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In today’s episode, we’re looking at Zuffa Boxing’s lofty goal of becoming a $20B third arm of TKO’s combat sports empire and how that can be achieved. We also discuss Floyd Mayweather’s legal complaint in detail and whether we think it will be settled. We review the WBC’s latest failings and include Mauricio Sulaiman’s social media faux pas along with those. But in our introductory segment, we walk down Memory Lane with a discussion of the classic movie Taxi Driver which celebrated its 50th anniversary on Feb. 8th. John is a certified cinema nerd, so this was a rare treat for him. There’s a lot more, so make sure to follow along with our outline as you listen:

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Episode 226 Outline

* Taxi Driver 50th anniversary chat

* Are there any updates to the UFC antitrust cases?

* Now that we have Floyd Mayweather’s lawsuit available to look at, what are your initial thoughts after looking it over?

* Does the complaint say how much he did make in his career and how much is unaccountable?

* Is there a reason they are suing Showtime and Espinoza and not Al Haymon?

* Stephen Espinoza seems unbothered by the accusations against him. Do you think he should be worried?

* Do you think it will be settled?

* The sanctioning organizations, specifically the WBC, are under fire again, with Shakur Stevenson declining to pay $100K in fees. What’s going on that we should know about?

* Do you think Mauricio Sulaiman is handling things correctly considering his social media behavior (liking derogatory/demeaning posts about Shakur)?

* An interview was conducted with Mark Shapiro and Ari Emanuel where they discussed the value of UFC and WWE being $20B/each. Do you agree with that valuation?

* Shapiro said there are still ways they can cut costs from UFC and WWE. Are you surprised by that and do you have any ideas how they could possibly achieve that?

* They said they will be announcing some international deals soon. What might those be?

* They also discussed their goal of bringing Zuffa Boxing to that point. Do you think it’s possible, and how fast could they get it to that value?

* Nakisa Bidarian noted in an interview that he felt Zuffa Boxing would be successful thanks to them playing the long game. Thoughts on that?

*Floyd Mayweather’s lawsuit complaint PDF*