Zuffa Boxing promises to reshape the sport, but its biggest impact may be in how fights are broadcast.
Zuffa Boxing is reportedly close to joining the UFC on Paramount+, following TKO Group Holdings’ record-breaking broadcast deal with the US media giant last week.
According to Front Office Sports, Paramount is the frontrunner to land broadcasting rights for the new boxing promotion.
Zuffa Boxing is backed by TKO, the parent company of both UFC and WWE and is led by UFC CEO Dana White and WWE President Nick Khan. It is financially supported by the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s events arm SELA and General Entertainment Authority Chairman Turki Alalshikh.
Unlike traditional boxing promotions, Zuffa is designed to follow the UFC’s blueprint, offering regular fight cards, centralised matchmaking and consistent year-round scheduling to help improve the sport’s current fragmented structure.
The promotion plans to stage 12 events per year, featuring up to four high-profile “megafights”. The first of these will be Canelo Álvarez vs. Terence Crawford, which is set to take place on September 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
If the deal goes through, it would mirror TKO’s recent agreement which brought the UFC to Paramount+ in a seven-year deal worth $7.7 billion. This contract made headlines last week because it moves away from the pay-per-view (PPV) model.
Beginning in 2026, UFC fans in the US will have access to all content through Paramount+, with 13 marquee numbered events and 30 Fight Nights included in the streaming subscription. Therefore boxing stakeholders have raised questions about whether Zuffa Boxing could follow the same path.
Boxing’s pay-per-view legacy
Pay-per-view has been central to boxing’s business model for decades. Its origins trace back to the closed-circuit television era, when fights such as Joe Louis vs. Jersey Joe Walcott in 1948, and Muhammad Ali’s Rumble in the Jungle in 1974, were broadcast to paying audiences in theaters.
Then in the 1980s and 1990s, cable television enabled fans to order fights directly into their homes, turning stars like Mike Tyson into PPV juggernauts.
The 2000s and 2010s marked boxing’s PPV boom, with Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao in 2015 generated more than 4.6 million buys and half a billion dollars in revenue. Mayweather’s bout with Conor McGregor two years later drew another massive audience, cementing PPV as the sport’s best model.
More recently, streaming platforms such as DAZN, ESPN+ and YouTube have added online PPV options, though rising prices and accessibility issues have led to growing criticism.
A shifting media landscape
New research from InterDigital and Parks Associates highlights just how dramatically viewing habits are changing. More than 40% of sports fans now watch exclusively via streaming platforms, with women making up a growing share of this audience.
Younger fans in particular prefer streaming, with two-fifths of those under 35 consuming sports on digital or even social media platforms. At the same time, fans are frustrated by technical hurdles, as over half report challenges such as buffering, poor video quality and lag when streaming live sports.
This shift, if issues can be resolved, explains why major players like Paramount and Netflix are investing heavily in sports rights.
“Sports viewers should not have to deal with technical issues when watching their favorite sports teams. The broadcast and streaming ecosystem needs to work together to alleviate pain points or risk damaging their reputation for future events,” said Lionel Oisel, Head of Video Labs, at InterDigital.
While streaming services need to think holistically about the challenges that come with live video streams, more advanced video codecs can significantly reduce buffering and latency and improve the overall user experience.”
PPV isn’t dead yet
While the UFC’s move to subscription-only broadcasting suggests there is a new era in the fight game, White insists that PPV still has a role to play. “There’s no pay-per-view involved in this deal,” White told the New York Post of the Paramount contract. “Pay-per-view is not dead.”
This view may be especially relevant for Zuffa Boxing. With its regular monthly schedule designed for streaming audiences, Paramount+ could provide the foundation for consistent engagement.
However, the handful of planned megafights each year, such as the Alvarez-Crawford card, offer a clear opportunity to keep PPV alive, ensuring blockbuster bouts can still command premium prices.
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