TKO President Mark Shapiro said Zuffa Boxing will promote the upcoming heavyweight showdown between returning giant Tyson Fury and Russian fighter Arslanbek Makhmudov, which Netflix is airing on Netflix, from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on April 11.
The revelation adds another rift in the war between upstart fight firm Zuffa and boxing‘s traditional powerhouses like Queensberry Promotions and Matchroom.
It started long before Zuffa even aired its first show in 2026, and the events thereafter have taken on a ProBox 2.0 feel, like a modern version of ESPN’s Thursday Night Fights.
But, through its alliance with Riyadh Season, who were prominent considerations on marketing material to announce the acquisitions of Jai Opetaia and Conor Benn, it’s clear UFC boss Dana White is staying true to words he told Boxing Social last year, that there’d be room in their event-planning for four marquee shows featuring top names. The cruiserweight champion Opetaia and British banger Benn both fit that billing.
The Benn signing in particular stunned the industry, not least because Matchroom was positioning Conor as the promotional company’s next pay-per-view sensation, following in the footsteps of two-time heavyweight king Anthony Joshua, and women’s pound-for-pound mainstay Katie Taylor, with the latter one fight from retirement.
Hearn even courted controversy over his unrelenting advocacy for Benn when the fighter tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene, circumventing a ban from British boxing by giving Conor dates in the US, before his two-fight series with Chris Eubank Jr., which only elevated the fighter’s profile.
And so it was no surprise to see a contemplative and teary-eyed Hearn to lament his own “mistake” in his first address since Zuffa lured Benn from under his nose.
It was even less of a surprise to hear an unapologetic White tell Hearn to “stop crying,” while saying to reporters that his ability to enter the sport almost unopposed was akin to beating up babies.
The language was not lost on Warren, one of Hearn’s former rivals, who clapped back at White this week. “We’re not babies,” he clapped back.
It comes at a time when Warren is preparing a $1 billion legal complaint against the sport’s financier Turki Alalshikh, Sela, and Zuffa, according to The Telegraph.
Responding to the reported lawsuit, Ring Magazine — which Alalshikh bought from Oscar de la Hoya for a reported $10 million in 2024 — came out guns blazing.
In Ring Magazine’s explosive comment on X, it leaned on what it said were “rumors” to say “Queensberry is in financial trouble” without its partnerships with Sela and TKO. Ring did not provide supporting evidence in its statement. What’s more, records at Companies House have the business posting a profit of $15 million in its most recent financial documents for the period up to end of March, 2025.
On the same day, Shapiro said Zuffa and Sela are promoting Fury vs Makhmudov during a quarterly earnings call with investors.
Such a comment only drives the dagger deeper as Zuffa shows it’s not come to boxing to take part but, perhaps, to take over, as Fury vs. Makhmudov — on Netflix, no less — is the clearest sign yet that Zuffa intends to fight the old guard outside the ring, as fiercely as its fighters do inside of it.
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