The Impact of Zuffa Boxing on Traditional Promoters in 2026

There seems to be a misconception that Zuffa Boxing and TKO won’t work with other promoters or organizations in boxing this year but that maybe not the case.

Maybe however for some of the in decline promoters and advisers like Arum, De La Hoya, Haymon and so on, sure, that’s it for them, so long, they will just become less relevant in America and worldwide as the powers that be in all countries keep coming to boxing this year.

To clarify this for balance, talks are behind the scenes Haymon the founder of PBC Boxing has been very sick behind the scenes the last couple of years anyway, Arum is ancient must be nearly 100 now and is on his last legs and De La Hoya, well, he has lost a lot of fighters in recent years. Todd De Boeuf could still run Top Rank who have a few relevant fighters, Sam Watson and others could run the PBC no problem and others like Gomez or others could run Golden Boy instead of De La Hoya. As individuals we no longer see traditional advisers like Haymon, promoters like Arum or De La Hoya, as relevant in 2026 and onwards in boxing.

However we think the Matchroom group in the UK and internationally will maybe go to new heights and quite brilliant, extraordinary new levels of success if they want close to the UFC (worth $23 billion at the moment).

That’s up to them.

Because they are just not traditional boxing promoters.

Crucially they promote professional sport as well (with everything happening in the market and AI at the moment and so on — and with ESPN in decline recently a lot — Stephen A Smith is on his way out of there in the big picture as well soon we think).

Matchroom could use much of this too to help their boxing offering as well in the time ahead (like the UFC do with MMA and boxing and so on — others as well involved WWE and so on — cross promotion is bigger than ever in sport now with attention spans of sports fans shorter than ever — weigh that up as well).

Furthermore, the UFC or other international groups could easily buy the contracts out of some of the relevant fighters from some of these companies anyway or even maybe acquire one of the companies all together and put it under the TKO or Zuffa or UFC or even another’s entities branding in the West or the East — quite easily.

Think about that as well.

Moreover, the changes in the Muhammad Ali Act will bring it up to date as well soon and as the youngest heavyweight champion ever Mike Tyson said recently, he said these changes to the law will help professional boxers and benefit them a lot.

The same can be said for many promoters and non snake oil salesmen managers in boxing, more of which will leave boxing continually this year one way or another.

But proper companies and people in boxing will only benefit as will the industry we think, but Zuffa Boxing entering boxing, many traditional promoters like Hearn, Warren and more will certainly benefit in the UK and worldwide this year and their companies we think.

We don’t think anyone is trying to take over the sport of boxing and control it but certainly there needs to be major reform and currently is being made in boxing at the moment.

Remedying many of boxing’s problems with a chainsaw and iron fist approach is the only way to do it at the moment and all year long in 2026 to bring boxing up to date and compete with the NFL, UEFA Champions league soccer cup and FIFA soccer world cup.

The Impact of Zuffa Boxing on Traditional Promoters in 2026

That is where boxing is going in terms of the masses watching the sport again in terms of all platforms showing boxing again across many nations in the East and West.

Zuffa Boxing will only benefit many of the quality traditional promoters in 2026 we think as the sport is going to benefit.

There has been some reports saying Zuffa Boxing are doing their first boxing event (since Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford) at the Apex in the UFC gym in Las Vegas on January 23rd but that has not been officially confirmed yet from what we know.

If that is the case, they are probably using their first event to test the production and technical teams that they are putting in place now with Paramount, of which are new to boxing as well but a major network and online streaming service in America, to not only test but to get right from day one.

Paramount have invested many billions into the UFC in a streaming deal which we understand Zuffa Boxing will also avail of to show professional boxing.

So it’s the UFC’s first proper big boxing event with Paramount in place for their first big streaming event in 2026 as well — there is a lot of technical roll outs involved in that.

If they hit that running with production from day one with Paramount it will be optimal for them and for boxing as a professional sport and industry.

That’s why they might be starting off behind closed doors at the Apex, or at least a small event there, to get that production right from the off with Paramount in boxing and of course in their UFC offering in the sport of MMA as well (mixed martial arts).