Dana White and Turki Alalshikh are facing a $1 billion lawsuit

British boxing promoter Frank Warren and his company Queensberry Promotions are preparing or have started legal action that could seek up to $1 billion from Dana White’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, and the Saudi-backed events group Sela, of which Turki Alalshikh is chairman. The dispute centers on the creation of Zuffa Boxing, a new boxing promotion led by White and Alalshikh, which allegedly built on agreements that Queensberry alleges were circumvented or violated.

Main legal claims

Queensberry’s position, as reported by several media outlets citing legal documents and correspondence, is that it entered into an exclusive operating agreement with Sela in September 2023, with Warren providing boxing expertise as the Saudi company looked to enter the sport. Around the same time, Queensberry also claims that it had a separate agreement with TKO, the combat sports company of UFC and WWE, which gave TKO access to Queenberry’s data and the Sela scheme.

Queensberry alleges that Sela and TKO then used that information to create Zuffa Boxing, a joint venture structure that aims to oversee and centralize major boxing projects backed by Saudi financing, without properly involving Warren’s group or honoring previous contractual agreements. The claim is that this move has effectively cut Queensberry out of a multi-year ecosystem that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in media rights and event revenue, with Warren’s team saying the potential revenue loss could reach the $1 billion mark over several years.

Role by Dana White and Turki Alalshikh

Zuffa Boxing is led on a day-to-day basis by Dana White, who remains president of the UFC, while Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, serves as a key Saudi partner and co-founder of the company. Nick Khan, president of WWE and board member of TKO, is also mentioned as a public figure in the new structure.

Alalshikh has previously worked with Warren on multiple high-profile British boxing events, including installments of the Riyadh season calendar, and was instrumental in bringing Warren and rival promoter Eddie Hearn together for corporate collaboration. However, the rise of Zuffa Boxing has dramatically changed the dynamic, with Warren’s camp arguing that Alalshikh’s Saudi-linked entities are now joining White and TKO in a way that sidelines Queensberry’s previous role.

Context of Zuffa Boxing’s structure

Zuffa Boxing is described as a Saudi-American joint initiative utilizing the Zuffa brand, which is historically associated with the early-era ownership group of the UFC. It is believed to be co-owned by TKO Group Holdings and Sela, with the latter being a state-funded entity linked to the Saudi Public Investment Fund-backed entertainment apparatus.

Reports indicate that Zuffa Boxing has already secured or is in the process of securing multi-year media deals worth an estimated $500 million in the US and other markets, involving platforms such as Paramount+ and discussions underway with British broadcasters such as Sky Sports. This underlying valuation supports Queensberry’s argument that its exclusion from Zuffa’s ecosystem could translate into hundreds of millions to a billion dollars in lost revenue streams from events, data rights and broadcast interruptions.

Legal mechanisms and current status

Queensberry has sent TKO and Sela so-called ‘pre-action letters’, which are formal legal notices that usually precede a formal claim in the UK High Court or an equivalent jurisdiction. These letters set out the alleged breaches of contract and outline the demand for compensation, noting that Queensberry is seeking up to $1 billion (£740 million) in claimed lost income.

If the parties fail to reach a settlement, Queensberry has indicated its intention to file proceedings, which will likely focus on the 2023 Sela agreement, the TKO data sharing agreement and the way Zuffa Boxing was structured and capitalized. The case would also investigate whether Sela and TKO used confidential information or operational knowledge of Queensberry to gain an unfair competitive advantage in building Zuffa’s portfolio.

Positions of the other parties

Sela has publicly responded by saying she is “disappointed” by Queensberry’s claims, describing them as “baseless,” while stating that she plans to fully defend herself. The company has portrayed the situation as a commercial disagreement and stressed that it is confident the facts will support its position

TKO and Dana White’s camp have not provided a detailed, unified legal response, but the internal reporting is reportedly focused on the idea that Zuffa Boxing is a new company created under valid corporate authority, and not a derivative of Queensberry’s contracts. White has long been critical of boxing’s fragmented promotional model and has argued that a more centralized, media-driven structure could better serve fighters and broadcasters, a position that supports the Zuffa boxing story even as the lawsuit unfolds.

Possible implications for boxing

If the dispute goes to court, it could force a public broadcast of the internal Saudi and TKO-Sela negotiations, including how events, media rights and fighter contracts have been allocated since 2023. That level of transparency could complicate the Saudi-backed boxing calendar, as promoters and networks may hesitate to sign long-term deals if underlying contractual disputes are not resolved.

For traditional British promoters like Warren and Eddie Hearn, the case is a test of whether established promotional relationships with Saudi entities still have enforceable weight against newer, more centralized structures like Zuffa. If Queensberry is successful in proving violations of exclusivity or misuse of confidential information, it could set a precedent for how Saudi-backed projects should negotiate with Western promoters, while a defeat would likely accelerate the shift of control to the Zuffa-Sela-TKO axis.