WWE President Nick Khan has criticized boxing's short-term promotional mentality, contrasting it with the long-range planning that has driven success at WWE and UFC.
Speaking with Max Kellerman on Inside The Ring, Khan explained that boxing promoters treat events like liquidation sales rather than building ongoing narratives and star power.
With boxing, it almost feels like once the fight is over, the promoters were like, 'Okay, our night is over. You know, we're done.' The night's just beginning, but because as Dana says, everything's going out of business sale. It's not really existing in a continuum like a league or a tour. There's no long range plan," Khan observed.
Khan highlighted Terence Crawford's team as an exception to this pattern, praising their media strategy following the Canelo Alvarez fight.
I thought Terence Crawford and his team did a phenomenal job post Canelo fight of getting him out there doing podcasts the Monday after doing ESPN hits," he noted.
WWE's Perspective on Competition
The TKO executive revealed that WWE views all entertainment as competition rather than just other wrestling or sports promotions, citing the NFL's Christmas Day broadcast featuring Beyonce's halftime show as inspiration.
At WWE, we see everything as our competition, including someone just staying home on a Saturday night and looking at their phone and texting friends and watching TikTok. When I see things like the NFL on Christmas Day last year and the Beyonce halftime show, that inspires me. That's our competition. I'm not suggesting we're yet in the same league as the NFL, but I look at them and say, 'Wow, they really nailed that,'" Khan explained.
Khan also shared WWE's ambitious retail goals, revealing that the company monitors its Black Friday merchandise performance against the major North American sports leagues through its partnership with Fanatics.
When we get our numbers coming off of Black Friday from fanatics, what we're curious to know is where are we compared to the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and by the way, soon we're going to take the spot of one of those entities. Assume it's not the NFL or NBA, but we're going to take that spot," Khan declared.
Check out WWE President Nick Khan's full conversation with Max Kellerman for Inside Ring:
