with Max Kellerman spells out how TKO is going to monopolize the boxing scene.

“It’s always been decentralized except when the mob had control in the ‘50s. Frankie Carbo, right? It’s always been decentralized and no one has been able to control at least the plurality if not the majority of good fighters on a world class level. Right?

And as a result and also, you know, I hate to say, but get labor costs under control. I’m pro-labor. I want fighters to make a lot of money, but as you said, there are a couple of guys getting really rich and everyone else has a day job or not fight, right? I believe that the reason it didn’t happen is because there was never a vision. You have to have the vision for it.”

History doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

If the early indications for both UFC 324 and 325 tell us anything about TKO’s experiment with Paramount, the news looks good.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast breaks down the good, the bad, and the ugly right now for streaming media platforms like Paramount, Peacock, and ESPN Unlimited. The race is on to find out who can survive and finish in third place.

Even with a likely loss against Netflix in acquiring Warner Brothers Discovery assets, Paramount has some options to explore to build out inventory for their subscriber platform. They still have NFL media rights for a few more years. If Paramount is going to win the bronze medal, UFC has to be a key reason for their success.

According to TKO-friendly Sports Business Journal, over 600,000 Paramount+ same-day app downloads (for a total of one million weekend downloads) indicated strong interest in UFC 324. The event drew an estimated five million viewers. (You can read Paramount’s internal memo about UFC subscription numbers here.)

UFC 325 reportedly drew one million searches on Google. Both UFC 324 + 325 drew reported gates of over $10M dollars.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is covering the marriage of UFC, WWE, and boxing with big business in the media streaming wars. Sign up to find out which heavyweights are about to get knocked out.

So far, so good for both TKO and Paramount. As you can see in this e-mail’s embedded video, Paramount management is very supportive of UFC and will be expanding should programming options in the near future. Unlike ESPN, Paramount seems actively committed in promoting UFC events.

Whether Paramount can recover their $7.7B seven-year investment with UFC remains to be seen, but UFC is giving Paramount+ a fighting chance at grabbing a younger male audience.

Nate wrote an article last week arguing that UFC is not currently in a position to grow the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and that today’s trajectory simply doesn’t hold up to past historical performance. Fair enough, but we’re living in a ruthless environment where everyone is trying to grab a life preserver to stay afloat.

Paramount and UFC want to make things work. So far, so comfortable. The same cannot be said about other streaming platforms who have committed massive amounts of money for live sports.

This Hollywood Reporter headline about Peacock tells the story: Peacock Posts $552 Million Loss as Subscribers Rise to 44 Million

Peacock has gone all-in with live sports, buying NBA and MLB packages. The platform wants to dominate Sunday nights in America with sports. The question is whether or not they can come anywhere close to breaking even from their live sports expenditures.

Then there’s the Disney story. You have to separate Disney’s numbers from ESPN’s.

Disney’s roll-out of ESPN Unlimited is turning out to be a rather confusing mess, especially for YouTubeTV subscribers. There were many angry fans who apparently could not watch the Royal Rumble WWE PLE. Former Nick Khan CAA client and current media ally Bill Simmons expressed his exasperation with ESPN Unlimited integration with his cable provider.

This Disney dumpster fire has Bob Iger reportedly heading for the exits early, despite getting paid nearly $46 million in 2025.

Can’t keep up with how fast the media landscape is changing and where combat sports fits into this picture? Subscribe to The MMA Draw and let us do the dirty work for you.

Other topics on this week’s MMA Draw podcast: Why did Turki Alalshikh run a major boxing event at Madison Square Garden on the same day as WWE’s Royal Rumble event in Riyadh? More intriguingly, why did one of the world’s most famous wrestling fans — and front man for bringing Wrestlemania 43 in 2027 to the Kingdom — skip the WWE show?

Longtime online publication Slate published a brutal article about Mark Shapiro’s TKO value extraction tactics on WWE. It’s a head-turning article that is spreading years worth of MMA Draw discussion points.

The Black-letter law definition of TKO is simple: They are an advertising agency that functions as both a political mercenary and government contractor.

These three elements define the mission of Egon Durban at Silver Lake and Mark Shapiro at TKO. Everything is a profit center with these guys. With all of TKO’s major properties now locked into guaranteed media rights deals, the full-blown conversion of UFC & WWE into advertising agencies is accelerating. As Rich Greenfield of Lightshed Partners recently noted, TKO has extra rocket fuel now that blue chip sponsors are signing up to do business with UFC on Paramount.

Thomas Hauser’s article on TKO/Zuffa Boxing in The Guardian is devastating news for US legacy promoters.

UFC contractual tactics with even sharper promoter-friendly clauses should scare away boxers but it isn’t. Zuffa Boxing, which Mr. Hauser reports is a 60/40 SELA-TKO Joint Venture, is signing some very interesting talent for 2026 fight cards.

Bottom line? TKO didn’t really need Congress to launch the Ali Revival Act but they did anyway… because they can. They influence Washington D.C. and you don’t. There’s even a bizarre UFC-related connection to US President Donald J. Trump’s new Board of Peace.

TKO lives in an alternative universe and world from the rest of us.

Learning about TKO and The Epstein Files gives you a glimpse into the rise of the United Arab Emirates and their vast influence in American politics. It’s also the kind of knowledge that provides context to the vastly complicated relationship between the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. This is the wave that Silver Lake and TKO has been riding to generate billions of dollars in revenues.

At The MMA Draw, we interpret the extremely dark world of fight sport politics and deliver our discoveries in an easy-to-understand format with some old-fashioned gallows humor.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Lots of people are throwing around the word “architect” or “visionary” these days in boxing.

For us MMA lifers, we’ve seen this song and dance before. But now it’s time to introduce our fellow boxing friends to this world of TKO politics.

This week’s MMA Draw podcast is specifically for boxing fans who are wondering what just happened to the sport they loved and how TKO’s money ball strategy of arbitrage is about to create all sorts of chaos.

This is absolutely the week to sign up for a paid subscription to The MMA Draw newsletter. Nobody else has the ability to give you a 360-degree analysis on UFC, WWE, or Zuffa Boxing.

There’s only one way to describe the impending TKO Takeover week launch on Paramount Plus: strange.

You’re not alone in thinking that the Zuffa Boxing fight card the night before UFC 324 has as much importance to the future of combat sports.

At the heart of this project is Dana White. Or at least that’s what TKO wants you to think. Is Dana White still a key man for UFC and TKO business?

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast takes a closer look at Dana White’s 2026 TKO campaign. Is he a rodeo clown? How effective is Dana White at distracting those inside the business who still think that this is 2010 Dana White?

Or, as Zach made the case on this week’s podcast, is Dana White TKO’s version of Sean Hannity? Who is Zuffa Boxing being marketed to, and what framing are they using to market their impending attempt to monopolize boxing?

Boxing fans like to lecture others that boxers won’t fall for the U Fight Cheap marketing strategy. We’re about to find out whether or not that is true.

Meanwhile, the bottom is falling out for the rest of the non-TKO legacy competition in both boxing and MMA. Look no further than the recent lawsuit by Vergil Ortiz against his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya/Golden Boy. At the heart of this lawsuit is a key DAZN-reliant clause in the Promotional Agreement:

Many top boxing promoters made the calculation to funnel themselves into the Saudi sphere of influence, and DAZN was a key part of that strategy. Without DAZN, what media rights deals are left on the table in 2026?

It’s like watching rats run into the mousetrap to chase the cheese. Now they’re caught.

This kind of environment creates incredibly chaotic conditions for someone on the outside-looking-in to exploit and take advantage of. Meet boxing’s new money mark shark, Ed Pereira.

Zach will have updates later this week on The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack regarding both the DAZN & Ed Pereira boxing stories. Big money is at stake. Reputations are on the line.

If you’re not a paid subscriber, give the free portion of this week’s podcast a listen. Sign up. You will not regret it. Our track record for accuracy and reporting is as good as it gets. Our critics called us crazy and conspiracy theorists. We often turned out to be both first and correct on record-breaking stories involving billions of dollars in transactions.

As a bonus, on this week’s MMA Draw podcast, Zach reveals a surprise dark horse prediction for who he thinks may take over Dana White’s slot should TKO look to replace him as their frontman.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

That sound of panic you’re starting to hear behind-the-scenes from fight promoters is very real. 2026 is turning out to be a major stress test for the likes of PFL, LFA, Top Rank, Golden Boy, PBC, and many others who are fighting for survival.

It’s all about trying to make it show to show, TV deal to TV deal. The problem is that Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro have gobbled up all the big cash and left nothing but crumbs.

PFL is actively in cost-cutting mode, reportedly trying to raise more money in preparation for a new media rights negotiation with ESPN. Does ESPN even want anything to do with MMA after the UFC left them for Paramount?

Our paid subscribers this week get access to a nearly hour-long discussion breaking down key insider developments in boxing, MMA, and streaming economics. It’s simply not a discussion you will find anywhere else. Our friend the Entertainment Strategy Guy recently published some grizzly news about media revenues, and the data explains why Mark Shapiro so desperately wanted to land UFC on Netflix before Ari scored what looked like (at the time) the Deal of the Century.

The theme of this week’s MMA Draw podcast is all about who will survive and who will die under TKO’s reign in The Paramount Era.

Not everything is rosy for TKO, however.

Even skeptics — and enemies — of The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack admit that we are the place to visit for no-holds-barred analysis about the fights you pay to watch.

Where did all the TV money go?

There’s a reason Nick Khan rushed to get a major WWE deal with ESPN, and Ari Emanuel rushed to grab $7.7B of David Ellison’s cash from Paramount for seven years of UFC.

As we recently discussed, UFC has reportedly made changes to its media rights deals with promoters who are on UFC Fight Pass. One promotion that rejected their new contract was long-time feeder LFA. LFA just signed a new deal with Vice.

The economics of Fight Pass are quickly changing.

So are the economics of Regional Sports Networks, which, a decade ago, were seen as a big cash cow due to carriage fees in cable bundling. Cable subscribers paid for RSNs whether they watched sports or didn’t watch sports.

Streaming has now killed RSNs, and leagues like Major League Baseball and the NBA are scrambling to make up for lost revenue by strengthening their own streaming media packages. ESPN may have to pick up the pieces.

The great irony is that Fanduel RSNs are going belly up because a deal with boxing-flavored DAZN fell through. Yes, that same DAZN that has Matchroom, Queensberry, and Riyadh Season.

Donn Davis raised millions by claiming PFL would ride the UFC’s coattails and getting a massive new media rights deal is falling apart. Donn Davis was shockingly on target when he said UFC would get $8 billion for their next media rights deal.

The problem is that Mr. Davis is an all-time hustler focused entirely on marketing process as substance since he cares little about the actual fights.

Here’s his spiel:

Donn Davis: If you’re a streamer, (it is) very, very core to have MMA. Great news for PFL because there were six bidders for UFC. Five didn’t get it. And so for seven years there’s no MMA on a premium basis other than PFL.

So we were delighted because we have been saying to the market we have a substitute product but we don’t have a substitute brand.

I’ve been building companies long enough to know what we true and what’s not true. Our product quality and our athlete quality is Coke and Pepsi. Our brand is not yet well known.

So we need a media partner to truly get behind us and promote constantly and support and we will close that gap and be a very very big company.

So to me now we have a market where there are five companies maybe even more, but five bidders who didn’t get MMA, who understand it’s mainstream, who understand its value that didn’t before because last time UFC went to market there was one bidder.

There was one bidder for UFC: ESPN. That’s it.

So, you’re seeing MMA go from off Broadway to Broadway, and that’s going to be great for us. And their value is 25 million per event cuz when people hear 1.1 billion, they think of the NBA. Well, NBA has tonnage. So many, many games. That’s 25 million every time you tune in on Saturday night. That’s what UFC gets.PFL gets one million per event, but we’re one third of the viewership.

Unfortunately for Davis, there is zero indication that Disney/ESPN, Netflix, or any other streaming player is eager to pony up serious money for PFL. The man who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in cash finds himself fundraising outside of America, pinning his hopes on a dramatic restructuring of PFL that will provide them with a second media contract, paying off old debt and offering a glimmer of future growth prospects.

Meanwhile, the bean counters and accountants at TKO are playing arbitrage in a rather cynical and dystopian game of moneyball.

The calculation behind Zuffa Boxing

You don’t have to be number one. You just have to watch your enemies lose their access to cash and media rights.

With the announcement that Dana White’s pet boxer Callum Walsh will headline the Zuffa boxing debut against Carlos Ocampo on January 23rd at the APEX in Las Vegas, the TKO game plan for boxing is crystal clear.

TKO is going to watch US legacy promoters wither on the vine until there’s not enough money to put on major fights. Then, boxing lifers will have to make the decision to either retire or jump ship to Zuffa. A take-it-or-leave-it scenario.

That scenario will escalate once Congress gets around to passing the Ali Revival Act, which will allow TKO to create its own UBO and get rid of sanctioning bodies, as Dana White recently declared in an interview with (Mark Shapiro client) Stephen A. Smith.

Can’t wait to see how Dana performs on the stand in a day-long inquisition with UFC antitrust judge Richard Boulware in Federal court.

The contours of TKO’s boxing blueprint look and smell a little bit like Silver Lake’s adventures in minor league baseball with Diamond Baseball Holdings. Silver Lake has significant control of the minor leagues while MLB pays the big bills. TKO wants to control the minor leagues of boxing while SELA & Turki Alalshikh pay the big bills for major boxing fights.

Mark Shapiro’s sales pitch to business partners is that TKO controls every aspect of combat sports: “You can buy the whole league!”

From developmental outfits like NXT and Dana White Contender Series to ad-infested Premium Live Events.

All of this is bad news for anyone outside of the TKO sphere of influence. As Scott Barrett and other TKO investors believe, the moat is simply impenetrable.

But that’s where we chime in with a devil’s advocate case on this week’s MMA Draw podcast. There are cracks starting to surface, not just with the stress-testing of non-TKO promoters but within TKO itself.

The question is whether or not TKO has enough self-awareness to see what cracks are forming and if they are prepared to confront some significant political, financial, and legal challenges on the fly.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

TKO’s money printers are in overdrive for 2026. Revenues for WWE & UFC have never been better. That’s the working thesis for Scott Barrett’s big-time TKO bull case as a generational stock.

This week, we deliver part of the bear case. And we have the courts potentially on our side at The MMA Draw.

The MMA Draw Podcast is the best audio show if you want a perspective on high-finance, litigation, and power politics in combat sports.

There are three current, ongoing active court cases involving Endeavor & TKO. The prospects for TKO as a potential star witness in an(other) explosive media lawsuit are brewing.

Case #1: Shareholders suing over Endeavor’s acquisition of WWE, eventually leading to the merger spin-off with UFC for TKO.

This case was filed in Delaware Chancery Court, which is not proving to be automatically favorable territory for Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro.

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Post Wrestling revealed some remarkable text messages obtained through discovery in ongoing litigation.

The judge in this case has ordered Endeavor to produce DOJ-related evidence from the government’s investigation into Vince McMahon.

Shareholders in Delaware must prove that Endeavor engaged in some closed-door scheme to acquire WWE that cost then-WWE shareholders more potential money from another prospective bidder.

The biggest news development in this litigation? What has been unearthed in discovery so far. It’s very surprising that Endeavor/TKO did not settle this court case quickly to prevent public disclosure of embarrassing communications.

Case #2: Activist investor Carl Icahn suing over Endeavor’s take-private transaction, claiming EDR shareholders got screwed at $27.50/share.

This case was also filed in Delaware Chancery Court. It’s the biggest financial risk for Endeavor, given Mr. Icahn’s access to cash to pursue a full-throated litigation battle. That’s a big problem.

TKO has a lot of assets that EDR owned. However, the market didn’t buy into EDR’s story. They have bought into TKO’s marketing story hook, line, and sinker.

Even if a massive settlement check is written to Mr. Icahn, discovery is quickly proceeding in the case. Icahn (and others) want to see Endeavor’s financial books and learn more about TKO’s business. So far, the Delaware judge has wasted no time in ordering Team Endeavor to cough up the dirt.

Case #3: UFC antitrust litigation. Three cases. The main case, involving Kajan Johnson, is seeking injunctive relief on UFC fighter contracts.

This litigation is based in US Federal Court in Las Vegas.

When UFC settled its first antitrust lawsuit for $375M with Cung Le and Company, everyone thought fighter litigation was finished.

Wall Street has handsomely rewarded TKO since the settlement. A huge explosion in price, from $80 to over $200 a share.

With the news of Judge Richard Boulware forcing Dana White to testify next month over UFC evidence issues, litigation risk just dramatically increased.

Under Nevada law, plaintiffs must demonstrate both procedural and substantive legal issues to nullify arbitration & class-action waivers as both unconscionable + unenforceable.

With the focus on TKO supposedly unable to — for various reasons — produce discovery relating to contract formation and business practices, Judge Boulware is putting a spotlight on key pressure points.

In each of these lawsuits, plaintiffs face the burden of demonstrating evidence of intentional schemes plus damages caused by these alleged schemes.

You better believe that attorneys in each of these lawsuits are watching discovery & depositions produced in other litigation. It’s all about establishing a pattern of behavior and learning how secrets from one case might impact other litigation.

As if these three court cases weren’t troublesome enough for TKO, there is growing potential for a fourth lawsuit that could cause severe heartburn for Ari Emanuel.

Zach Arnold has been publicly warning about Paramount paying $7.7B for seven years of UFC media rights and how it could boomerang back on TKO. The recent developments in the Paramount & WBD asset fight highlight UFC’s growing role vis-à-vis Ari Emanuel’s relationship with David Ellison.

That’s the focus of this week’s must-listen MMA Draw podcast. Even bulls know that The MMA Draw is the place to visit to find out the latest TKO happenings months, if not years, ahead of the curve.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

That’s the working theory of the case from our special MMA Draw podcast guest this week, Scott Barrett.

Last week, Scott published his TKO Long Bull Thesis article detailing why he thinks the current price of TKO stock — around $215 — is cheap.

The same stock that was around $80 before the first proposed UFC antitrust settlement was negotiated is now $215… and still cheap? How?

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast — free for everyone to listen to — is a sales pitch as to why Big Money has gone all-in on TKO.

The current market cap for TKO is $42 billion.

Happy Holidays from Nate & Zach at The MMA Draw. Your subscription helps us bring the spotlight to the kind of stories you won’t see anywhere else.

Scott Barrett joined MMA Draw Editor-in-Chief Nate Wilcox to talk about why he thinks TKO (WWE, UFC, and Zuffa Boxing) is positioned as a cheap growth stock that is in the early, not late stages of monopolization.

One of the key debates about assessing TKO’s long-term future is its legal and political risk exposure.

(This podcast was recorded before the big breaking news that US Federal Judge Richard Boulware is ordering Dana White to testify in his courtroom regarding potential evidence spoliation allegations.)

Scott believes that TKO falls into the classic category of other major American monopolies that end up paying a small percentage of revenue out in fines or settlements in order to generate tens of billions of dollars.

What we see as customers getting screwed over is what excites Big Money so much about the job that Mark Shapiro and Nick Khan are doing with TKO. So far, the numbers for advanced ticket sales look good for UFC 324 with Paddy Pimblett as the headliner. Plus, tens of thousands of tickets have already been reportedly sold for Wrestlemania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

In an era that Politico describes as Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ has arrived for the top 10 percent, it’s hard to argue with Mark Shapiro’s value extraction if people are unquestionably buying into their “experience economy.” Especially if YouTube influencers are supposedly paying $15,000 for OnLocation VIP packages.

TKO is banking on a pay-at-all-costs customer psychology — and so far, it’s working.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Scott Barrett is a leading fantasy football expert and NFL analyst (115K+ followers on X at @ScottBarrettDFB), who is now expanding his analytical coverage into the UFC.

If you believe TKO stock can reach $260 a share, then you also believe that Ari Emanuel’s multi-monopoly has a real shot of reaching a $50 billion market cap.

Think it’s an outrageous prediction? Read this recent raging bull market analysis on why TKO is positioned to be one of the conservative S & P 500 plays.

Are there potentially some costly roadblocks? Absolutely. Such as Carl Icahn’s class action lawsuit over the Endeavor take-private transaction, which had been valued at $27.50/share. Mr. Icahn wants to look at the books. A protracted fight in Delaware Chancery Court could be very costly, both financially and in business secrets revealed during discovery. Then there are the ongoing antitrust lawsuits in the Las Vegas Federal court.

The short-and-mid-term question for TKO is how many billions of dollars can they generate before they have to pay any future litigation settlements or judgments.

TKO recently signed sponsorship agreements with DoorDash, Polymarket, and Ram Trucks. Mark Shapiro is aggressively expanding corporate sponsorship. Combined with a brand new $7.7B Paramount media rights deal, it is very clear who the industry leader is in combat sports.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast takes a closer look at where TKO is positioned in the marketplace heading into 2026 and the amazing job they have done establishing relationships. Anyone can learn on the job, but it’s who you know that matters more than what you know. Once you’re in The Big Club, the backscratching and influence peddling exponentially increase.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is the place to be to find the most reliable news, opinion, and analysis of politics, finance, and matchmaking in fight sport.

The future of UFC Fight Pass

Last week, Dylan Knostman had reported that five fight promotions — including LFA and Unified MMA in Canada — would be exiting the UFC Fight Pass service.

We received confirmation on those two specific promotions, but the other promotions named in Dylan’s report denied leaving Fight Pass.

Ariel Helwani is reporting that LFA is about to sign a new media rights deal.

On this week’s MMA Draw podcast, Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold dissect fact from fiction on the future of UFC Fight Pass. It is a major story for 2026, especially if Fight Pass is licensed or sold to a major media entity like ESPN or Paramount.

The future of Zuffa Boxing and USA Boxing

Reporter Sean Zittel sent shockwaves last Friday night when he reported that both Nick Khan and Dana White would be making a last-minute trip to Lubbock, Texas, for the USA Boxing Nationals.

Unlike the Ali Revival Act Congressional hearing, the news of Zuffa heading to Lubbock created a disturbance in the boxing world. A picture is worth a thousand words.

We have some details about the fallout from Saturday’s meeting and how Zuffa Boxing could be positioning itself for a long-term relationship with USA Boxing. There are a lot of different plays for TKO to make, and we expect them to quickly capitalize on building a pipeline with young fighters, coaches, and gyms.

We also address the big elephant in the room: why is it that people in MMA are the loudest critics of TKO’s entry in boxing, and “boxing people” are completely skeptical or oblivious to what the corporate landscape is going to look like in five years?

Exhibit A, Paulie Malignaggi:

Exhibit B, Oscar De La Hoya:

The future of Polymarket & DraftKings in UFC + Zuffa Boxing

Fans aren’t watching 43 UFC events in a calendar year without likely betting on some fights. Which is why the Isaac Dulgarian scandal generated a ruckus.

UFC’s most recent gambling controversy didn’t stop Ari Emanuel from directly negotiating a deal with Polymarket for a big sponsorship agreement.

DraftKings signed a sponsorship deal with UFC in 2021, and their timing couldn’t have been any better. The question is whether or not DK is willing to pay a significant increase to stay as the official betting partner of TKO.

How much gambling, I mean prediction-based analysis, is too much? We’re about to find out.

On this week’s MMA Draw podcast, Nate & Zach take a closer look at who the key financial backers are for Polymarket and Kalshi and why TKO is able to score huge sponsorship deals when no other fight promoter can even sniff the kind of cash these guys can.

Our answer explains how relationships are key to the concentration of wealth, power, and networking. Each relationship, business deal, and individual monopoly acts as a force multiplier. No one else can do what TKO does in terms of global reach and scalability. The big question is why so many people in the fight industry lack understanding about the enemy they are currently facing. TKO is playing an entirely different game.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Want to know why everyone in the customer class is so psychologically overwhelmed this Christmas season?

We can’t blame you. Maybe you can’t put your finger on it but you know whatever is going right now is NOT NORMAL.

Let us do the dirty work on this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast and fill you in on what’s really happening in this brave new world of fight economics.

MMA Draw subscribers were months, if not years, ahead of the curve on why the not-so-crazy billionaires in fight sport were beta testing much bigger deals to come. Some of those same players now want to take over everything in your life. Your favorite media platform. Your favorite comic books and video games. Your favorite fighters.

There is one major common factor: Sovereign Wealth Funds.

The world has moved away from a financialized economic system to a politically-controlled economic system utilizing financialization. There is a difference.

Your favorite financial or fight YouTube channel isn’t going to dish out the dirt on fight politics like we do at The MMA Draw. Paid subscribers learn the real deal.

You used to have to go to capital markets to raise cash. Stocks. IPOs. Rounds of fundraising. You had to impress many important people to get cash for projects, especially if they weren’t turnkey.

Today? Ari Emanuel only needs to win over a couple of individuals running sovereign wealth funds to make multi-billion-dollar deals a reality. Like his friendly associate Nicolai Tangen, who manages the massive Norwegian sovereign wealth fund flush with oil cash.

Ari Emanuel can make these blockbuster deals happen within 48 hours, just as we saw with the $7.7B dollar seven-year UFC media rights deal with David Ellison of Paramount.

Sovereign Wealth Funds have changed the game. Taxpayers have far less control over the capital they contribute voluntarily & involuntarily to governments. Politicians are on a giant spending spree, rapidly accelerating big business offerings in the billions of dollars overnight.

This is why the fight over Warner Bros. Discovery with Netflix vs. Paramount is so jaw-dropping. We are living in a new world where countries, overnight, can spend billions upon billions of dollars to completely change your life, whether you like it or not.

Who would have ever thought a couple of years ago that someone like Nick Khan, with relative ease and zero resistance, would be able to create the legislative conditions to sideswipe the Ali Act?

This week’s MMA Draw podcast has an in-depth look at the game plan TKO is running to create their own waiver to the current Ali Act, and how the financing of Zuffa Boxing is all about leveraging fighters into the Riyadh Season silo for much bigger fight financing. Plus, we offer up some hypotheticals on how TKO may end up utilizing UBOs as franchises to lock in key fighters into their brand ecosystem. The size and scope of this undertaking are incredible.

If you really, truly want an education on global finance, pay attention to what’s happening in the fight business. The same billionaire behemoths making breathtaking business deals in sports and entertainment used combat sports as their playground to test out various experiments.

This is why becoming a paid subscriber to The MMA Draw is so important as a fight fan this Christmas season. Your life is about to change in a big way. Let us do the analysis for you on how and why. You owe it to yourself to be the smartest person in the room this Holiday season.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

This comment from Will Harris on Twitter elicited a strong response regarding current disappointment from online UFC fans about the current state of affairs. You can read our response here.

The bottom line is that Hollywood has fully taken over both the substance and process of combat sports. However, their dominant emphasis is on process — the same thing that severely crippled the enjoyment and emotional connection so many people had with Hollywood movies for generations.

This week’s free episode of The MMA Draw podcast features a deep dive into three important UFC personalities: Dana White, Mark Shapiro, and Ali Abdelaziz.

The best Christmas gift you can give yourself is a subscription to The MMA Draw newsletter & podcast on Substack. Learn how the business truly works and what it means for you.

As we recently highlighted, Mark Shapiro is the man responsible for driving a “Full Disney” operation on both UFC & WWE products.

Mark Shapiro, Ari Emanuel, Seth Krauss, and other TKO executives are not typical “fight people” like Dana White. They are monetizers who exploit weaknesses in systems.

If you ever studied law at university, on day one a good professor teaches their students the different between substance and process silos.

Substance in the fight business is about the quality of actual fights. Officiating. Announcing. Presentation. Things that matter to 99% of everyone.

Process in the fight business is about the mechanics. Monopolies. Media control. Sponsorships. Capital raises and investments. How something is produced. Who is producing it. Lobbyists. Politics. Law. Finance.

A key component to Hollywood’s decline has been a generation of obsession over process rather than substance. Imagine going to a magic show and listening to a magician spend 90 minutes obsessing over the process of producing a show rather than actually showing you the magic tricks. The genius of Penn & Teller’s Fool Us show is their careful awareness not to ruin the fun. Regrettably, ruining the fun is Mark Shapiro’s calling card in fight sports.

This week’s MMA Draw show podcast describes, with great clarity, the long-term damage being done and why things just don’t feel right. Why is Dana White shrinking before our very eyes in terms of engagement? Why is Ali Abdelaziz everywhere on camera and controlling UFC matchmaking? Why is Mark Shapiro on every Wall Street conference telling the public exactly how he’s going to screw over customers?

Because in the world of Hollywood, it’s not about whether a movie is great or bad. It’s all about whether it’s just good enough to extract enough cash to cycle through round after round of marks.

Hollywood obsesses over agents, billionaires, fundraisers, TV executive cocktail parties, and flaunting “my art” to the public. It’s not about the product. It’s about an obsession with navel gazing over their human greatness.

This Hollywood vision is now fully ingrained in the DNA of UFC. It’s about Ali Abdelaziz, Jason House, and Graham Boylan. The agents. What used to be Barry Bloom’s role with WWE a generation ago is now the role of Nick LoPiccolo at Paradigm, who just so happens to be Mike Tyson’s representative. Mr. Tyson just penned a letter to Congress endorsing the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Reform Act. Small world.

The video embedded in this article is from POST Wrestling (April 2023). Two and a half years later, it’s a scary reminder that Mark Shapiro warned you what was forthcoming with both UFC & WWE products. The WSJ gave the game away when they reported that Mr. Shapiro would be in charge of keeping both properties “fresh.”

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast dissects The Mark Shapiro Blueprint and what it means for you as a fight fan.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

When Nate Wilcox published his analysis last week at The MMA Draw on why Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua was a done deal, he nailed the angle on the story.

What Turki Alalshikh wants, Turki gets.

Turki has been telegraphing his desire to see “Jack Paul” get crushed by Anthony Joshua — for months. Now the fight is happening on Netflix. Turki wants to kill “celebrity boxing” and take control of his vision of what this real sport should look like in 2026.

The method of delivery was the real story behind this major fight announcement. Turki Alalshikh’s gamble on making Ring Magazine the media machine and house organ of boxing for global information dissemination paid off. Mike Coppinger and Rick Reeno are large and in charge of Turki’s combat sports campaign.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast takes a closer look at how Turki Alalshikh maneuvered the pieces on the proverbial chess board to get exactly the result he wanted to see. If you are in fight sport or want to learn more about how power is really flexed in this business, you’ve come to the right place.

But Turki wasn’t the only kingmaker flexing his raw political and business leverage this past weekend.

For our paid subscribers, our newest podcast discusses the increasingly high-profile nature of Ali Abdelaziz’s demonstration of raw power in the face of an ever-shrinking UFC brand ambassador Dana White.

Whether it’s influencing top UFC matchmaking, recruiting new talent, or simply dominating the turf battle at Madison Square Garden, UFC management continues to stand down to Ali Abdelaziz. They are not publicly challenging Ali’s authority or questioning his public claims of just how much political power he truly possesses. UFC management is not rebuking Ali for his recent Twitter comments about the MSG floor brawl attack on Dillon Danis.

Why is UFC management playing along? Does it have anything to do with the current ongoing antitrust litigation battle in Judge Richard Boulware’s courtroom regarding the plaintiffs wanting to obtain information on UFC’s ongoing business practices via discovery battles?

We close out this week’s podcast focusing on TKO’s very cold calculation about the US economy in 2026 and how they are positioning their UFC & WWE properties. Call it The Poors for Paramount marketing strategy.

“That is why the UFC has strategically made itself a product for the rich and connected and private equity because they’re hoping that this [business] model they’ve got of The Poor’s watching on Paramount but the rich watching live is going to help them ride any sort of recessionary or [depression] wave, whether it’s inflation or deflation. That’s the calculation. That’s the social gap, the wealth gap widening. And that’s the direction that we are looking at in 2026. Let’s see if the gamble pays off.”

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Unbelievably, UFC’s non-stop marketing campaign of poverty promotion & “keep them hungry!” fighter pay practices has exacerbated the public relations problem with their latest gambling scandal.

We all know from recent NBA & MLB arrests that athletes making millions of dollars are being accused of fixing or rigging games for prop bets. Yet, it’s easier for the general public to rationalize an APEX-level UFC fighter, perhaps throwing a fight because of their financial circumstances.

Which means Dana White, the guy The Hollywood Reporter recently highlighted as the most untouchable whale in Las Vegas, is probably not the best person to handle public relations for a UFC gambling scandal.

Mark Shapiro, Ari Emanuel’s top lieutenant, suddenly hates seeing gambling talk on ESPN despite hyping up the value of gambling being connected to everything UFC-related during a CNBC interview last year.

The MMA Draw is one of the last bastions of honest coverage of TKO’s multi-monopoly.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast looks at how UFC is currently positioned vis-à-vis sports gambling and how sloppy of a shop they are. The UFC front office can run, but they can’t hide from not having a coherent policy for fight integrity after the James Krause scandal three years removed.

There are lots of excuses being floated by UFC’s most aggressive defenders online, but UFC’s own affirmative defenses in interviews this past week paint a really ugly picture. Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold break down everything you need to know and how gambling fits into UFC’s upcoming campaign with Paramount.

For our paid subscribers, we have an extensive breakdown about ESPN’s no-good, very bad week between the ESPN Bet debacle and the ongoing fight with YouTube TV that the Mouse is struggling with on both a business and public relations front.

With WWE ratings declining for SmackDown and plateauing for RAW on Netflix, TKO needs to score big with Paramount by bringing in millions of subscribers. Can they pull this off? Plus, how much of UFC’s current media rights valuation is tied directly to gambling? What if the bottom falls out of how much the public is gambling on fights because of a shaky economic situation? These are some very ugly questions right now that should be asked before it gets too late.

When it comes to journalism, opinion, and analysis on combat sports, The MMA Draw is the place to be. You get what you pay for. Your money goes directly to help support our research and content generation. Our coverage last week of the Isaac Dulgarian UFC situation is a perfect example of what we can do with the right amount of resources.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Paramount just paid UFC $7.7B for seven years worth of US media rights and now Matt Belloni at Puck is reporting that Paramount is proclaiming austerity when it comes to paying famous Hollywood producer Taylor Sheridan.

No pressure to deliver in 2026, Mark Shapiro!

This week’s MMA Draw podcast is all about covering the major internal conflicts at TKO. It’s not just about what is happening inside the walls of their front office or on Wall Street. The real fight is between what is happening outside of the cage and how it is impacting the morale of the fighters inside the Octagon.

Ilia Topuria has spent his post UFC 317 momentum pushing for a boxing match with Terence Crawford. Team Tom Aspinall spent their UFC 321 fight week in Abu Dhabi pushing for a boxing pay day after his next three UFC fights are done. Let’s just say this didn’t go over with brand new Zuffa Boxing promoter Dana White.

Dana White didn’t exactly express much sympathy in his UFC 321 post-fight press conference after Cyril Gane gouged Tom Aspinall in the eyes.

The message from UFC fighters is clear since the announcement of the new Paramount $7.7B media rights deal: we want our money. And if they aren’t getting paid, they want big boxing pay days from Turki Alalshikh. Little do the fighters or their associates understand the dramatic compression in boxing salaries that is likely going to take place over the next decade with Nick Khan and Dana White in charge of Zuffa Boxing.

No one can ever accuse The MMA Draw newsletter of pushing UFC’s talking points. Paid subscribers support our winning reporting. No fake and phony media agendas here.

The UFC Heavyweight scene is a mess. Boxing’s heavyweight scene is largely controlled by Frank Warren. Most UFC “divisions” are sorely lacking in quality depth and star power despite the organization having hundreds of fighters under contract.

This push-and-pull tension is front and center as part of a much larger dynamic heading into UFC’s 2026 Paramount campaign.

Our free portion of this week’s podcast dives deeper into TKO talent relations and why there isn’t that loving feeling any more. The dilution in quality matchmaking and fight cards ten years into Endeavor’s reign of UFC ownership absolutely can directly tied to the U Fight Cheap fighter pay policies that has generated tens of billions of dollars in revenue for TKO.

Our paid portion of this week’s podcast takes a closer look at current UFC & WWE ratings. What can we realistically expect for subscription numbers with UFC on Paramount and WWE on ESPN Unlimited? The next six months will be a huge test for Nick Khan in regards to how many new organic subscribers ESPN can attract for WWE events like Survivor Series, Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, and Wrestlemania 42 in Las Vegas. It’s not just recruiting subscribers but keeping them.

Customers like us are no longer the primary audience. The masters TKO has to serve are anxious executives at Netflix, Disney, and NBC Universal.

This is the volatile landscape that so many old-school boxing promoters are facing and have no idea how to navigate. Nick Khan is no longer there to negotiate media rights on behalf of Top Rank. Recent comments made by Oscar De La Hoya and Frank Warren to Ariel Helwani demonstrate the complete lack of understanding of the TKO multi-monopoly machine and what the Wall Street version of fight business financialization looks this. This is ugly. 2026 is going to make fresh roadkill out of some big players in the fight scene. Who will be able to adapt and survive in this new climate?

Plus, our bonus take on the long-term impact of hard-wiring prop bets and parlays into the DNA of watching UFC fights. What is the true value of UFC media rights without degenerate gambling? UFC has already dealt with one major gambling scandal involving James Krause. What happens in the future if bigger names from UFC get caught up in an NBA-style gambling scandal (or two) like Chauncey Billups?

As recently reported by Newsweek and The Los Angeles Times, court documents from the FBI allege that boxer Adrien Broner was supposedly involved in dice games with NBA players worth over $6 million dollars.

I guess it’s a good thing MMA fighters don’t get paid “boxing money”?

Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro may have enhanced control of media narratives thanks to their deep and extensive network at WME Group (e.g. clients like Stephen A. Smith) but public interest in sports gambling scandals is heating up because there is a growing number of angry sports betters who feel that the reason they are losing so much money is due to rigged or manipulated outcomes.

Who knew that a 60-minute MMA Draw fight podcast could get this intense?

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Sorry, Nate.

Zach made Nate go watch A24’s remix of the original Smashing Machine documentary. It ended up producing one salty movie review on this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast.

If you aren’t a paid subscriber, go sign up and get access to Zach’s recent review of Smashing Machine, which does a great job of reliving MMA history through his eyes during the start of the Japanese boom period.

Paid subscribers to The MMA Draw newsletter get a peek behind the curtain as to who is really calling the shots in fight sports. No kayfabe allowed.

At the time of publication, Box Office Mojo lists worldwide numbers for Smashing Machine at $18.5M. That is ugly. Variety has the gruesome details.

Why did this movie fail so spectacularly? We asked a series of key questions on this week’s MMA Draw podcast and tied those questions into a much larger topic. Why is combat sports history such a hard thing to sell in theaters?

Smashing Machine is a perfect example of a walking contradiction. The Rock deemed it to be a tribute to Mark Kerr while Benny Safdie was pushing a “life’s losers” angle. The Rock is one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time, and yet wants (or wanted) to vicariously be a major Japanese legend.

Given WWE’s recent two-day event in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan, American wrestlers remain obsessed over Japanese fight culture, and rightfully so. But why? What’s the gravitational pull that attracts so much love for Japan inside the American business?

For our paid subscribers, we have some hard-hitting observations about WWE’s Netflix era vis-a-vis WWE’s non-Netflix programming being measured by Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel metrics system. This is a huge story for everyone in combat sports. The impact these new metrics could have on how much money is spent on advertising campaigns is big. On the surface, this MediaPost article painted a rosier picture for WWE. Is it the truth? And why should this story matter to fans? We make dollars and sense out of it and explain the impact it can — and will — have on your fandom.

We also have some big updates on the aftermath of the California State Athletic Commission endorsing the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act.

Zach broke down the scheme behind the scenes and how TKO positioned their various political assets to get the result they wanted.

The question the general public is asking: if the Ali Revival Act is so bad for boxing, why won’t current boxers or promoters step up and actively protest this bill?

We received many questions from our readers and industry insiders regarding what’s next for the future of Zuffa Boxing and the boxing scene in general. Nate & Zach have some important advice on how to read these tea leaves. Who is really calling the shots and, most importantly, what are their motives? Don’t fall for the silly dog-and-pony show with Eddie Hearn vs. Dana White. Think bigger.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

Larry & David Ellison made a $7.7B gamble with Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro to grab seven years’ worth of UFC media rights for Paramount’s new 2026 sports launch. Zuffa Boxing was also added, perhaps as a sweetener?

The question we have is, where is all of this money going once it hits TKO? Because it has to be going somewhere. Not the fighters. Certainly not the fans. This past week, we found out some answers that raise new and serious questions about what the world’s richest people want to do in combat sports.

A paid subscription to The MMA Draw gives you access to uncensored breaking news and analysis no one else is offering in fight sport. Read what the billionaires care about.

Leave it to Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro to marry their names Hollywood-style into a rich & famous sports holding company called MARI. Ari thinks AI will create shorter workweeks for those with wealth, meaning a bigger itch to scratch and spend cash on live sports. We’ll have some juicy details about this latest venture in a future MMA Draw article.

This week’s totally awesome and free edition of The MMA Draw podcast takes a look at UFC’s remaining two months with ESPN and what changes are in store for you in the new Paramount era.

UFC’s campaign with ESPN is ending on a marketing whimper. What will the Paramount Era look like for UFC? Radical change or more of the same?

There’s going to be a significant January event at Steve Ballmer’s Intuit Dome. We have the June 14, 2026, UFC White House event for President Donald Trump’s birthday.

This intense speed of burning through billions of dollars eventually has to produce some big winners and some big losers. Through Wall Street. Through private equity. Through sovereign wealth funds. Through taxpayer cash via committees like America250.

Something has to break. Is this new Nielsen Big Data + Panel ratings system the major black swan event for TKO’s advertising revenue?

Hollywood has been burnt to a crisp. Las Vegas has been value extracted. What will the final fate be for combat sports?

The powers-that-be continue to soak you for cash. The least you can do is grab a good laugh at their (occasional) expense.

A paid subscription to The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack gives you access to information that law firms, financial institutions, matchmakers, promoters, and fight managers read every week.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

You watch UFC & WWE for the fights. The powers-that-be are watching you and calculating how much data they can extract from your viewing habits. Your age, politics, what you buy, and how to manipulate your world view.

This is not the kind of podcast we expected to be doing this week for The MMA Draw but you really need to hear what we have to say.

This week’s podcast will change your outlook on what UFC & WWE means to world leaders in 2025. The days of being a good old fashioned fight fan are over.

Now we are a crazy road of world governments as fight co-promoters, building massive psychological profiles of customers in the name of control. But what exactly is the point of this lust to feed the AI beasts? Why would anyone think that data mining UFC customers is a useful exercise in building a digital ID platform?

Why would Larry & David Ellison of Oracle spend billions on Paramount? Why $7.7B to buy UFC media rights plus more for the Zuffa Boxing media rights? For the same reason, global powers raced to buy TikTok and take Electronic Arts private. It’s all about capturing the hearts and minds of males aged 18 to 34 and value extracting this demographic hard.

How did UFC end up from a cage-fighting circus to a globally desired political mercenary?

Study all the major players involved in current multi-billion-dollar business deals. There is connective tissue among the powers-that-be.

We highly recommend reading two significant articles profiling the rise of the United Arab Emirates vis-à-vis American business and politics. First, this 2021 New Yorker profile on Ari Emanuel and how a powerful UFC-linked attorney (Marty Edelman) changed Endeavor’s fortunes. Second, this September 2025 New York Times article highlighting Marty Edelman’s relationship with President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. It really is a small world.

(Karim Zidan published a December 2023 podcast covering the UAE’s history with UFC. Marty Edelman is general counsel for G42, the UAE’s top AI shop.)

This week’s MMA Draw podcast will have you asking a million different questions that you never previously considered.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

If you look beneath the surface, it turns out that the Netflix ratings for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford prize fight promoted by TKO & Turki Alalshikh were not as large as first advertised.

It’s always the initial headlines that grab all the attention, not the fine print.

What we know about Netflix ratings for this past weekend’s Turki TKO Boxing foray:

* The main card broadcast drew 17.7 million global viewers.

* The main event with Canelo & Crawford drew 36.6 million global viewers live, with an additional 5+ million viewers watching after the fact.

* There were, at its peak, 24 million concurrent streams.

* Approximately half of the viewers for Canelo-Crawford were American.

What we don’t know about these metrics is how many new subscribers this fight created for Netflix, especially international subscribers.

TKO & SELA claimed a $47M gate with 70,000+ in attendance at Allegiant Stadium.

It is safe to categorize these developments as good for TKO & Turki Alalshikh.

These numbers serve as the backdrop for this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast. Who was the biggest winner? Who was the biggest loser? And where does Netflix fit into the larger picture for Ari Emanuel’s grand scheme to mainstream Turki Alalshikh and make him acceptable enough to the general public?

Between Turki Alalshikh buying the rights to Wrestlemania 43 in 2027, his Canelo-Crawford fight in Las Vegas, and now flag football rights featuring Tom Brady’s involvement with Kevin Hart hosting the proceedings on Fox, the last two weeks have featured an artistically crafted public relations campaign by Ari Emanuel to boost the profile of one of his most active money marks.

Subscribe to The MMA Draw newsletter and find out what fight secrets your favorite Youtubers aren’t telling you about.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Zach Arnold is the lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. You can e-mail him at fightopinion - at - protonmail dot com.

Nate Wilcox founded Bloody Elbow in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

TKO is not a fight promoter. It is a financial and political system.

Sounds heavy, right? Because it is. And this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast breaks down some key information that is shocking in its size and scope, but something you really should know about.

We expanded the length of our show, both on the free and paid portions, because we think this is important information that you should know about.

Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro expect their fighters and fans to be loyal to them, while they have zero loyalty to you.

What their recent behavior also reveals is that it’s not enough for politicians to buy TKO government contracts for shows. All sales are not final. Just ask New Orleans with Wrestlemania, and now ask Boston when it comes to satisfying TKO’s demands to host John Cena’s WWE retirement match.

It’s just business… except when it’s not.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. We deliver the truth others won’t.

As you’re reading this, the UFC political system is engaging with the California State Athletic Commission to formally endorse The Muhammad Ali Boxing Revival Act (or what is colloquially known as The Ari Act.)

We are witnessing a full-scale political invasion of fight sports, and Ari Emanuel is orchestrating all of it. The fruits of this invasion can be seen this weekend in Las Vegas with the Netflix presentation of Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford.

There’s a lot happening behind the scenes on Wall Street that you may not be privy to. This is where we come in at The MMA Draw podcast to connect the dots and put the puzzle pieces together.

We’ve had an awesome 2025 reporting campaign, and our subscribers were long ahead of the curve as to what WWE & UFC were up to on media rights deals and major political alliances throughout the world.

All of this impacts you, whether you like it or not. And whether the powers-that-be like it or not, we are here to be your voice at a time when some really good people are exiting this space.

Why are you paying so much money to go to a WWE or UFC show? Where is that money going? How is TKO getting away with doubling its stock dividend? How did management become more important than the fighters? When did you become a servant to political leaders?

To understand this brave new world, you have to understand who and what Ari Emanuel represents. Ari is taking your cash from WWE & UFC ventures in order to put it into expanding his personal ventures in Saudi Arabia for activities like comedy, tennis, and media rights deals.

You thought you could escape politics by watching cage fighting or wrestling. You were dead wrong. Now you need a friend on your side. That’s why we exist.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Zach Arnold is the lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. You can e-mail him at fightopinion - at - protonmail dot com.

Nate Wilcox founded Bloody Elbow in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

This week’s MMA Draw podcast is one of our best shows to date. We promise.

UFC got their multi-billion dollar monopoly on MMA. Dana White got his tombstone of dead promotions.

WWE has their (growing) monopoly on professional wrestling. There’s lots of promotions but only one is sucking up cash like a vacuum cleaner.

Zuffa Boxing, through sheer process power derived from TKO’s multi-monopoly, is ready to grind boxing into a paste through regulatory capture and a war of promotional attrition.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast has an in-depth look on the impact for fans and fighters regarding how major mergers & acquisitions will shape the fight business in 2026. In this game of musical chairs, someone’s going to be a big loser.

Target number one for the fight monopolists is Tony Khan. Regrettably for him, TKO has some support from some of the most richest power brokers in the sports world — Tony’s own fellow NFL club owners.

16 months after wearing a neck brace for the 2024 NFL Draft and going on NFL Network to call WWE the “Harvey Weinstein of professional wrestling”, the NFL Network and its assets are headed to ESPN. The NFL will get a 10% equity stake in ESPN.

Coincidentally, ESPN just signed a major media rights deal for WWE programming. The other 31 NFL clubs are actively promoting WWE merchandise and WWE wrestlers, not AEW assets.

With the NFL having equity stakes in both ESPN and Paramount, it also means that Ari Emanuel’s TKO is doing business directly and indirectly with the NFL. It’s a Big Club and you’re not in it.

What UFC did to MMA is what WWE is finalizing with professional wrestling but with a twist. UFC is the only game in town. WWE’s market strategy under TKO is to promote as many different flavored brands as possible (via Joint Ventures) to grab as many media rights deals as possible.

And now the specter of Paramount playing Let’s Make a Deal with Warner Brothers Discovery is looming. Which would be absolutely terrible news for Tony Khan’s All Elite Wrestling.

A combination of the python strategy to choke out any potential entry into the space while also depriving current entrants of oxygen. If you can’t grab headlines and have to spend more money to accomplish less results, you are toast. Even if you’re a billionaire.

History tells us that the only way monstrous monopolies like this collapse is from within. Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro are getting very frisky right now.

This week’s podcast is our Back to School special. Get a real education about what the powers-that-be want to do in the fight business and do so for a limited time at a discounted yearly subscription rate of $50 USD.

Our track record in 2025 has been amazing for accurately reading and reacting to the political and business climate in fight sports. The MMA Draw reported in June that ESPN wanted WWE rights. Disney got those rights in a shocking fashion. We’ve been ahead of the curve on all the gossip about PBC and UFC negotiations.

Most importantly, we’ve dominated the Paramount-UFC beat for the entire calendar year by focusing on the high-stakes political lobbying with The White House and how Ari Emanuel flexed his muscle as one of America’s most powerful fixers.

If you aren’t a paid subscriber yet, now is your chance to give us a try and find out why all the major heavyweights in combat sports read The MMA Draw. Join our family today.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Zach Arnold is the lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. You can e-mail him at fightopinion - at - protonmail dot com.

Nate Wilcox founded Bloody Elbow in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Now we know the terms and conditions for Paramount’s penance to Ari Emanuel in helping smooth over negotiations for US Federal approval of Skydance’s merger with Shari Redstone.

According to Alex Sherman at CNBC, the new Paramount is going to be paying $7.7 billion USD over the next 7 years to UFC for all US media programming rights.

43 yearly events (at least). No more PPVs. UFC PLEs, Fight Nights, and whatever else is generated at the APEX warehouse.

Looks like TKO’s haughty prognostication to Bloomberg about getting a billion dollars yearly for UFC proved to be correct. What no one understood was the pathway to get there.

Now we can guess how this whole charade played out. Welcome to monopolies, mergers, and acquisitions in Trump’s America.

Kissing the Ring

At The MMA Draw newsletter, we have been warning our readers for several months about the political relationships building between Oracle boss Larry Ellison, “King of Hollywood” Ari Emanuel, and US President Donald Trump.

When we tell you that you need a background in politics, business, finance, and law to understand what is happening in the fight business in 2025, we’re not lying.

Tell your friends, MMA Draw readers knew what was coming.

Paramount’s romancing of US President Donald Trump (with the help of Ari Emanuel) has been one of the biggest media stories of 2025.

Nate Wilcox’s radar on the Paramount front has been spot on. As he recently wrote on The MMA Draw, No one navigates Trump 2.0 better than Ari Emanuel.

Ari Emanuel is one of the five most powerful political figures in the United States in 2025. We stand by this assertion. Every single day, there is a new development that is adding to our confirmation bias.

The next step in building his TKO empire is to monopolize boxing through an amendment to the Ali Act.

Once Nick Khan can establish dominance in the boxing space, TKO will have complete and total control of the three major legs of the combat sports stool — wrestling, boxing, and MMA. They will also have control of all the major media distribution pipelines.

When Zach Arnold wrote about Gangster Government for UFC media rights, he framed the article content around the concept of network executives paying for (perceived) political protection during Trump 2.0.

The MMA Draw sees around corners and tells you what’s coming down the pike.

Today’s announcement about Paramount paying $7.7 billion USD for UFC media rights over the next 7 years provides some key clarity about where things stand in the American marketplace.

Who really wanted UFC?

There is no sugar-coating what a loss of face it is for ESPN to swap out baseball and UFC media rights for WWE rights. WWE has growth potential, for sure, but for a veteran sports executive, content that is perceived as “legitimate sports” is valued at a premium over sports entertainment like the WWE.

ESPN clearly had a set budget for a certain portion of UFC media rights. Now that is gone.

ESPN executives will be hurting this week. The mood will not be pleasant. But in the long run, UFC abandoning them for Paramount may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Now it’s Paramount’s problem to try to get fight fans to watch 43 events a year.

The biggest question for ESPN is whether or not they play ball with Nick Khan for Zuffa Boxing rights. They should explore other options, in our opinion.

As for Netflix, this is a really interesting development. In the end, there was a lot of (purported) smoke but not as much fire as expected. The floated UFC White House event was something that fit right up Netflix’s alley, but given UFC’s current lack of star power, how many mega events could the promotion put on to draw tens of millions of viewers? The Jon Jones saga had to be a bitter pill to swallow.

The promotional machine for the Canelo-Crawford fight in September has been, so far, rather lackluster. We’ll see how the international numbers play out on Netflix. If this fight disappoints, it certainly could chill TKO’s boxing aspirations — even with Nick Khan’s velvet voice.

As for Amazon & Apple, these are two huge platforms with a ton of cash to spend but a lot of unanswered questions. Combat sports might be a low priority for traditional stick-and-ball sport suits, but it is an exciting entry point for live event programming. There may need to be a readjustment in their spending strategies.

As for Paramount, let’s call a spade a spade. Larry Ellison overpaid for UFC media rights because he can. UFC is the proverbial Ferrari for his son. When you’re one of the richest people on the planet, you can binge spend. May as well do it while you are alive and kicking. But even rich people don’t like losing money, which is why former Goldman Sachs executive and current Redbird Capital financier Andy Gordon has his plate full in financing Paramount’s aggressive expansion. Andy Gordon and Gerry Cardinale will be busy bees making all of this pay off. If they can make the math work, their power in professional global sport will explode in size and scope.

Paramount paid a pretty price to Ari Emanuel for UFC media rights and got its merger approved by the FCC. Trump 2.0 politics are transparent and in your face.

The NFL Factor

During this week’s MMA Draw podcast, Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold discussed the emerging symmetry between TKO and the NFL.

The NFL has a proposed 10% equity stake in ESPN. They have an equity stake in Paramount, although the size of that stake is currently unknown.

The NFL has much larger visions of expansion. They reportedly see themselves as competing with Google and Apple.

TKO’s portfolio lines up nicely with the NFL for shared business interests. OnLocation for VIP service, ESPN, Paramount, and WWE ventures (via Fanatics). The development of TKO’s closeness with the NFL is a loss of face for Tony Khan and All Elite Wrestling. One of the calling cards that Tony Khan could always rely upon for business credibility was being part of a very exclusive ownership club. TKO has exposed that other NFL owners are more interested in doing business with them.

What does all of this mean for PFL?

Paramount's paying $7.7 billion USD for UFC media rights is both a blessing and a curse for Donn Davis.

On the fundraising front, this could be a big lifeline for PFL and open up some new doors — especially for fundraising in Emerging Market funds.

However… PFL has a very delicate situation on its hands for media rights. How can they expect to get even 5% of what UFC is projected to pull in media revenue? How can PFL soften the blow of losing UFC media rights to ESPN executives and convince ESPN that signing up for a long-term deal with PFL is not viewed as some sort of psychological step-down from UFC programming?

John Martin has his work cut out for him.

The TKO python strategy we have highlighted over the last two years in various MMA Draw articles is very real and now extremely dangerous. It is getting very difficult for any potential upstart or current rival to make headway with a media platform that is currently doing business with TKO.

Which is why, in our brand new podcast, we make the case that in order for future opportunities against TKO, you have to hope that there is some sort of combustible civil war between the Nick Khan and Mark Shapiro factions. Barring that circumstance, Big Monopoly in America is savaging smaller prey. Ari Emanuel has never enjoyed a better political climate. Perhaps he has a date with destiny against Casey Wasserman over control of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games?

The rest of us are just trying to earn a living.

Zach Arnold is the lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. You can e-mail him at fightopinion - at - protonmail dot com.

Nate Wilcox founded Bloody Elbow in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Thought Bryce Mitchell’s sermon to the Etihad Arena choir was strange?

Thought it was strange for spectators at Etihad Arena reportedly hitting the exits during the Robert Whittaker/Reinier de Ridder UFC Abu Dhabi on ABC main event?

Truth is stranger than fiction in today’s fight politics. And we’ve seen a few wild & wacky things over our nearly thirty years of experience at The MMA Draw.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast has two simple themes but one very complex and winding political narrative that requires a PhD in finance, law, and political science. Leave the dirty work up to us so you can get a better grasp on what is really going on.

With Top Rank’s final ESPN broadcasting from MSG airing over the weekend, the decks are clearing for TKO Zuffa Boxing to make a big splash. But first, the Ali Act needs to get amended to give Ari Emanuel the quasi-antitrust exemption that would turbo-charge TKO’s already dominant fight monopoly.

The Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act is simply a puzzle piece in a much larger picture of Ari Emanuel’s complete and total control of the American political system. Whatever he wants from the White House or Congress, Ari Emanuel gets. He’s one of the five most powerful political brokers in the United States. The Emanuel Brothers have four decades of major league political experience and are fully flexing their muscle. There are billions of dollars at stake.

The MMA Draw connects the dots and fills in the whole picture. Subscribe today and smarten up.

It’s bewildering enough for the average American to understand. Now imagine what it must be like for someone who’s not in the TKO/WME Group network of the rich and elite.

The marriage of world governments as fight co-promoters has led to some very strange political and business dealings. The Skydance/Paramount merger is proof positive of Ari Emanuel’s power and how he utilizes UFC as a tool in his arsenal. It was UFC 314 in Miami that proved to be a pivotal flashpoint for Skydance/Paramount discussions with President Trump.

Now that Ari Emanuel has (once again) won brownie points on a big business deal, his next act is to take over the global boxing landscape. A big shoutout to Brian Campbell and Sean Zittel for having the courage to say out loud what the rest of the US sports media won’t say about The Ari (Emanuel) Act amendment introduced in Congress.

If you’re completely and totally confused about how TKO’s new Ali Act amendment is part of their master plan to monopolize boxing, listen to this week’s MMA Draw podcast. If there was ever a time for a sober, thorough, and complete analysis of the American political landscape, our podcast is here to give you some answers.

We are also here to give the boxing community a heads-up on what is about to happen should this new amendment to the Ali Act pass. The MMA Draw gives you a road map on some clues and characters to focus on moving forward.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

This week’s free edition of The MMA Draw focuses on the grand vision that Ari Emanuel’s elites have for combat sports. The sports we love to watch and pay for are now their play toys. The public at large is now kissing the ring and serving at the beck-and-call of politicians as promoters.

Zero resistance from the public. Total and complete capitulation. No one is even contemplating how much money is left from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to keep financing Turki’s high-priced ventures. The old guard isn’t even lifting a finger in opposition. This includes America’s loudest politicians.

If Turki Alalshikh wants to show up in Brooklyn and watch pro fighters headhunt each other to win the prize of getting booked for his Canelo-Crawford undercard, he will sit in a royal white black seat with red velvet ropes. No questions asked.

At The MMA Draw Newsletter, there is no surrender to politics or fatigue. We are ready to say things no one else is willing or able to say out loud.

The event calendar might seem exhausting right now but it’s safe to expect some contraction from non-TKO players in 2026, as recently discussed by John Nash at Uncrowned.

Non-TKO promoters are starting to run out of financial runway. The barriers of entry and financial maintenance are rising. The only question to ask is who will be left standing as opposition to TKO in 2026.

The expansion of the corporate minor leagues will come from the Hollywood movie studio known as the APEX warehouse in Las Vegas.

This new financial fight system molded by the unholy alliance of TKO and their political allies like US President Donald J. Trump, Turki Alalshikh, and Khaldoon Al Mubarak insulates the most powerful people in the world from assuming traditional risk that normal actors in combat sports would face.

Now, the tables have turned. The media executives are fearful of politicians with the bully pulpit. The idea that executives could or would feel as if they need to bid for fight events as some sort of political protection is patently absurd.

If you’re not part of the Big Club, you’re dead in the water. It’s why PFL recently had to make the call to bring in former Time Warner executive John Martin.

Legacy brands are dying left and right. 60 Minutes. Showtime. The on-again, off-again usage of HBO. Bellator. So much history is being buried in real time. It’s unnerving.

This week’s MMA Draw podcast voices an uncensored look at how far things have escalated and what the political roadmap for the rest of 2025 looks like. It’s daunting, and the scary part is that most fans don’t comprehend what is unfolding in front of their face.

If you have a funny feeling that something isn’t quite right with the current state of combat sports affairs, you’re not alone. Join us for this week’s free edition of The MMA Draw podcast. We would love to hear your feedback and relay your concerns to the decision makers — many of whom happen to be subscribers to The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack.

We’ll say hello to them on your behalf.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.

Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

It’s hard to compete with all the social media traffic analyzing the latest adventures of Jon Jones, but UFC is doing its best to grab some of that oxygen back to hype up this weekend’s UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira fight card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

It’s curious that so much of the gossip surrounding this fight is about everything surrounding it because the fight itself should be excellent. The UFC 317 main card is pretty decent on paper. UFC management needs this event to deliver big time with ESPN executives watching in Las Vegas. The last thing anyone wants to see is another UFC 313 scenario.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast covers some incredible high-stakes scenarios that could generate big bucks for UFC — if their alchemist gambles pay off.

The free portion of this week’s podcast takes a look at the recent UFC title shenanigans with Ilia Topuria moving up from 145 to 155 pounds and Islam Makhachev moving up from 155 to 170 pounds. This recent Twitter post regarding Hunter Campbell’s role in matchmaking decisions caught our eye:

There is a method behind the madness of UFC having interchangeable champions. More titles, more contractual control. But there are some serious risks involved and we take a deep look at those risks on The MMA Draw podcast.

The paid portion of this week’s podcast is where the real money is at. Our paid subscribers get a peek behind the curtain to see how TKO’s government contractor strategy is playing out. In a here-today, gone-tomorrow story in the Hollywood trade publications, it was revealed that TKO hired former Netflix executive Dean Garfield. Mark Shapiro has been telegraphing some big impending TKO hires for both lobbyists and C-Suite executives.

We explain the significance of TKO’s political strategy and how they are cleverly setting up a scenario to completely wipe out other boxing promoters.

The MMA Draw Newsletter connects the dots when it comes to revealing the strategy behind the billionaires’ madness. Let us do the work for you.

In 2025, you can no longer simply promote fights. If you are not acting as your own advertising agency that can bring your own title sponsors and your own investment banking assets to financially carry big fights, you stand little chance against UFC & WWE. This is a major promotional point that flies over the heads of so many people but we are here to break it down and explain how all of this works in a very easy-to-understand format.

We also have an extensive discussion about the future of Eddie Hearn with Matchroom Boxing. Eddie Hearn is positioning himself to be the odd-man-out, the last survivor in a Zuffa Boxing war. Will Eddie Hearn sell to TKO and grab a big pay day or will he continue to roll the dice as a semi-independent player?

Our paid portion of this week’s podcast also takes a look at major news regarding subscriber data from the major streaming platforms.

We have two reader recommendations regarding streaming news. On Substack, go with Entertainment Strategy Guy. On Twitter, check out TV Grim Reaper.

For the longest time, Netflix avoided live sports content and built a media monopoly on scripted binge watching. Now there is an adaptation in strategy and TKO is taking advantage of it. Why did Netflix management change course? And what does it mean for the future of fight sports when it comes to DAZN, Amazon, ESPN, and Roku?

Finish the week out strong by listening to our podcast. Become a paid subscriber today. You won’t regret it.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

Cracks are starting to show on the UFC’s proverbial foundation.

You can see it with your own eyes. Despite the process hustle of advertising UFC media rights for sale at $1 billion, you can sense that something doesn’t feel right.

Sure, UFC is getting millions of dollars from New Jersey. They’re going to draw a $2M gate for Kamaru Usman in Atlanta. But you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that things aren’t as they truly appear on the surface.

How can a ravenous government contractor and political mercenary struggle to produce warehouse MMA events?

It would help if Dana White was still a full-time active participant in UFC affairs. It’s clear that he is, at a minimum, very distracted. How timely was this MMA Draw podcast from three months ago?

You would be hard-pressed to find a UFC card these days that doesn’t have fighters missing weight, backing out, or getting fights rescheduled for other cards. This is a circus that former Fertitta-era matchmaker Joe Silva would have never tolerated.

The fighters deserve better and the fans sure as hell deserve better, too. You’ve never paid more to get less.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast is our most righteous audio show ever. A true Fight Festivus.

Nobody explains the wild world of combat sports better than The MMA Draw. Paid subscribers hear the real dirt before anyone else.

The free portion of this week’s podcast compares and contrasts the Fertitta and Endeavor UFC eras in terms of what business practices were tolerated versus those not tolerated. The entire psychology of the enterprise has changed. Maybe you can’t put your finger on why things are slipping but you know something is wrong and it’s creating major frustration.

Consider this week’s podcast to be a very useful history lesson and a precursor of where we think things are heading under Mark Shapiro during a major UFC media rights negotiation period.

The paid portion of this week’s podcast talks about Vince McMahon’s new sports and entertainment investment firm and how Mark Shapiro has unwittingly (or wittingly) created the conditions for a Vince return. Not only is it possible but absolutely plausible. Vince has one big jackhammer that Mr. Cost Savings has to be weary of. Plus, just how much of a financial price did Vince pay when he got pushed out of his own company? It’s larger than you think.

Then we address the big news regarding the Phil Davis antitrust action against UFC. It appears, under the reasoning of judicial economy, that Federal judge Richard Boulware is going to get new antitrust actions on his docket. We break down both the tactics and the long-term strategy behind this maneuvering and how we think it is setting the table for a promoter antitrust action.

The big question is whether or not Donn Davis will bite and step up to the plate. From his point of view, there are both major pros and major cons in initiating an antitrust complaint against UFC. It’s a fascinating high-stakes situation and we’ll explain the various complications.

Plus, the latest on Triller’s economic collapse and what the legal scenarios look like in the coming months. A Triller collapse would raise the stakes for UFC Fight Pass in terms of promoter importance. What happens if UFC decreases the amount of money they pay for streaming media rights? How much longer can Bare Knuckle FC stay alive?

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

The Endeavor era of UFC ownership has taught us two things:

First, they have decimated what was once the UFC’s most prized division. And second, Endeavor never misses a chance to miss a chance to book a mega-money home-run fight when possible. They would rather hit doubles and money-ball their margins than make history.

Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall is the last UFC mega-fight on the table in the foreseeable future, and they are playing a risky game of leverage over it.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast with Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold zooms in on the current politics of the Jon Jones/Tom Aspinall fight negotiations and what the leverage plays are, and why so much of it is nonsense.

The MMA Draw is your cure for nonsense in the combat sports space. Subscribe today.

Then we zoom back and look historically at the UFC’s Heavyweight division. Why did Ari Emanuel destroy so much of the promotional goodwill that Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta built up in creating the most lucrative, dramatic Light Heavyweight & Heavyweight divisions that propelled UFC into a multi-billion dollar operation?

For the paid portion of our podcast, we have a no-holds-barred look at internal TKO politics and how (we suspect) leaks from potentially disgruntled actors are starting to bleed out in the public.

After selling the rights to a WrestleMania event in New Orleans for lots of cash, TKO suddenly reversed course and yanked the show for a location TBD. This is not a move that Vince McMahon would have ever pulled. So, why? Bidding war with London? Rumors of a long-term stay in Las Vegas?

What you are witnessing is the predictable endgame of TKO becoming a political mercenary and government contractor. Mark Shapiro laid out the entire strategy in December of 2023.

With Team UFC starting to take over more of the duties for WWE operations, we are witnessing corporate politics at its very worst. A bifurcation of major operations with WWE & UFC, likely being merged into Las Vegas with production in Stamford.

Very few fight fans cared about this development, but now customers are taking notice of the politics of Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro. It’s starting to impact match quality, pricing of tickets, and overall television production. You’ve never had the privilege of paying more to get less. That sums up America in 2025.

And yet the dirty secret, should fans ever smarten up to it, is that there’s very little about TKO that is American these days. Their masters are world governments, who just happen to be TKO’s co-promoters.

And one of their (frozen) co-promoters, should US sanctions get lifted in the future, could return to the UFC orbit in a rather aggressive marketing role.

The transformation of UFC (and now WWE) into political contracting shops by Ari Emanuel and Mubadala’s Khaldoon Al Mubarak has been the most underreported fight business story over the last decade.

Everyone focuses on the shiny objects but ignores the most important elephants in the room. The most interesting fight co-promoters in 2025 are power players like Turki Alalshikh, Kirill Dmitriev, and Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

What does it mean for you? That’s why we are here to break all of this information down for our paid subscribers to The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

How do they do it? How is UFC getting customers to pay MSG-level fight prices at arenas across the world for matchmaking that, until recently, was absolutely bottom-of-the-barrel in terms of fight quality?

UFC 317 at T-Mobile Arena with Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira is a perfect example. It’s hard to get a floor seat for less than $1,000. Cage side seats are thousands of dollars. And that event is likely going to sell out in short order. Same story in locales like New Orleans and Chicago.

Is it improved matchmaking? Is it TKO’s multi-monopoly machine powering through challenges other entertainment groups can’t solve?

How is UFC and WWE able to win over customers in an environment where it costs so much to buy a ticket to enjoy Mark Shapiro’s “experience economy”?

Unlike attending a UFC or WWE live show, getting a subscription to The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack doesn’t require a second mortgage.

We are back this week with a new edition of The MMA Draw podcast on Substack, and what a news cycle to debut our new audio recording set-up. (We have plenty of things to improve/fi,x but you’ll hear some of our improvements.)

The free portion of this week’s podcast looks at the UFC 2025 Summer calendar of matchmaking and focuses on matches we think the promotion is putting on the back burner until they get their new media rights deal.

The paid portion of this week’s podcast has a couple of featured attractions we focus intently on.

First, the conflicts and challenges of TKO managing Turki Boxing, and how these headaches are already surfacing in regards to UFC Noche event planning.

This article from Brunch Boxing caught our attention.

What are the historical obstacles TKO needs to overcome to win over a % of the boxing audience? Can they process hustle their way and use brute force to obtain market share by simply purging veteran boxing fans the way they’ve done to veteran pro-wrestling and MMA customers?

Second, we have some big news regarding Meta/Facebook and a Federal lawsuit involving UFC Fight Pass. Quietly, there has been a three-year-old lawsuit in Las Vegas alleging US state & Federal privacy law violations against UFC for utilizing Meta Pixel trackers to supposedly scrape customer data without permission. The case is titled Bloom v. Zuffa, and there was a two-day evidentiary hearing this past week. If the judge in the case grants class certification to the plaintiffs, it could open up some doors for discovery against UFC and Facebook.

The kicker? The man making the class certification determination is none other than Judge Richard Boulware!

The MMA Draw covers combat sports stories that you won’t hear about anywhere else. Share our info with your friends and family.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

After one of the darkest promotional weekends in the modern history of boxing, what’s next for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with their new TKO Boxing partners?

We have questions. Lots of them. And we have a lot more questions after reading Thomas Hauser’s Guardian article detailing the politics behind the Times Square fiasco.

After burning through tens of millions of dollars to produce two of the worst boxing events and three of the most historically inactive fights ever (according to CompuBox), you have to start asking whether or not someone is intentionally sabotaging Turki Alalshikh’s boxing venture.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication that just happens to have the biggest decision makers in the fight business paying very close attention to what we say.

This is not what the Kingdom paid for. The Kingdom wants to buy the best public relations imaginable. They want great, positive media headlines. They want to buy the best fights in combat sport and look good in the process.

What we’re witnessing is cash being incinerated in real time.

This past weekend’s boxing events in Times Square and Riyadh were a huge loss of face for Turki Alalshikh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was a terrible slap in the face to someone whose grand plan is to buy the biggest, baddest boxers and promoters in combat sports.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack raises some very uncomfortable questions about TKO’s future motives with their upcoming joint boxing venture with KSA. Will WME Group be able to turn the public and politicians against life-changing fighter pay in boxing by citing this past weekend as a turning point to shut off the spigot?

If there is one thing we’ve learned under TKO, it’s that decisions that happen in UFC get copied for WWE and vice versa. We expect the same trends to happen under TKO Boxing.

And in this high-stakes affair, we’re also paying close attention to how much more cash the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is going to be able to spend if Crude Oil prices stay below $60 a barrel. It will have an impact moving forward on fight financing.

The consequences of these Time Square and Riyadh boxing milestones will be impactful for you and the fight fans in your life.

Will Netflix and other big media outlets get cold feet about TKO Boxing after this weekend’s disconcerting double-header?

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

At the end of this week’s podcast, we have some words of wisdom for our subscribers on how to find your voice in an increasingly antagonistic climate.

You didn’t think he was going away quietly, did you?

The man who settled his high-profile investigation with the Securities & Exchange Commission after getting exiled from the kingdom he built?

Ari Emanuel has extinguished many friends and foes but professional wrestling is a different animal altogether and future conditions may precipitate a return for one Vince Kennedy McMahon.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack takes a deep look into the politics of the TKO Board of Directors. Their upcoming July 2025 election and mega-election in 2026 for new Board members will give us quite a bit of insight about how WME Group & Silver Lake intend to navigate a tumultuous geopolitical situation in fight sport.

This week’s podcast is divided into two main sections. Our free podcast portion is a deeper dive into the pros and cons of UFC’s current media rights negotiations, in particular what Netflix wants and is looking for in any new content deal. Everyone wants to talk about money but we’re focusing more on creative and marketing control. What is the tradeoff going to be for TKO if they deepen ties with Netflix?

And what clues has Netflix obtained about TKO business given their current relationship and data mining experiment with WWE?

We analyze a scenario in which Netflix would grab some creative control of UFC affairs, not the other way around as some might believe.

The MMA Draw Newsletter relies on our loyal paid subscribers. We put in the hard work to bring you the biggest combat sports stories around. Join our crazy family today!

Our paid podcast portion this week is an intense look at the current political battles with the TKO Board of Directors. The ongoing knife-fighting and brewing politics are creating some very interesting conditions for an eventual civil war involving a couple of Vince McMahon’s wrestling “children.” With Endeavor having 7 board seats and WWE having 6 board seats, what kind of politicking is happening behind the scenes for the 2026 Board seat (s)elections?

One thing is for certain: the ghost of Vince McMahon is looming larger, especially with TKO’s increasing ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia via TKO Boxing. Given recent press articles discussing Turki Alalshikh’s background, the importance of Mr. McMahon as a potential peacemaker between some very powerful businessmen with large egos is increasing in viability. Who’s going to win out in the upcoming financial and political leverage game?

Also for paid subscribers, we have an extensive look at TKO’s battle plan to suck up as much taxpayer cash as possible for future fight events. We have financial and legal explanations behind why so many municipalities are dishing out the dollars and how Hollywood’s recent cries of poverty is playing into changing American politics for buying big time sporting events.

In our nearly 30 years of covering fight sports, it has never been a crazier time. The news cycle is constantly active. We do the work for you at The MMA Draw so you can stay up-to-date.

You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Apple

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast on Spotify

* The MMA Draw Substack Podcast RSS feed

We are working tirelessly behind the scenes to develop brand new content that we hope to unveil in Q2 of 2025. Between our long-form articles, original podcasts, and big fight picks & predictions, The MMA Draw on Substack is quickly establishing a name in a very noisy landscape as a place to go to find out how on Earth combat sports became a crazy marriage of politics, Wall Street, Big Media, and Hollywood. Our paid subscribers are ahead of the curve when it comes to developing stories in the industry. Don’t be left out!

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024. Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.

UFC 314 was heralded as a card worthy of hardcore attention. Finally, a modern UFC fight card that was respectable. Intriguingly, early Google Trends revealed good but not great numbers — which may or may not serve as a form of confirmation bias that if you’re into the current UFC product, you’re into it. If you’re not, you’re not.

Which is not great news if you are attempting to be a mid-major or major alternative to the UFC in the 2025 MMA marketplace.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast with Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold has an in-depth look at the big trends emerging from the UFC 314 event in Miami. Some of our observations include:

* Dana White showing more and more signs of checking out from day-to-day duties

* “Sellouts” not automatically selling out, especially after recent crypto & stock market turmoil

* Age is a real number in Mixed Martial Arts and how putting fighters over the age of 30 on ice can be a real damaging blow

* The ghost of past champions haunting current champions and contenders

* The development of state-sponsored Mixed Martial Arts and what it means for American business, sport, and culture. Why the world’s elite are negotiating deals worth millions of dollars cage side and how this behavior is normalizing.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. No big corporate money telling us what to say or reading a script from high-flying TV executives.

For our paid subscribers, we have an in-depth business discussion regarding the state of affairs with the GFL, the PFL, and media money. How fast are we approaching the bottom? How much more debt financing is available? Will a major media player be willing to grab a piece of a company in order to keep it alive?

Zach is fired up on this week’s podcast to talk about the insanity of fight financing.

“They are fighting over breadcrumbs. Imagine, and I've seen this unfortunately in the combat sports space, you can go to someone. They may have $100 in their pocket and you may give them an opportunity to make $100,000 or maybe even $1 million dollars but they would rather backstab you. And instead of making a million dollars, they would rather fight to the death to just castrate you in order to keep the $100 in their pocket. They are too busy worrying about control and image and everything else that's outside of the actual business and what makes fight sports so great and why people want to tune in and why people are invested in it and why they care and why they get so animated.”

“And no one else right now has an idea of how to even generate buzz in this space because the few people that are left are too busy backstabbing each other and killing off any sort of future opportunity.”

If you want a great mixture of current UFC fight discussion along with real world implications of failure for non-TKO players, this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast is well worth your time to check out. You will hear opinion and analysis that you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Can buying off the UFC buy you political protection?

This week’s edition of The MMA Podcast takes a closer look at Meta's sponsorship deal with the UFC and whether or not buying Dana White’s loyalty can help persuade the inner circle around Donald Trump not to aggressively pursue new antitrust action against Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire.

It this sounds like House of Cards, it’s because this is the new world that TKO has created in fight sport. When you’re a political mercenary, everything involving Wall Street and world governments influences and changes motives. This is why we had some eyebrow-raising questions to ask regarding Zack Snyder’s new UFC-themed movie backed by Dana White & Turki Alalshikh.

We’ve seen the impact of Big Money on UFC’s U Fight Cheap business model and how that train isn’t slowing down any time soon. But the bigger question is why such a monopolistic powerhouse is content and satisfied with a substandard product that receives increasingly negative reviews from their most loyal customers.

Is it simply the bean counters steering the wheel, or is there something else corrupting the matchmaking process?

The MMA Draw Newsletter asks the tough questions to the powers-that-be and keeps our paid subscribers ahead of the curve on what the real story is involving key decision makers.

The free portion of this week’s podcast is a pretty intense 20 minutes. Our paid portion is a full hour breakdown discussing what is happening behind the scenes right now in the global MMA industry and how others view the current UFC matchmaking process involving Sean Shelby & Mick Maynard.

The question is whether this bad matchmaking is intentional or based on mediocrity in judgment. One Twitter post from RIZIN matchmaker Shingo “Charlie” Kashiwagi summed up the current predicament:

On this week’s podcast, we analyze the work product from key talent developers like Ian Dean, Ed Soares, Shingo Kashiwagi, and André Pederneiras and explain what they’re doing right and what the UFC front office is doing wrong.

Here’s one perspective on why the UFC office is behind the curve and would rather spend their time booking rematches that had conclusive finishes the first time around:

There will eventually be a price to pay for this attitude. Q1 of 2025 was not great for UFC fight quality. Q2 is off to the same kind of start.

To close out this week’s podcast, Nate and Zach spend some time analyzing the volatility of TKO’s prospects following the much-anticipated new media rights deal. If oil is going to hover around $60 a barrel, what kind of impact will that have on potential UFC or WWE buyers in the Middle East? As the old proverb goes, “May you live in interesting times.”

If you want in-depth coverage over a wide variety of MMA business topics, The MMA Draw on Substack is the place to be. Paid subscribers get access to content you won’t see anywhere else. If we can make or save your money as a fan, we’ve done our job right.

Grab your wallet and hide it from the wizards of Wall Street who are value extracting you to death.

The story of UFC & WWE prices is as much a story about the role (and tactics) of bigger Private Equity firms in today’s modern economy as it is about customer service and demand.

This week’s MMA Draw Podcast addresses the claims from those who suggest that as long as people are willing to pay life-changing prices to go watch a fight show for one night, then critics should shut up. That’s crazy. Our response this week addresses the role of PE in everything, from your local veterinarian clinic to your local funeral home to the fights you go watch to see.

Bottom line? You shouldn’t have to skip a car payment or take out a line of credit to go watch an event like Wrestlemania with your young son or daughter.

We’re seeing the impact of Private Equity in global sport and Endeavor WME Group is becoming a bigger player. Whether it’s the Premier League, the NFL, or minor league baseball in America, you can’t escape the death grip of PE combined with sovereign wealth funds.

The big question: What can you do about it as a fan?

This week’s episode of The MMA Draw Podcast takes a closer look at the financials behind Endeavor’s take-private transaction from Wall Street. What did the last Endeavor SEC filings reveal? What is their next battle plan?

When it counts the most, rely on The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack to deliver the goods on reporting where your hard-earned money is going.

Once you know what the system is, then you can become a smarter customer. You don’t need a PhD from a university as long as you are a subscriber to The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack.

Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold closely examine some future avenues for fan protest and revolt. What events could trigger a backlash? And more importantly, what are TKO’s pressure points?

Asset bubbles have grown enormously in the post-COVID era. When the bubble bursts, what will it mean for all of us?

What’s the exit strategy for TKO’s powers-that-be after they are done value extracting fans to a crisp?

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. The Japanese MMA scene never fully recovered after the death of PRIDE. How will Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro navigate a possible sale of both UFC & WWE after securing new media rights deals?

It’s nut-cutting time for the major media streaming platforms to make a determination about how and where they want to spend their cash on sports rights. And UFC is right in the thick of things.

On this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast with Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold, we take a look at the financial & creative state of affairs for major media platforms that most of you have subscriptions with.

Thanks to our friend the Entertainment Strategy Guy, we are getting a better picture as to the failure vs. success ratio for Big Media.

The pressure is on ESPN/Disney, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV to start making some key decisions. Who will blink first?

ESPN has less than thirty days left (reportedly) on their exclusive negotiation rights window with UFC. Each day that passes by, it’s less and less likely that ESPN will own all of UFC’s media rights.

Overspending on streaming subscriptions? You owe it to yourself to subscribe to The MMA Draw newsletter to make good decisions on where to spend your money on fight content.

Disney is in a vulnerable position right now. The rumors of spending billions on NFL media properties are swirling. The latest “reimagining” of Snow White is vastly underperforming expectations.

This is the focus of our conversation this week on the MMA Draw podcast.

What would ESPN’s future look like without UFC media rights? Yes, they would save some money but they would also lose a key revenue driver. But how expensive is too expensive? The more expensive it gets, the more it costs you money as a fan.

As Entertainment Strategy Guy highlights, two streaming platforms need to hit a home-run soon: Amazon Prime and Apple TV. Apple has a lot of cash to spend but has to be selective given the political and cultural tendencies of their audience. Amazon has cash to spend but is trying to creatively shuffle up their future programming approach.

The MMA Draw newsletter provides the best mix of fight and media coverage inside and outside the cage. Smarten up your friends and share the conversations decision makers are having.

The pressure is on Mark Shapiro and Ari Emanuel to seal the deal for Wall Street TKO investors. But this high-stakes drama also provides us with great content on The MMA Draw podcast. Which is why you should absolutely become a paid subscriber.

Check out some of our recent articles and podcasts that subscribers get full access to:

* How much life cycle is left for UFC’s current audience? We’re five years removed from the COVID era. A new media rights deal could very well mean a brand new audience for UFC fights.

* Nick Khan, Hollywood’s King of Fight Closers. The most important man a significant majority of fight fans don’t know about. The man navigating personalities such as Dana White, Vince McMahon, Turki Alalshikh, and Ari Emanuel has the administrative weight of the TKO Boxing world on his shoulders.

* How much does star power mean in today’s UFC? Saturday’s Fight Night in London drew a reported $4.7 million dollar gate, which is spectacular. Gates have never been bigger and yet we have repeatedly seen fans online express anger and frustration about the quality of shows. What gives?

* Billy Keane vs. Top Rank: The wildest high-stakes boxing lawsuit. How does Dana White and Turki Alalshikh fit into this picture? One of the crazier lawsuits we’ve read in decades, involving allegations regarding sanctioned Irish drug kingpin Daniel Kinahan and his supposed fight clients.

* Meet the “King of Coke” Rudy Silva. When MMA & boxing meets True Crime meets Mexican drug cartels and hit men. One of the most outrageous and completely under-reported stories involving a multi-decade figure in San Diego’s fight scene who ended up on the wrong side of the law. Who knew what and when? Future updates will highlight some interesting names.

Our vision right now for The MMA Draw is focusing on helping you make the right choices when it comes to spending your hard-earned cash on fight content. Whether it’s providing the latest business analysis or giving you a great preview of picks for upcoming fights, any way that you can save money by not blowing it on a lopsided fight card is a big win in 2025.

Read what heavyweight insiders in the fight business view every week at The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack.

Now here’s a topic that gets people worked up and flaming each other on social media.

And based on our intense reader reaction and traffic numbers, it’s hitting a raw nerve.

Is it better that UFC’s brand is bigger and stronger than the popularity of its champions?

And why is there such an emotional reaction from hardcore UFC fans and fighters towards criticism that a fair amount of today’s UFC product is slop?

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast addresses these topics and the allegations that older fight fans are just crusty pensioners yelling at the clouds.

Subscribers to The MMA Draw newsletter are the smartest fight fans in the game. Read what the most powerful decision-makers see every week.

We put our money where our mouth is by analyzing the current roster of UFC champions and where they fit into the global landscape. It’s an extension of Nate Wilcox’s piece from this past week about the current role of storytelling and star power in the current Endeavor-flavored UFC product.

In a wildly volatile media market where streaming platforms are having a second look at customer data, what is the value of UFC’s volume-based content strategy in 2025?

What are the numbers telling us about what UFC fans want versus the expectations Wall Street and other major institutional investors have in combat sports?

A lot of newsletters and writers tell you what to think. We give you the truth and let you make your own decisions to decide what’s fact from fiction.

In our paid portion of this week’s MMA Draw podcast, Nate and Zach address the criticisms leveled on social media this week about seasoned MMA fans having unrealistic expectations and outdated tastes on what makes fight sports great.

Are Generation X fans simply too old for today’s scene? What about older Millennials? And just what exactly do male Gen Z fans want to see in today’s UFC scene?

It’s the great debate about entitlement vs. entertainment.

Is Chael Sonnen warming up in the bullpen to become the next face of the UFC?

With Dana White hinting at reduced UFC duties during comments he made at the UFC 313 post-fight press conference, now is the time to start asking some major questions about UFC’s future moving forward under the TKO corporate umbrella.

Despite the promotion claiming a $10 million dollar gate for UFC 313, there was a lot of turmoil regarding the event. Top star Alex Pereira lost. Undercard fights got canceled. The promotion is focusing on marketing Bryce Mitchell for UFC 314 in Miami. Everything feels so crass and cynical right now. A dirty calculation.

If your friends and family are fight fans who are frustrated with how things are, please share this post with them so they know they’re not alone.

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast on Substack takes a hard look at UFC’s broken matchmaking process.

“What is the motivation and purpose behind the matchmaking? You sign fighters to long-term contracts, but you don't build them up or protect them or put them in spots to be exciting. Is that intentional or is that just complete stupidity?”

The company right now has a bad habit of booking really lopsided mismatches or 50/50 fights that don’t seem to elevate either opponent.

“They end up booking 50/50 fights, and then they're surprised when the guy that they want to win loses. So you have to ask yourself, is it intentional or is it oblivious?”

The reason there is such a disconnect between Endeavor’s billionaires and fight fans is because they are wildly successful at implementing the Walmart business model blue print. Everything has a price. Everything has a data point. And now that process-oriented philosophy is substantively impacting the UFC product.

“We focus so much on the process of how these billionaires see the world of fight sport. It is so disconnected from the casual fan, and it's disconnected even now from the hardcore fan. And that is the most alarming thing we're seeing, is there is no longer a meeting of the minds.”

ESPN+ is streaming UFC 313 for free after a lot of angry and disgruntled fans actively voiced their frustration on social media about not being able to order or watch the event. TKO expressed their disgust towards ESPN in a leak to The New York Post.

Customer service is, well, let’s say lacking.

“If you're a fan, you can't even get a pay-per-view without ESPN Plus just crapping out on you. You can't even get a fight without spending hundreds of dollars. You can't even get good booking for the amount of money you spend. So you can't even get the experience you want at the price that you want. And instead, these billionaires are making these decisions for you. And they're all the most powerful governments in the world.”

The quality of The MMA Draw is an excellent value and we appreciate our readers. No days off for customer service! Join our movement.

We’ve seen other promoters like Donn Davis and the PFL exclusively pitch and market a process-oriented business plan to their investors. They’ve raised hundreds of millions of dollars and have little to show for it.

So, why is UFC able to get away with cramming a mediocre product down your throat? TKO is a triple monopoly. They marry other monopolies in business. It’s a giant government cartel.

They have to create an illusion of choice and competition. Then they need a cover story.

“So the question is, how did we get to this point and why? And I think UFC 313 very much was a reflection of the terrible work product that this company is producing. They don't know how to produce fights. They try to produce viral moments. They try to do celebrities. They try to slop it up. They try to spray perfume on the dog turd. But they don't actually understand what makes fights work. They give you a little bit of a moment. They give you a little bit of a shot of adrenaline with a back wheel kick. But they don't give you a consistent product or a consistent division in building up anything for the future.”

This week’s MMA Draw podcast explains how Endeavor wiped away the Fertitta ideology of branding MMA as the best heavyweight combat sport and anchoring it to Las Vegas as the Fight Capital of the world.

Ari Emanuel’s Hollywood machine took over and ripped that plan all up. They played the numbers game and decided to become a very rich political mercenary.

There is heavy pressure from big financial institutions on Mark Shapiro and TKO to double the current UFC media rights fees. Double the price for half the quality of the old fight product? What happens if Endeavor can’t execute this magic trick?

With nothing left to accomplish in UFC, Dana White can now safely transition into the world of boxing.

“And I think that's why Dana White is likely heading to the exits because he realizes this is not what he signed up for. This was not [why] he got into the business. He's conquered [MMA] now. He thinks he's bigger than the business. And a lot of these people who are in power think they are bigger than the business. Bigger than the fighters. Bigger than you as a customer, and this is the end result.”

This week’s podcast dives deep into the new TKO Boxing game plan with Dana White and Nick Khan. What is the evolution of their relationship with Turki Alalshikh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia going to look like?

How can Dana’s love for boxing help revitalize Las Vegas as a dominant player in combat sports once again?

UFC 313 Fight Week changed the landscape of combat sports but not in the way many of us expected. Where do you fit into the picture? What can fans do to voice their displeasure and channel their energy into creating some much-needed change?

Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold have some advice for fans on how to look at the combat sports landscape for the rest of 2025. The MMA Draw on Substack is always ahead of the curve.

Zach and Nate are back with a super-sized MMA Draw podcast. One action-packed hour!

Reminder: subscription prices increase starting Tuesday. Lock in your yearly savings now with an annual yearly MMA Draw subscription of $50. It’s the best bargain if you want to be the smartest fight fan around. Plus our fantastic fight picks.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is the place to be for fans, fighters, and media to learn what is really happening behind the scenes.

Our podcast this week is a great example of what our paid subscribers receive. Learn the big news and trends in the business months in advance of everyone else.

Let’s start with a ‘we told you so’

This week’s news that Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed head of the FBI “wants the FBI to establish a formal relationship with the UFC, which could develop programs for agents to improve their physical fitness” gave Zach an irresistible opportunity to remind listeners that he predicted this just a couple weeks ago at The MMA Draw.

Here’s what Zach wrote in November 2024 for those who doubt:

Make no mistake about it. Whatever revenue shortfalls TKO has in the short-to-mid-term, they will be able to make up for some of their losses in the form of expanding government contracts under a Trump 2.0 administration.

TKO contracts with the Department of Defense for military sponsorship and sold show deals, perhaps the USO circuit. Potential deals with Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration, which is a catch-all of all Federal agency contracts. The amount of friendly or no-bid government contracts will be quickly flowing towards UFC.

We spent much of this week’s free preview section of The MMA Draw podcast discussing these first exciting hints that Donald Trump’s second presidential term is going to feature unprecedented opportunities for TKO/Endeavor to “Kash” in on their many close relationships with this new DC administration.

From there, we tease a little bit of the paywalled members-only discussion of the lawsuit Hollywood mega-lawyer Patty Glaser (former clients include Harvey Weinstein, Kirk Kerkorian, Keith Olbermann and Conan O'Brien) filed against boxing promoters Top Rank, specifically Bob Arum’s son-in-law Todd duBoef, on behalf of one Billy Keane.

That leads to a discussion of how big-money corporate entities have muscled out “connected” promoters out of the fight game over the last couple of decades with Zuffa’s 2007 purchase of the yakuza-tainted PRIDE FC promotion being just one of many examples.

We point out how this lawsuit (PDF link here) will help serve the public relation purposes of TKO/Endeavor and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as they attempt to monopolize boxing over the bodies of old-school promoters like Bob Arum’s Top Rank. And we also ask the obvious question: how does a relative “unknown” like Billy Keane end up suddenly employing one of Hollywood’s most-feared attorneys?

Is this lawsuit a contributing factor to ESPN’s reported divorce with Top Rank Boxing?

From there, we discuss the amazing confluence of Middle Eastern power players represented by the current iteration of TKO/Endeavor (currently largely financed by the United Arab Emirates’ Mubadala Investment Company) and the nascent partnership between TKO and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as represented by Turki Alalshikh and their stated plans to “take over” boxing.

If you or your friends are baffled by some of the big decisions made in fight sports, share our MMA Draw podcast with your friends to get some answers.

We discuss some of the downsides of fighting and traveling in the Gulf States as experienced by Floyd Schofield, Jr. and Floyd Mayweather.

And of course, we dive deep into the revelations from this week’s TKO earnings call with investors — including TKO’s shockingly low net income for 2024 and why that hasn’t put a dent into the lavishly-funded lifestyles of TKO insiders, plus what Mark Shapiro had to say about the Ali Act, and a little bit about the very odd movements TKO’s stock (one of the most-heavily insider-traded stonks on the market today).

The world is getting crazier and you definitely need advocates on your side who can navigate this non-stop news cycle and separate fact from fiction.

Give our free preview of The MMA Draw podcast a listen and take advantage of our 2024 subscription prices before rates go up.

Is Ari Gold ready for his Wrestlemania close-up in Las Vegas?

Before you laugh at the absurd proposition of Ari Emanuel playing the role of The Chairman in a WWE ring, just remember that he is now a billionaire thanks to wrestling. His daughter, Ashlee, worked with Vince McMahon as an Executive Assistant. The man behind The Final Boss was also Vince’s long-time media representative. So, this guy knows a thing or two about a fight circus.

What does this WWE thing have to do with UFC?

Well, if you’ve been paying attention to our articles at The MMA Draw this week, you know that TKO is ready to serve you a big dose of Slop Synergy. You won’t be able to escape any of the various sports brands under the TKO umbrella, which is a $27 billion (plus) empire.

Share this MMA Draw podcast with your friends & family who are wondering what The Rock was talking about on Smackdown.

Your taxpayer dollars is feeding this beast. Those exorbitant ticket prices you are paying for UFC & WWE shows is making Ari Emanuel richer and more powerful every day. Ask the fans in Seattle who generated a near $4 million dollar gate at the old Key Arena for a UFC Fight Night.

This week’s episode of The MMA Draw Podcast with Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold takes a deep dive in a very big week for Ari Emanuel and what he has in store for fight fans in 2025.

Many WWE fans didn’t understand who The Rock was talking about when he name-dropped Ari Emanuel on television, but it is very clear that the man who runs the fight world and Hollywood is ready for his coming out party to a brand new audience. Ari all but telegraphed this development in a recent lovefest with Pat McAfee.

Bottom line? The business is rapidly changing before your eyes. What it means for you as a customer is very serious.

And this is why we do what we do at The MMA Draw. We want dumb money to become smart money. We want fans to make informed decisions. Once you see who is really pulling the strings behind the scenes, it will forever change the way you see the fight business.

Given the incredible resources it takes to cover this complex multi-billion industry in the legal, financial, and television worlds, we are aggressively making a case for you to become an annual paid subscriber.

As our recent track record shows, you can count on us to spot trends others are unable to see or piece together.

The best investment you can make in yourself as a fight fan is to become an annual paid subscriber to The MMA Draw.

We have some good, bad, and great news to share with you.

The good news is that there is still time for you to lock in a yearly subscription at $50. Given how much money you spend betting on fights, buying PPVs, tickets, and subscription services, what we offer is the best opportunity for a fan to get a edge. You get to be the smartest one in the room.

The bad news is that time is running out to subscribe at our current prices. Become an annual paid subscriber to The MMA Draw now before it’s too late.

The great news is that we are ramping up quality content for The MMA Draw soon. More podcasts, group chats, top notch features, and interviews with headliners past and present.

If you hang out on toxic social media or message boards and want to shift your time into building a quality community fight platform, give us a try.

Enjoy this week’s edition of The MMA Draw Podcast and join our family today!

When TKO stock eventually hits $176 a share, Ari Emanuel’s multi-monopoly combat powerhouse that includes UFC & WWE will have a stock market cap of $30 billion.

What does a $30 billion valuation look like? It’s like taking the valuation of the Jerry Jones Dallas Cowboys empire — and multiplying it by three. It’s five times the valuation of the Los Angeles Lakers. Six times the valuation of the New York Knicks.

How did Ari Emanuel, the King of Hollywood, build this monstrous sports and media property?

In this unpredictable economy — where Las Vegas couldn’t give away hotel rooms during Super Bowl week, where ESPN+ subscriptions are declining and Peacock subs are flat — how is TKO riding an enormous wave of technicals boatracing business fundamentals?

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw Podcast with Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold takes an in-depth look at the financial, legal, and political maneuverings behind the most audacious and monopolistic fight promoter in world history.

How did Ari Emanuel manage to create a combat sports version of Standard Oil?

Once you see how strings are pulled, it will forever change the way you look at fights. As a fan, as a customer, and as a taxpayer.

A super-majority of fight fans have absolutely no idea that TKO is a government contractor. They are largely clueless about who Ari Emanuel is, what Endeavor is, and how Endeavor runs the media business.

You and your friends deserve to be treated with respect as fight fans. Spread the word about The MMA Draw newsletter.

Ari Emanuel is everywhere you look. He’s at the Super Bowl. He’s at Knicks games. He’s at Laker games. He’s hanging out with Elon Musk. He’s now part of Elon’s team to try to buy OpenAI from Sam Altman.

Why is it that you have to become an annual paid subscriber to The MMA Draw newsletter in order to understand (some) high finance in combat sports? Because many of the supposed high finance media outlets you rely upon to get your news and information have conflicts of interest when it comes to Endeavor. The world’s elite are represented by Ari Emanuel’s promotional machine.

Learn how the Endeavor political machine works by listening to our MMA Draw Podcast. It will open your eyes to who really runs the world and what they have in store for you.

Whether you spend $2,000 on UFC or WWE tickets or you binge-watch free Youtube clips, you deserve to have your voice heard by key decision makers and influencers.

This week’s MMA Draw Podcast is a heart-to-heart conversation about what is currently happening with media technology & personalities in the fight business.

Everything is changing so quickly — from platforms to politics to the personalities you follow and their allegiances.

“Who’s side is he on now?”

If you spend a lot of your own time or money consuming fight content, you deserve to know where your cash is going and what the world’s powers-that-be have in store for you.

The people in charge of financing fight sports are already ruling the world or have future aspirations in wanting to rule the world.

Comforting thought, isn’t it?

Your friends and family members who watch big fights deserve to hear and read the truth about the sport they love from The MMA Draw Newsletter.

Our MMA Draw Podcast this week reviews some interesting recent developments regarding streaming platforms, subscription-based sites, and where advertising revenue stands. This is a big deal, especially with so much video-based content being produced. How is Endeavor able to generate record-breaking advertising revenue for big UFC & WWE fights while revenue for media platforms is on uncertain footing, especially for independent media content creators?

Our fundraising and subscription campaign kicks off this month for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. Expect to see additional content for our paid subscribers on topics you just won’t see covered anywhere else.

Teaser: We will have an extensive article later this week looking at how the explosive combination in growth of taxpayer cash plus governments as top event purchasers is cementing billions of dollars in revenue for mega-monopoly TKO.

This is, in turn, creating distorted expectations for investors looking to finance minor rivals or new upstarts in the fight space.

"Why can’t you be like them?”

The longevity of the TKO mega monopoly is going to directly impact you as a customer and how much you have to pay in the future to see the combat circus.

It’s one thing to promote the concept of supporting The MMA Draw because we’re independent media, but it’s an entirely different sales pitch when being independent means we can publish the kinds of stories and information that you wouldn’t otherwise see if we were owned by a major corporation. That’s a big deal.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. Become a paid subscriber and find out what insiders in the fight business really think of you.

In this media climate with Endeavor’s massive scale of representation and world governments functioning as leading promoters, it’s getting more and more difficult to find independent voices who aren’t running scared. A growing number of fight voices you listen to are either walking a fine corporate line or as close as you can get to being state-controlled media assets.

Our nearly 30 years of covering the fight business gives us the credibility and experience you can trust in understanding that we will tell the truth about major news stories to the best of our abilities.

Become a paid subscriber to The MMA Draw Newsletter today or consider gifting a subscription to a friend or family member who loves combat sports and wants to know more about the passionate agendas behind the executives in charge.

It’s slowly dawning on Americans, who are so used to being the center-of-attention in fight sports, that they’re no longer in first place.

Every promoter is now chasing Oil Money the same way promoters were hustling to Texas in the early 80s. Instead of cowboy hats, now we have Crown Princes and Shiekhs calling the shots.

Last September, we wrote the article on: The one pathway for UFC, boxing, and Saudi Arabia to get married. Then, the New York Times chimed in on how Endeavor (parent of UFC & WWE through TKO) could help manage the Kingdom’s affairs.

Bottom line? It’s becoming a fact of life that Las Vegas is no longer the major fight capital of the world. They’re the capital of warehouse fights.

Instead, the gravity of Las Vegas on the world stage has been supplanted by the Gulf States. Saudi Arabia. Abu Dhabi. Qatar.

With Abu Dhabi financing Silver Lake, the fund behind Endeavor, the center of gravity for A-level fights is in the Emirates. With Saudi Arabia throwing big cash towards TKO, Endeavor’s footprint is all-in for the Middle East.

Will American fans learn to love this? Or will they quietly find something else to invest their time and money in?

This week’s edition of The MMA Draw Podcast takes a breezy but detailed look at the current state of geopolitical affairs in the Gulf States and how they are flexing their muscles in terms of buying combat sports events and what kind of matches they want to see get booked.

What do the new Powers-that-Be want to see?

There are billions of dollars at stake and America’s big institutions are all in on Dana White as the loudest pitchman since the late Billy Mays.

And now Mark Zuckerberg is hoping Dana White can sell Artificial Intelligence to the masses the same way UFC “normalized” Manscaped’s brand.

Join Nate and Zach Arnold for the first ever MMA Draw Live Chat

4pm ET on Saturday here at Substack

Los Angeles (Sat 1 PM) | New York (Sat 4 PM) | London (Sat 9 PM) | Dubai (Sun 1 AM) | Tokyo (Sun 6 AM)

We are a week removed from one of the most financially successful UFC numbered events in company history. A 10 million dollar gate. Our article on UFC 311 leaving serious questions unanswered about injuries & fight odds receive a huge boost thanks to comments made by participants on The Ariel Helwani Show this week.

For a multi-billion dollar operation that recently escaped the clutches of a gambling investigation, it was amazing to see how UFC 311 was all about Hollywooding funny business.

In this episode of The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack, Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnold examine the chain of events that transpired behind the scenes for UFC 311 and how The Performance Institute’s role is increasingly looming large in what TKO knows about fighters heading into big events. What medical information do they know that the fighters — and you as a bettor — don’t know?

Thanks for reading The MMA Draw Newsletter! This podcast is free, so feel free to share it with your friends and family.

If information is power, then this was the week that Wall Street placed big bets on UFC & WWE. We recently wondered whether or not UFC’s asking price from ESPN for a new media rights deal was too high. It appears the only question remaining is how much.

The world’s elite are circling the wagons around TKO and going all in. Wall Street, Big Tech, social media influencers, and the world’s billionaires.

How did Dana White generationally transition from useful laser pointer for Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta into master marketer for the world’s most powerful people like Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro, and Grant Cardone?

On this week’s podcast, we discuss the amazing ability of Dana White to act as an attention magnet while diminishing media scrutiny around the power players in his orbit. It’s a phenomena that Nate Wilcox recently examined in his article about 'Biohacker' Gary Brecka dishing dirt on his Dana White & Joe Rogan relationships.

Who is calling the shots? Who are the major power players involved? How we did get to a point where your money has been value extracted into the hands of the world’s elite and what products do they plan on marketing to you next?

A multi-billion industry that is flexing its major financial and political power with next to no media scrutiny or analysis. We think it’s a major story with big societal implications. We’re long past the stage of simply carny fight promoters and now into a big tool for Private Equity value extraction and social change.

If you haven’t already subscribed to The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack, now is the time to sign up. There’s never been a better time to follow this explosive news cycle and have someone available to give you a read on what is going on behind the scenes.

Lightweight challenger Arman Tsarukyan is out with an injury he claims he suffered while cutting weight. Brazilian Renato Moicano (+650) is stepping in to face champ Islam Makachev (-1000).

The sudden cancellation added credence to a New York Post report from earlier in the week:

“Tsarukyan created a minor stir earlier this month when a video shared on his YouTube channel had translated his Russian words as saying he was not “100 percent invested” in mixed martial arts, a startling and puzzling revelation for a fighter who meticulously climbed the UFC ranks at 155 pounds since his 2019 promotional debut.”

Additionally, the bantamweight co-main event has been surrounded by rumors and weirdness because champ Merab Dvalishvili (+230) has some visible wounds on his right leg.

California Athletic Commission doctors examined Merabe and debunked rumors that he has a staph infection, rather he’s recovering from surgery on the leg vs. Umar Nurmagomedov (-280)

Since the MMA Draw staff picks went out before the change was made, here are the updated picks for the new headliner.

Islam Makhachev (-1000) vs. Arman Tsarukyan (+250) Renate Moicano (+675)

Miguel Class: What an incredibly sad turn of events. Makhachev vs Tsarukyan was one of the best fights the UFC could make in one of its premier divisions. No other contenders in the top ten seem poised to challenge the reigning champion, including Renato Moicano, who is now replacing the Armenian.

Moicano is a phenomenally skilled fighter with a long-range striking game that serves him well, but his top-position grappling is his most dangerous weapon. But we've already seen him in a short-notice matchup against a southpaw with competent wrestling in former champ Rafael Dos Santos.

Moicano showed his toughness in surviving to the final bell and even getting in some damage in the fifth round, but he was repeatedly taken down, spent several rounds trapped on the bottom, and even nearly got KO'd by an open side head kick. To make matters worse, Moicano is turning 36 this year and has been slowing down, which only exacerbates his durability issues.

As far back as his featherweight fights with Korean Zombie and Jose Aldo we've seen Moicano get hurt and stopped by big counters. Makhachev may not be a dynamite hitter, but he has become a dangerous counterpuncher, as evidenced by the times he hurt Volkanovski in their first fight. And Early Makhachev KO is certainly a possibility. At least Moicano was training to fight a southpaw grappler, so he'll probably be able to land a few jabs and long right hands before Makhachev gets a beat on his timing. What's more likely is that Makhachev patiently pressures Moicano to the fence, takes him down, softens him up with ground and pound, and then submits him. That process may take a few rounds, but it seems somewhat inevitable. Moicano does have some tools that could allow him to manifest a miracle, including anti-wrestling tools like uppercuts and knees as well as a venomous submission attack from the back.

But he's not more dangerous in any of those areas as past opponents like Charles Oliveira, so the chance of an upset is incredibly thin. Late notice replacement fights have a tendency to be weird, but I don't see any reason to expect Moicano to put up much of a challenge. Makhachev by early submission.

Nate Wilcox: I’m picking Makachev but if I were a betting man I’d take Moicano at these odds. He was already training for a fight, he made championship weight with no problem, and neither fighter specifically prepared for the other so a lot of Makachev’s camp advantage is lost. But I expect Makachev by decision.

Picking Makhachev: Stephie Haynes, Blaine Henry, Zane Simon, Miguel Class, Nate Wilcox, Kristen King, Tim Bissell

Picking Moicano: Case Harts (“for the memes”)

The rest of our picks are available here to paying subscribers:

The UFC’s seven-year media-rights deal with Disney’s ESPN is coming to an end and, “according to people with knowledge of the matter” TKO is looking to get $1 billion per year for the rights.

Bloomberg reported that “the UFC would like to remain in business with ESPN” but it’s looking for a lot more than the $450 million/year they negotiated in the old deal.

“We started on ESPN seven years ago and had a rocky relationship in the beginning,” UFC Chief Executive Officer Dana White explained on Bloomberg TV in November. “But now I couldn’t be happier at ESPN, it’s a great relationship and I wouldn’t mind staying with them.”

TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and President Mark Shapiro are taking the lead on the negotiations and believe they have at least four or five prospective buyers for the rights, the people said. They include Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., which just lost the rights to the NBA, as well as Google’s YouTube, at least for the pay-per-view matches.

In today’s MMA Draw Podcast, I’ll talk about the prospects for a new ESPN deal as well as why I think Netflix is in prime position to get the lion’s share of the UFC streaming rights, if not the whole package.

Related content: Why UFC fans need to pay attention to WWE on Netflix

I also discuss “the Netflix flywheel”, how it’s derived from Walt Disney’s original 1957 business plan (see below), how Disney makes money off of streaming sports and much more.

We will be making a big announcement in the near future regarding extra podcasts and original content you will not find anywhere else except The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack.

The MMA Draw Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. Please support our content expansion efforts by becoming an annual paid subscriber.

Please become an annual paid subscriber to The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. Money we generate from our subscribers is reinvested into investigative journalism and razor-sharp analysis on the political, cultural, and financial behemoth that is TKO.

Very few people are covering this multi-billion dollar monster but we are and it’s the kind of uncensored content you won’t find anywhere else. Zach Arnold’s recent article on Dana White’s blockbuster billionaire buddy business divorce is the kind of work product you won’t find anywhere else in the fight space. Major court battles and behind-the-scenes political dust-ups that others can’t — or won’t — talk about.

Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw newsletter on Substack.

This week on The MMA Draw Podcast hosts Nate Wilcox & Zach Arnnold focus on our recent report regarding all the heavy hitters on Wall Street attaching themselves to the debt financing that is powering the Endeavor monopoly behind the UFC & WWE monopolies. Will the bottom financially fall out for non-TKO players in 2025?

A look at this week’s show menu:

Why Ilia Topuria is contemplating fighting at 155 pounds, what matchups make the most sense financially, and where his big fights will likely land

The sudden UFC office push for Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones and how it fits into Endeavor’s negotiations for new media deals

The lingering tension between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier and how recent comments have raised discussion about UFC’s history of promoting non-white athletes as champions

The rush to grab whatever cash is remaining from money marks in 2025 and how this plays into the strategy behind new promotion GFL, which includes advertising retired UFC fighters who signed antitrust declarations proclaiming brain damage

Conor McGregor’s latest attempt at a leverage play and why he mentioned the name of one of the world’s most powerful men

With UFC 310 in the books, it’s time to take a closer look at what the powers that be have in store for all of us heading in 2025.

How much more expensive will it be for all of us to buy UFC PPVs and tickets? In the words of Endeavor COO Mark Shapiro, it’s all about “maximizing pricing.” Feels good to be viewed as a number on a spreadsheet, doesn’t it?

U…

Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold proudly present The MMA Draw 2024 Year-End Audio Special. Get to know us as far as who we are, what we do, and why we do what we do.

Then it’s time to get to the heart of our discussion, which involves four really big hot topics heading in the 2025 combat sports season.

Today’s discussion menu includes:

* The UFC’s current matchmaking process and whether or not the front office actually thinks their current product is good;

* Dana White claiming he’s sick of politics — a smoke screen for a future career? or retreat from customer blow-back to hugging the Hulkster and Trumpamania;

* The heartburn that Conor McGregor should be causing the UFC front office but apparently isn’t… yet… and;

* Who’s ready for a bigger boxing campaign in 2025, Team Jake Paul or Team Turki Alalshikh?

We’re here to provide the cynicism, criticism, and good cheer at those who deserve to be mocked. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the clichés and all about the fight fans. We hope that in this season of giving, we can be of great service and amusement to our readers and supporters.

Thank you for keeping The MMA Draw Newsletter an active player in the combat sports conversation. Give the gift of an MMA Draw subscription this Christmas season as we ramp up our content campaign for 2025.

Content sourcing for our various media clips on The MMA Draw 2024 Thankgiving audio special:

* Mark Shapiro is The Main Event (Andrew Marchand)

* Dana White Riffs on UFC Media & Business Landscape (SBJ)

* Conor McGregor Court Case Reaction (MMA Guru)

* Conor McGregor: Guilty, BUT OF WHAT? (Candace Owens)