The ongoing debate about the future of professional boxing regulations has intensified recently when WBC President Mauricio Sulaimán appeared to respond to comments made by WWE President and TKO Group Holdings CEO Nick Khan.
Khan’s remarks came during a December 2025 interview with , in which he discussed TKO’s ambitions for Zuffa Boxing and criticized existing sanctioning bodies, including personal references to Sulaimán.
Nick Khan Key Quotes on
Khan questioned the practice of stripping titles for unpaid fees, citing Terence Crawford’s situation after the Canelo Álvarez fight:
“First of all, on Terence Crawford’s side… Terence Crawford won this championship unanimously. So how exactly is it that two and a half months later he is no longer the champion…? Because he didn’t pay the fee?”
“It would be like if the Los Angeles Dodgers…won a grueling seven-game World Series…It would be like Major League Baseball coming to them and saying, ‘Well, you didn’t pay us any fee, so you’re no longer a World Series champion.’ Only in the sport of boxing do you see such nonsense.
About sanction fees and the value of belts:
“3% [sanctioning fee] it’s a cash grab…wearing a green belt.”
“Belts mean nothing.”
Khan also personally commented on Sulaimán’s requests for essential events:
– By the way, the gentleman who runs this organization [misnaming it as ‘World Boxing Confederation’]… This is supposed to be a non-profit organization. Driving to Canelo-Crawford, he found he couldn’t stay in a regular hotel room. He needed an apartment. He wanted to make sure his tickets would be front row. He wanted to make sure there were enough tickets. It seems quite strange to me that sports are played this way.”
Khan supported improvements to the Muhammad Ali Act to provide fighters and promoters with alternative options.
Mauricio Sulaimán’s response to the case
During the segment, host Ariel Helwani played clips of Khan’s interview, which resulted in Sulaimán giving a detailed and animated response. He defended the WBC protocols and criticized the tone of Khan’s statements.
On Khan misnaming the organization:
“He doesn’t even know the name of the WBC… the World Boxing Confederation.”
On characterizing his comments as “low class”:
“What he’s saying… is such a low-class thing.”
Sulaimán explained the reasoning behind the WBC’s accommodation and ticket policies:
“WBC regulations state that the president gets a suite when he goes to a fight. Why a suite? It’s not supposed to be pretentious… We have meetings with people from all over the world, lots of materials… We bring activations, souvenirs to hand out in the gyms. We have staff. When I go to a fight, I have 15-20 meetings with people.”
“I don’t need tickets. I need credentials to work as a supervisor. The rules state that the WBC is entitled to a certain number of tickets. These tickets are for certain executives, certain fans or certain gyms that we give away. We have tickets to give away for every fight.”
He rejected a personal portrait:
“So trying to tell me that I’m arrogant or demanding is a low-class act.”
“I’m not interested in a popularity contest… But how low can you go to employ this as ammunition instead of talking about boxing stuff?”
Sulaimán compared the WBC model with proposed alternatives:
“The reality is completely different… Of course there are no sanctions because they take all the money. It’s ridiculous… If you compare one to the other, it’s not apples to apples.”