The final column of the TKO tower: Why Dana White was always coming for boxing

LAS VEGAS — Media and fans raised cameras and phones to get shots of superstar fighters Terence Crawford and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who gestured to the crowd while walking toward boxing’s biggest stage Thursday.

The Canelo vs. Crawford fight week was in full swing by the time T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, usually home of the UFC, hosted the event’s final pre-fight press conference. The hardware was undeniable, as “Canelo” took his seat surrounded by his WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine championship belts. Saturday’s fight pits the long-reigning super middleweight ruler against a fellow pound-for-pound staple, and both fighters embraced the lead promoter Dana White before saying a word.

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Canelo vs. Crawford, airing globally on Netflix, represents an extraordinary meeting between two of boxing’s most skillful fighters.

But there is an additional narrative: The belated grand arrival of TKO in boxing — the final combat sports frontier for a company that, in 2023, merged the biggest brand in sports entertainment, WWE, with the biggest in combat, UFC.

“What’s up, everybody?” White said to the thousands of fans and media in attendance.

The 56-year-old has long been synonymous with mixed martial arts and the growth of an $11 billion brand, but for years he’s derided boxing as a “broken” sport. Regardless, he’s now the frontman for its biggest bout of the year.

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So, how did we get here?

This has been a long-time coming for White, whose first attempt to enter the sport for real came in the aftermath of 2017’s Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor crossover superfight, which sold 4.3 million pay-per-views in the U.S. market.

White teased Zuffa Boxing during the “MayMac” promotion but the project never materialized.

In 2019, White vowed Zuffa Boxing would launch by October of that year, only to admit to delays by year’s end. In 2020, he told Yahoo Sports that boxing was a “mess” and later conceded to TSN: “I’m not doing anything [in boxing] anytime soon.”

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Everything changed in 2023, when the launch of TKO — fresh from merging UFC and WWE — collided with the unparalleled financial might of Riyadh Season.

Considering two 800-pound gorillas, WWE and UFC, were now operating under one umbrella, Uncrowned asked White whether there would be room for a boxing organization within that company.

“Yes,” was the short answer. He smiled, but declined to elaborate when asked.

In a separate interview with Sportsnet, White praised Saudi Arabia for being able to make fights in boxing that weren’t previously able to have been made. “These guys have the money,” he said.

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With these worlds appearing to combine, Uncrowned asked White later in 2024 whether TKO would assist in the formation of Turki Alalshikh’s rumored boxing league. “Anything is possible,” the UFC boss said, before abruptly leaving his chair and ending the press conference without courting follow-ups.

Months later, Alalshikh and White confirmed their partnership to the Alalshikh-owned Ring Magazine.

“I’m excited,” White said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the sport of boxing.”

These aren’t just empty words.

White, you see, was a boxing nut long before he revolutionized MMA.

Back in the late 1980s, the iconic Golden Gloves winner Peter Welch helped mentor White when he was still just a teenager as he showed him the business side of the sport. Years later, when White was teaching his own classes in South Boston, Kevin Weeks — mob lieutenant to Whitey Bulger, the infamous boss of the Winter Hill Gang — tried to extort $2,500 out of him.

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White refused, left the city and fled to Las Vegas.

In the fight capital, he connected with childhood friends Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, and together they bought the struggling UFC for $2 million in 2001. White became president, and over the next two decades he helped transform the UFC into the powerhouse it is today, with considerable Las Vegas real estate, industry-leading Performance Institutes, and a Paramount+ broadcast deal worth $7.7 billion over seven years.

With TKO, combat’s biggest-ever empire towered over global sports and entertainment with two massive columns — mixed martial arts and pro-wrestling. But even then, there was still a gap: A boxing-shaped pillar missing from the structure.

If White’s entry into boxing feels like unfinished business finally being addressed, then Nick Khan’s role is something closer to destiny. Khan, the WWE president, has boxing in his blood — his first clients as a former super-agent were Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach.

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Those early ties to modern boxing’s most enduring marriage in Pacquiao and Roach gave him a front-row education in how the sport worked, and also how it didn’t — the fractured promoters, the tangled networks, and the way politics could prevent great fights from happening.

From there, Khan built a career in representation and media rights, climbing to the top of the industry until he became WWE president.

That position placed him at the center of the 2023 merger with UFC, which created TKO. For Khan, now steering the combined empire, boxing is less a business expansion than a personal homecoming. The sport that first captured his imagination is now the final column he and White are adding to TKO’s towering portfolio. All they needed was a trial run so their vision for boxing could succeed.

And so before there was ever a rumor of Canelo vs Crawford, there was Callum Walsh — a young, Irish super welterweight bruiser who no doubt reminded White of the lightning-rod that Conor McGregor had been when UFC enjoyed its spectacular popularity boom from 2014-16.

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In 2024, the 154-pound prospect headlined a show in Dublin, and though it was a Tom Loeffler fight, it was also promoted and organized under the revived Zuffa Boxing banner. It wasn’t a superfight by any means, but it was significant.

Uncrowned understands the event was described behind-the-scenes at UFC headquarters as a proof of concept — a chance for White and his team to demonstrate they could handle matchmaking, event production and broadcast distribution in boxing just as seamlessly as they had in MMA. The Walsh card was modest compared to the UFC’s blockbuster nights, but it worked. It proved Zuffa Boxing could exist as more than a shirt White once wore during the promotion of Mayweather vs. McGregor.

Canelo vs. Crawford, meanwhile, isn’t just another fight; it’s the biggest bout of the year, staged inside the Allegiant Stadium in front of a 60,000 fans, and broadcast worldwide on Netflix.

For TKO, this is no longer a test run. This is the full rollout — and a statement of intent.

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But White’s grand plans come with a flashpoint.

At the Canelo vs. Crawford press conference, boxing reporter Sean Zittel pressed White on TKO’s push to sidestep the Muhammad Ali Act — legislation designed to protect fighters with fair rankings, medical standards and bargaining rights. White appeared flabbergasted. He called Zittel an “a**hole,” and told him to “beat it.”

The exchange exposed a deeper fault line. California regulators had already postponed discussion on the proposed changes after a contentious commission hearing, where public reaction was overwhelmingly against TKO’s bid to create its own rankings and championship system.

This followed Uncrowned’s own reporting in which we polled a dozen insiders across the breadth of the boxing business, including boxers themselves, and found the majority felt that the sport should not be exposed to “a power grab” from TKO.

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The stakes couldn’t be higher.

DAZN remains the only significant broadcaster still investing heavily in boxing, while PBC struggles to secure dates on Prime Video, and Top Rank is yet to land a platform after nearly two months in the abyss following the expiration of its ESPN contract.

Beyond that, it is largely Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season and now White’s TKO who are shaping the future of how big fights get made.

And so TKO’s reality is now here, eight years on from Zuffa’s false start.

For White and Khan it is a shared childhood passion that comes full circle, while for boxing it is ironic that the figurehead who branded the sport as a mess is now front-and-center at its grandest show.

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The unresolved question? Whether TKO arrives as the sport’s savior, or as its conqueror.