Frank Warren and Queensberry Promotions are seeking up to $1 billion (£740 million) in damages from TKO Group Holdings and Saudi events company Sela, alleging that Warren was cut out of what became Zuffa Boxing. The TKO-Sela joint venture that launched in early 2026 with a 5-year Paramount+/CBS broadcast deal and 12 cards scheduled for the calendar year. According to reporting in The Telegraph and The Athletic, Warren contends he was promised a meaningful role in the venture’s formation and was excluded when the final structure was agreed, costing him quantifiable income from the platform’s revenue stream.

The financial exposure is significant within TKO’s own earnings architecture. The company’s seven-year, $7.7 billion Paramount+ deal, the largest in combat sports history, covering both UFC events and the new Zuffa Boxing slate, underpins a 2026 revenue guidance of $5.675 billion to $5.775 billion. TKO posted $1.58 billion in Adjusted EBITDA on $4.73 billion in total revenue for 2025; a nine-figure judgment or settlement against its boxing subsidiary in its inaugural operational year would absorb more than 60% of that EBITDA figure and would arrive precisely as TKO’s capital return program, including a $1 billion stock buyback initiated in Q1 2026, requires financial stability. The lawsuit does not just threaten a check; it threatens the narrative.

Warren’s dual positioning sharpens the story. Queensberry is simultaneously signed to a multi-year DAZN deal, placing Warren as both plaintiff against Zuffa Boxing and as the leading independent promoter competing against it. His fighters Agit Kabayel, Moses Itauma, Nick Ball are building their records on DAZN, not Paramount+. If the lawsuit proceeds to discovery, it will force disclosure of the internal deal documents governing the TKO-Sela partnership, including the revenue splits, exclusivity terms, and initial partner discussions documents that would give every competing promoter, fighter agent, and antitrust plaintiff a detailed map of how Zuffa Boxing was built and who was left out.

The $375 million Le v. Zuffa settlement, distributing $251.1 million net to roughly 1,200 fighters resolved the pre-2017 conduct period. Three successor class actions are now targeting the period that settlement did not cover. Johnson v. Zuffa (Case No. 2:21-cv-01189, D. Nev.) recorded a court filing on March 27, 2026. Davis v. Zuffa (Case No. 2:25-cv-00946, D. Nev., originally filed May 29, 2025) had activity on March 30, 2026. Both actions allege ongoing monopsony conduct: UFC fighter pay runs approximately 13–18% of revenues versus the ~50% benchmark in unionized professional sports leagues. On TKO’s reported UFC revenue of $1.502 billion for 2025, the gap between 16% and 50% fighter share represents roughly $512 million annually. That arithmetic is the core of the damages theory, and active late-March filings confirm both cases are in active litigation rather than settlement posture.

H.R. 4624, the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act of 2026 passed the U.S. House on approximately March 24 and was received and referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on March 25. Sponsored by Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA-3), the bill would establish federal minimum standards for boxer contracts, compensation disclosures, promotional agreement terms, and sanctioning body conduct. Critics have argued the bill risks codifying exclusivity structures that mirror the UFC’s labor model, effectively importing the conditions that produced the Le v. Zuffa antitrust litigation into a federally regulated boxing framework. The bill’s arrival in the Senate marks the furthest any Ali Act successor has progressed in the current cycle. Senate Commerce Committee scheduling remains unannounced.

Top Rank finalized a multi-year broadcast deal with DAZN carrying approximately $1.25 million in rights fees per event, per Ring Magazine. Golden Boy Promotions simultaneously extended its DAZN relationship under a new multi-year agreement. The additions bring the DAZN boxing roster to four major promotional companies: Top Rank, Golden Boy, Queensberry, and Matchroom, all competing against Zuffa Boxing’s Paramount+/CBS platform rather than through it. Zuffa Boxing’s refusal to co-promote with the existing boxing ecosystem risks producing a talent-thin island while DAZN’s aggregated network can deliver cross-promotional unification fights that Zuffa cannot. The first competitive ratings test arrives imminently: Zuffa Boxing has 12 Paramount+ cards slotted for 2026, and each card’s viewership numbers will define whether the Saudi-backed entity’s exclusivity model generates sufficient commercial momentum.