TKO Reportedly Working With Saudi Arabia PIF To Launch New Boxing League

TKO Group Holdings is reportedly joining forces with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to launch a boxing league. The New York Times reports that the parent company of WWE and the UFC is working with Sela, a company owned by the PIF, to create the new league, with a deal for a new competition featuring up and coming boxers potentially being announced within weeks.

The report cites three people close to the situation and says that the boxers would be exclusive to the league, whose name is not yet known. The report notes that Saudi Arabia tried in June to create a multibillion-dollar boxing league that was hoping to united the sport and that while those attempts have not been fully abandoned, it “proved complicated and expensive.”

The report goes on to sat that TKO would be a managing partner and has been offered an equity stake and a share of the revenue. If the deal completes, TKO would earn management fees of nearly $30 million a year.

TKO issued a statement to the outlet that said it had “nothing to announce… [but] would evaluate any unique and compelling opportunity that could fit well in our portfolio of businesses and create incremental value for our shareholders.”