Add as a preferred source on Google TKO Group Holdings has ruled out any possibility of backing away from its Saudi Arabia partnership involving WWE and UFC.
During the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro said the group will move forward with its scheduled events in the Middle East, even after confirmation that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will stop financing LIV Golf.
According to Shapiro, TKO’s Saudi partners have assured the company that the LIV Golf situation will not repeat itself with TKO. He said the commitment to WWE, UFC, and Zuffa Boxing remains unwavering for 2026 and beyond.
The next major test for that relationship comes on June 27, when WWE runs Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh while UFC holds a Fight Night event headlined by Fiziev vs. Torres at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan.
After that doubleheader, TKO still expects to hold six more events in the Middle East throughout 2026 across its different sports properties. The company has also treated the region as a key piece of its international expansion, especially after this year’s Royal Rumble helped boost WWE’s first-quarter revenue.
The partnership between WWE and Saudi Arabia began in 2018 as part of the Vision 2030 project.