Monopoly money: UFC & WWE is morphing TKO into a government cartel

How Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro globalized The Chicago Way of business and politics.

In just 12 hours during Royal Rumble 2025 weekend in Indianapolis, Ari Emanuel’s multi-billionaire fight empire TKO generated at least $40 million in revenue with two big fights on two separate continents.

Normally, big corporations obtain monopoly status by lowering prices against the competition and then raising them after rivals are financially slaughtered. Not TKO.

TKO built a monopoly based on merging other monopolies together to create a massive structural advantage, thus allowing them to gain market share while raising prices for customers. Dynamic pricing, you see.

What we are witnessing with UFC & WWE is full spectrum dominance of a multi-monopoly rapidly growing in the sports and entertainment scene. No one else can do what they are doing right now. They have a $30 billion market cap.

How are they able to do this?

Why hasn’t other big money stepped into the fray to compete for market share against TKO?

Here’s what everyone is missing: TKO is a giant global cultural influence cartel that has mastered crony capitalism. All of the big money is behind it. There is no competition. There may be an illusion of competition (e.g. see Tony Khan/AEW, Donn Davis/PFL) but there is no true competition.

Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro, and Endeavor have created their version of a new world order for combat sports. Standard Oil meets Costco.

Monopolize to increase TKO’s margins with a one-size-fits-all template while increasing costs for barriers of entry and longevity for everyone else.

History doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes. And right now, we are witnessing a once-in-a-century experiment to monopolize the entire combat sports scene.

A small minority of fans are paying attention to what Endeavor is accomplishing, but only a select few truly understand the structure of this new fight cartel and how the world’s most powerful politicians are all aligned in one giant marriage arranged by Ari Emanuel.

What it means for you as a fan, as a customer, and, as a taxpayer has life-changing implications.

For our paid subscribers, let’s take a peek behind the curtain on how Ari Emanuel managed to form a fight version of Combat Costco using the world’s most powerful players.

Big cartels and The Chicago Way