TKO COO Mark Shapiro's ruthless message to Team UFC & Team WWE

Ari Emanuel's unmistakable imprint: no one is bigger than the Endeavor machine.

Mark Shapiro by Chris Rini

We finally got a peek at what the mindset currently is for TKO management. Three months after the assets of UFC & WWE merged into a holding company called TKO, COO Mark Shapiro made an appearance on a UBS conference call that was both horrifically painful yet psychologically fascinating to listen to – especially if you are a UFC or WWE fan that doesn’t live in a major metropolitan area.

The 30-minute conference call was an absolute non-stop blitz of ridiculous Wall Street jargon mixed with some of the harshest, soulless venture capital speak imaginable. In other words, it was the perfect encapsulation of what combat sports currently resembles.

Normally, these types of conference calls with business executives are a waste of time. It’s a lot of deciphering buzzwords. However, Mr. Shapiro did send some interesting messages not only to investors but also to current management and employees at TKO. His conference call remarks resembled an American college football coach using a press conference to send a message to his locker room under the guise of addressing the public at large. It’s exactly a tactic you would expect from a former ESPN boss.

2024 is going to be a year of dramatic change and no one is safe, whether you are working for TKO or if you are trying to become one of their competitors. We found ourselves intrigued by the high-stakes games of politics involving Dana White, especially with his latest charade in California over Power Slap. More on that later.

With that as the back-drop, here is our unique summary of the key points from the TKO conference call with UBS.