Tony Khan is using his connections.

Khan’s father owns the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Tony is part-owner of the Jaguars as well as Senior President of Football and Analytics with the team.

On Wednesday, Khan’s All Elite Wrestling (AEW) started to sell lucha libre masks on AEW’s web site.

Per Tony:

“We are thrilled for the official launch of AEW NFL officially licensed Lucha masks,” said AEW CEO, GM and Head of Creative Tony Khan. “The AEW NFL collection is the perfect opportunityfor fans to showcase their passion for both All Elite Wrestling and their favorite National Football League team at the same time.”

The masks go for $60 a piece.

Payout Perspective:

I will confide with you that this was my idea years ago. I probably would not have the connections to get a license for these things. Also, I would not have the tie-in as AEW has with the NFL. Yet, this is a cool idea that NFL fanatics (no pun intended) would purchase to support their team.

Ronda Rousey announced that the minimum that a fighter will make for the Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) event May 16th will be $40,000.

Rousey spoke at the promotional press conference to hype up next month’s event airing on Netflix. Rousey and Gina Carano met the media. The two did not mx it up verbally, but Rousey was quite animated about current UFC star Kayla Harrison. Rousey said Harrison had the “charisma of a wet towel.”

She also indicated that the minimum a fighter would make on the card would be $40,000. Rousey noted that if one were to fight three times a year, it would be more than a living wage. Of course, Rousey may have been talking with a level of aspiration as we do not know if MVP will move into MMA.

Payout Perspective:

MVP indicated that it would determine the future of its foray into MMA dependent on this show. This may infer that Rousey may come back to fight more than this one against Carano. But MVP must deal with much more than just paying fighters. It must put on quality fights and fighters. The good news is that it seemingly has a willing partner in Netflix to air events. We will see how this turns out.

UFC 330 returns to Philadelphia on August 15th according to a joint announcement on the Pat McAfee show.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, joined the show with UFC President and CEO Dana White to make the announcement on ESPN’s McAfee show.

The event will take place at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will be the first time in fifteen years that he UFC returns for a numbered card. It was August 2011 when Tito Ortiz squared off against Rashad Evans in the main event. The last UFC event in Philadelphia was a UFC Fight Night in 2019 when Justin Gaethje stopped Edson Barboza for Fight of the Night Honors.

Philadelphia was also the place for UFC 101 in 2009 which saw the memorable walk off of Anderson Silva destroying Forrest Griffin.

Payout Perspective:

An interesting way to announce the event with the Democratic Governor of the state on with Dana White. On Saturday night at the post-fight press conference for UFC 327, White attempted to temper the UFC White House card as non-partisan even going so far as to claim that his speeches at the Republican National Conventions were not on behalf of the GOP. In my opinion, it would seem that TKO is attempting to assuage non-Republicans from portraying UFC as the GOP sport as its clear that the company is experiencing financial projected headwinds. It’s not that they aren’t making money, its that they aren’t making as much as they would like. Moreover, despite the glossing and glazing of the company with Trump, its apparent that they know that his popularity is waning at the moment.

Wrestlemania week is upon us and despite tepid sales for the two night event at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the company rolled out a new membership program “Club WWE.”

Club WWE is being dubbed, “the ultimate insider membership program designed to bring fans closer to WWE than ever before!”

There is an annual membership fee (not disclosed) involved with joining a tier called, “Club WWE Gold” which “unlocks” a range of premium benefits including:

-Exclusive 24-hour ticket presale acces

-Members-only WWE Shop

-Bonus WWE content

-Dedicated members-only community

-Points-based rewards system

-Premium Welcome Pack for Found Members

Payout Perspective:

Obviously this was contemplated well before the company discovered that ticket sales were slow and they had to offer discounted prices through the Monday before Wrestlemania. Despite this issue, WWE is going through with a “subscription-based” membership program offering exclusive items. Notwithstanding the die-hard fans, the timing of the roll-out seems ill-timed considering the economic headwinds that everyone is not talking about. Regardless, the WWE will likely be pushing this down your throats this weekend and on its programming.

The Professional Fighters League and DAZN announced on Tuesday it has agreed to an exclusive multi-year partnership renewal in Central Europe. The deal will bring live coverage of PFL Global events, PFL MENA and PFL Africa to fans in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxemberg.

The deal began this past weekend with PFL Chicago. Details on the amount of years or the cost of the deal were not disclosed.

In the United States, the PFL’s existing media deal with ESPN ends at the end of this year and it has likely started to negotiate and/or shop for its next partnership.

UFC 327 took place at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on Saturday.

The event drew 17,741 for a gate of $6,518,684 according to the UFC.

The Fight of the Night went to Josh Hokit and Curtis Blaydes. The heavyweights put on one of the craziest and exciting fights in the division in recent memory. Hokit and Blaydes threw haymakers and combinations at each other for three rounds with Hokit getting the best of most exchanges. Despite both being visibly exhausted they continued to throw and neither one was knocked down from the big blows. Each received $100K.

In addition, Josh Hokit received another $100K. Although I had not checked, it seems like this is the first time a fighter has received an announced $100K Performance Bonus with this new structure without scoring a KO, Submission or being FOTN.

Carlos Ulberg earned $100K as he won the UFC Light Heavyweight title from Jiri Prochazaka. Ulberg suffered a leg injury during the first round of the fight and while Prochazaka decided not to attack the leg, it allowed Ulberg to remain in the fight and score a KO.

The finish bonuses went to Cub Swanson in his retirement match against Nate Landwehr. Swanson scored a first round KO as he became the last WEC fighter to step into the Octagon/Cage. Swanson received $25K.

Also receiving $25K finish bonuses were Mateusz Gamrot, Tatiana Suarez and Vincente Luque.

During the UFC 327 broadcast, it was announced that Gable Stevenson has signed with the UFC and will debut July 11 at UFC 329.

Stevenson, a former Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and NCAA Division I amateur wrestling champion has fought 4 pro MMA fights going undefeated.

Prior to his MMA career, he trained to be a professional wrestler at the WWE Performance Center starting in 2020. Despite the hype behind him, he was released in 2024. In May 2024, it was reported that he had signed a deal with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills to play defensive line. He was subsequently released in August of 2024.

He then started his MMA career with his pro debut in September 2025.

Stevenson was sitting next to former UFC champion Jon Jones prior to in the crowd at UFC 327 when Jon Anik made the subtle announcement.

Stevenson will fight during UFC’s International Fight Week in Las Vegas in July. His opponent has not been announced but it’s likely he will be one of the central figures on the card.

The president will make an appearance at UFC 327 in Miami. This year’s appearance comes at a time where the United States is embroiled in a war with Iran and “peace talks” are taking place this week.

Yet, as with most times he appears at the UFC, it is to boost his ego. This will be at least the 10th time that the president has attended the UFC. In all instances, he has received his own entrance to booming applause.

Notably, at UFC 302 in June 2024, the president received a standing ovation two days after being convicted on 34 felony counts. Similarly, the president will seek re-assurance from many who support him at UFC 327.

Ahead of UFC 327, the uniform compliance pay for each fighter scheduled to enter the Octagon on Saturday.

The number in parentheses indicates the number of fights each has in the UFC including the fight they are slated for on Saturday. Those with a * indicated they fought on Dana White’s Contender Series. the # indicates they fought in LFA.

On Friday, TKO announced a multiyear sponsorship agreement with “technology-enabled licensed insurance agency Supersure. It was announced by the Sports Business Journal that it was the first sponsor to be involved in the broadcast of UFC Freedom 250.

TKO announced a broader deal with the Florida-based company which will include UFC, Zuffa Boxing and UFC BJJ.

Supersure will be the Official Small and Medium Business Insurance Partner for TKO. Its the first time this category has been open. It also infers that TKO is leaving open the opportunity for a bigger insurance company to sign on with it.

The CEO of Supersure is Howard Makler. Notably, Makler was a part of a company named Innovation Refunds. It has sponsored the UFC in the past. A year or so ago, Makler interviewed White (and vice versa) as part of some sort of Innovation Refunds marketing piece. In the interview they talk about White working through COVID-19.