Quickly, Paramount has gone from an afterthought to a frontrunner as a fight broadcaster. After striking a megadeal with the UFC on Monday, the company is reportedly on the verge of landing rights to Zuffa Boxing.
Per Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports, Paramount is the “frontrunner” to bring Zuffa fights to its platforms. UFC parent company TKO Group Holdings serves as the managing partner and operational arm of Zuffa, with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Firm providing the funding.
After securing fresh cash through its recent merger with Skydance Media, Paramount this week committed nearly $8 billion to lock down UFC rights for the next seven years. Now, new CEO David Ellison appears ready to double-dip with TKO through a deal with Zuffa.
The first Zuffa “superfight” between Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford is scheduled for Sept. 13 in Las Vegas. It will air on Netflix. Per Front Office Sports, Shapiro confirmed on an earnings call that TKO received a fee for negotiating the deal with Netflix.
Given that Zuffa is in its infancy and these “superfights” would figure to generate a massive bidding war, the scope of a potential deal with Paramount will be interesting to follow. Al-Sheikh has been vocally anti-pay per view on X, and Zuffa is just building out its roster of boxers. A package of smaller, more regular fights would be a far lesser deal than for the UFC numbered cards contract, for instance. But if Paramount is indeed negotiating for exclusivity on these “superfights” and the Álvarez-Crawford main event is an indication of Zuffa’s juice in the boxing world already, Ellison may want to get in early.
No matter what this new Paramount-Zuffa deal ultimately looks like, it is clear that Ellison and his leadership team prioritized TKO as a partner from the outset of the merger. Fight sports are growing in the U.S., and they are some of the only live sports inventory available right now. With the UFC deal and potentially one with Zuffa, Ellison is beginning to establish Paramount+ as a more important sports streaming service while ensuring CBS will be propped up with sports as traditional television consumption dwindles.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.