Nick Khan, Hollywood's King of Fight Closers

Can the man who made WWE richer during COVID capture a third fight monopoly for TKO?

Nick Khan was always made for the spotlight — and very much attracted to it.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Nick Khan is a central architect of TKO’s attempted take over of all combat sports.

How did this happen?

As the public story goes, he and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson were childhood friends attending Polynesian Pro Wrestling (PPW) events at the Neal Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu. For old-school fans, Blaisdell was also home to T. Jay Thompson's Superbrawl MMA events.

Hawaii, to no one's surprise, remains one of UFC's strongest markets. They love fight sports.

PPW matches used to air on satellite TV in the United States, including one hidden gem of a match between Kerry Von Erich and Ric Flair:

As the old adage goes, if you hang around the circus long enough eventually you’ll run off to join it.

As The Rock played college football and navigated the Memphis wrestling circuit before he became a mega-wrestling star in WWE, Nick Khan moved into the world of Hollywood through the management route. Mr. Khan became an expert negotiator and deal-maker at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). CAA represented the NFL during its media rights negotiations in 2011 and represented WWE in 2018 when they negotiated media rights deals with FOX and NBCUniversal.

He was the head of television at CAA and represented some of the biggest names in sports and sports media. Including one major high-stakes, high-profile deal involving Mike Greenberg.

"Greeny" wanted a big deal with ESPN. There was no way he wanted to take a pay cut at Disney. The cost of getting a big bag of cash from Disney was getting a high-profile divorce from his long-time radio co-host, Mike Golic. Both men shared an agent (Lou Oppenheim). When it came time for Greeny to get a pay raise, he signed with Nick Khan and the rest was history.

Mike and Mike was appointment listening for an American Xennial audience when ESPN Radio mattered. A generation of sports fans was raised on ESPN Radio. The idea of Mike and Mike ever splitting up was unimaginable.

But Mike Greenberg had bigger aspirations. It was Nick Khan who engineered a major cash deal for Greenberg to become a lead figurehead for ESPN programming for a reported $6.5 million a year.

The contract caused a major earthquake in sports and entertainment media circles. It was a pure power play that only someone with the gifts of Nick Khan could execute.

Khan also represented other leading sports announcers like Jim Nantz and Ian Eagle. As The New York Post labeled him, Nick Khan was the sports media version of Scott Boras. In 2025, one might be slighted by that comparison.

After building a hugely successful reputation in Hollywood, Nick Khan did the unthinkable: he went to work for Vince McMahon.

What Hollywood power player in their right mind would do that?

It’s no coincidence that Mike Greenberg was among the first to publicly congratulate Nick Khan on his move to WWE.

Nick Khan discovered what Ari Emanuel, Vince’s media representative, had previously discovered several years prior: there’s a lot of money to be made in wrestling. The squared circle of kayfabe offered even bigger paydays than Hollywood.

Ari got an inside look at the world of streaming through the eyes of WWE Network. That meant Ari understood the power and potential of streaming five years before the rest of Hollywood. This proved to be very valuable insider information.

Vince McMahon gained first-mover status in the US sports and entertainment media world with the launch of The WWE Network. At the time of launch, it was all the rage for sports and entertainment properties to create their own App and platforms. The success of The WWE Network caught the eyes of some very important people.

Vince always wanted Hollywood’s respect. Well, he certainly got their attention.

Eventually, in 2016 Ari Emanuel and Endeavor made their move to purchase UFC for $4 billion. Nick Khan, meanwhile, made a huge calculation — and gamble — that ditching all of the business and political power he accumulated at CAA would handsomely pay off with WWE. Most people in such a position would have never made such a move.

From the outside looking in, ditching a powerful position at CAA to join the wrestling circus looked absurd. Why would anyone do that?

Only someone who loved wrestling would make that move. The potential for a giant pay raise also had to be attractive to Khan.

The tradeoff? Working for the notoriously ruthless, cunning, and erratic Vince McMahon. This would prove to be incredible foreshadowing for future events playing out in today’s fight landscape.