Max Kellerman to Call TKO’s Zuffa Boxing on Paramount

Max Kellerman is adding another role to his boxing responsibilities.

Kellerman will be on the call for Zuffa Boxing, sources told Front Office Sports. Zuffa is a collaboration between Saudi official Turki Alalshikh and TKO Group, and recently signed a five-year deal with CBS Sports parent Paramount. Adding Kellerman to the package will be a factor in making the fights feel like big productions. 

Kellerman has long-standing ties with the TKO leaders who are involved in the project. He was one of WWE president Nick Khan’s closest clients when Khan was a super-agent at CAA, and has had a strong relationship with UFC boss Dana White dating back to when Kellerman was one of the first big mainstream sports media personalities to speak positively about the MMA promotion.

Kellerman was also on the call for the Canelo Álvarez–Terence Crawford mega-fight in September, which was another partnership between Alalshikh and TKO. This event was promoted by Riyadh Season and aired on Netflix. Furthermore, Kellerman hosts Inside the Ring—a show produced by Alalshikh’s Ring Magazine and Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions—with boxing insider Mike Coppinger and former NFL star LeSean McCoy on DAZN. It would not be surprising if Kellerman, a former ESPN talent, also adds a general sports talk show to his docket in the coming months. 

Zuffa Boxing’s deal with Paramount begins in January; there will be 12 fight nights in the first year. They will all air on Paramount+ and it is possible some will be simulcast on the CBS broadcast network. The goal is for boxers to build their profiles in Zuffa and ultimately earn spots on the big fight cards like Canelo-Crawford. 

“I pitched UFC to everybody and I pitched boxing to everybody. This is how it turned out, and they’re separate deals, but the relationship with Paramount already has been incredible,” White told FOS’s Eric Fisher in September. “Right from the beginning, we’ve completely jelled, and it’s only going to get better.”