Boxing promoter Frank Warren is claiming $ 1bn in lost income from combat-sports brand TKO and Saudi events company Sela, The Telegraphhas reported.

Last Friday brought the shock news that Zuffa Boxing, a new promotion owned by TKO and Sela, had signed Conor Benn from Matchroom, as the British star defected from Eddie Hearn’s company to join a rival outfit. It marked a major move in what Hearn says he expects to be a decade-long promotional feud, and his fellow promoter Warren might just have made the next play.

The face of Zuffa Boxing is UFC head honcho Dana White, working alongside TKO board member Nick Khan and Saudi government official Turki Alalshikh, the latter of whom had worked with Warren on numerous big-time boxing events since 2023.

And per The Telegraph, Warren’s company Queensberry is claiming that TKO and Sela breached contracts they had signed with him, going behind his back to form a partnership of their own.

Queensberry is reportedly seeking up to $ 1bn (£740m) in compensation for income that the promotion claims it would have earned – if the contracts had been honoured.

Legal letters have reportedly been sent, and it is thought that the case could end up with a formal claim being made in the High Court if there is no resolution.

Queensberry is said to have claimed that, in September 2023, it signed an exclusivity agreement with Sela, giving the state-funded Saudi firm access to Queensberry’s insight into boxing.

Queensberry is also believed to beclaiming it signed a separate contract with TKO, allowing the American brand – the parent company of the UFC and WWE – access to Queensberry’s online data, including details of the Sela contract.

Queensberry is therefore reportedly alleging that TKO and Sela went behind its back to ink a five-year deal together, breaching terms of their respective contracts with Queensberry.

The Independent approached Queensberry, TKO and Sela for comment, and a spokesperson for the latter said: “We are disappointed by the unfounded claims brought by Queensberry and Frank Warren. We reject them in their entirety and are confident that the facts will fully vindicate our position.”

The Telegraph reports that Warren did not sign any contracts with Alalshikh personally. Alalshikh is the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, and from late 2023 onwards, he brought Warren together with rival promoter Hearn as the trio arranged a series of seismic boxing events.

Now, however, Alalshikh looks set to be less involved with these British promoters as he focuses on Zuffa Boxing, whose executive leader White is also president of the UFC.

White is close friends with US president Donald Trump, and the UFC is due to host an unprecedented fight card at the White House on 14 June.

Meanwhile, Warren has decades of experience in boxing promotion but is currently best known for promoting Tyson Fury, a former two-time world heavyweight champion. Fury will end his fifth retirement when he fights Arslanbek Makhmudov in April.