TKO Boxing, the new “sweet science” promotion formed by UFC CEO Dana White and Saudi slickster Turki Al-Sheikh, is supposed to launch its 2026 fight campaign on Jan. 23 at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, part of a stacked fight week that culminates with UFC 324 on the Paramount+ streaming network. That’s less […]
TKO Boxing, the new “sweet science” promotion formed by UFC CEO Dana White and Saudi slickster Turki Al-Sheikh, is supposed to launch its 2026 fight campaign on Jan. 23 at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, part of a stacked fight week that culminates with UFC 324 on the Paramount+ streaming network.
That’s less than a month away.
Considering this is the official launch of TKO Boxing, it would stand to reason that White and Co. would go above and beyond to promote the Jan. 23 lineup. Unfortunately, very little information regarding the event has been published outside of the initial reports pointing to the late January lineup.
As far as who’s fighting … that also remains a mystery.
“They’re arrogant and they think they’re going to come in and dominate boxing, but it’s not going to happen,” Matchroom Boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn, told Ariel Helwani. “Haven’t they got a show on January 23? That’s their first show, right? It’s a month away. So I’ve got no idea. You’ve got to come out of the blocks with a bang, you can’t come out with something lame. What are you going to do, do a show in the APEX to launch TKO Boxing? It’s got to be a monster and with four weeks to go how much of a monster can it be? I want to be up against them. Whether we are product wise, we’ll see very soon. But they’re very good, they’re very smart, they’re very connected. But if they come out weak on January 23rd, they are going to get … because everybody’s waiting to give them an absolute shellacking.”
“So many people in boxing want them to fail and I don’t think they will fail,” Hearn added. “But if they get it wrong and it stinks the place out in January … the worst thing they could do is come out with something poor. A rushed, poor product, because they don’t actually understand boxing, at all. I’m intrigued. Because I said, these are smart guys! But where we are positioned right now, coming off that win with Anthony Joshua, our TV contracts, our stable, our brand identity globally, our schedule that’s already lined up now until the end of the year, we are absolutely cooking on gas. 2026, we are going to smash it. Bet on Matchroom. We are going to be unbeatable in the space.“
We’ll find out in just a few weeks.
Category: General Sports
