Nick Khan Says Promoter Delays Are Driving Broadcasters Away From Boxing
Zuffa Boxing executive Nick Khan says promoters are taking two weeks on decisions that should take two hours.
Boxing did not run out of talent. It ran out of patience from the people writing the checks.
Zuffa Boxing executive Nick Khan told The Varsity with John Ourand that major U.S. broadcasters pulled back from boxing because promoters made the business side unbearable. The core problem, per Khan, is that basic decisions take far too long.
"Decisions that should take two hours take two weeks, and you can not get straightforward answers from your partners," Khan said, describing what network executives told him about working with boxing promoters.
Khan pointed to the inability of rival promoters to agree on main events, leaving broadcasters in limbo while other sports deliver reliable schedules and consistent programming. Networks eventually decided the headache was not worth the trouble.
Zuffa Boxing, backed by UFC ownership, positions itself as the fix. Khan says the company can offer broadcast partners "a clearer path from a proposed fight to an actual event" by functioning as a well-funded organizer capable of pushing fights across promotional lines.
Whether Zuffa Boxing can actually deliver on that promise remains to be seen. But the diagnosis is hard to argue with. Boxing has been losing broadcast deals for years, and the fighters are not the ones to blame.
Khan is not saying anything boxing fans do not already know. We have watched mega fights fall apart over promotional turf wars for decades. Fury vs Joshua almost died a dozen times before it got signed, and that is a fight the entire planet wants to see. If the biggest fight in boxing can barely get made, imagine what happens with the mid-tier cards.
Zuffa Boxing having UFC money behind it is a double-edged sword. On one hand, they can steamroll the nonsense and just make fights. On the other hand, Dana White running boxing scares a lot of people in that sport, and not without reason.
But Khan is right about the core issue. Networks want reliability. Boxing gives them chaos. Until that changes, the sport will keep bleeding platforms.
