Inside the Octagon: How AI Brings UFC’s Fastest Moments into Focus
Most of what happens inside the UFC Octagon is too fast for the human eye to follow. Enter Alon Cohen, Executive Vice President of Innovation for TKO, who has spent 15 years building the data and AI systems that expose the hidden moments that help decide a match. Malcolm Gladwell sits down with Alon to uncover how UFC’s partnership with IBM turns chaos into clarity, giving fans and commentators a deeper story behind every bout.
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Ari Emanuel - The Anti-AI Bet - [Invest Like the Best, EP.448]
My guest today is Ari Emanuel. Ari runs one of the most influential portfolios in global sports, entertainment, and media. He oversees TKO, which includes the UFC and WWE, serves as the Executive Chairman of WME Group, and recently founded MARI, a new company focused on global events and live experiences.
At the center of this conversation is Ari's anti-AI bet: as AI makes digital content cheaper and everyday work more automated, he believes the value will increasingly concentrate in live and physical experiences. He explains how he’s building his portfolio around that belief, what defines a great live experience, and how he thinks about AI’s impact on content and IP.
Ari is best known as a dealmaker, and he shares the principles behind his success – relentless follow-up, over-communication, velocity, and an obsession with making things happen – and how those things become the operating system he uses today.
If you’re listening to this, I recommend watching the video of this interview. Ari’s energy is constant and visceral, and gives a different dimension to this episode.
Please enjoy my conversation with Ari Emanuel.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Ramp. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus.
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This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform.
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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Show Notes:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:04:20) Meet Ari Emanuel
(00:05:32) The UFC Story
(00:10:03) Mindset, Relentlessness, and Emotional Endurance
(00:13:52) AI’s Impact on Content and Distribution
(00:18:44) Value, Taste, and the Future of Content
(00:19:43) The Anti-AI Bet: Live Events and Experiences
(00:22:39) Monetization, User Experience, and the Premium Economy
(00:26:21) Building and Scaling Live Event Businesses
(00:27:16) Boxing and the Business of Live Entertainment
(00:28:45) Lessons from Dana White and Dealing with Dyslexia
(00:31:32) Getting a Job at CAA and How to Be a Successful Agent
(00:35:50) Ari’s Operating System
(00:38:04) Lessons from Egon Durban
(00:39:36) Betting on Himself and Elon
(00:43:16) Who Wants to be Normal?!
(00:44:23) The Art of Dealmaking
(00:48:58) Money, Family, and Learning from Mistakes
(00:52:45) The Future of Tech, Media and Content
(00:57:32) Concerns and Excitement about the Future
(01:00:16) Art
(01:01:01) The Kindest Thing
Ari Emanuel on the Future of Entertainment: Hollywood, AI, Creator Economy, YouTube vs Netflix
(0:00) Introducing Ari Emanuel
(1:03) Ari's background in the content business and Hollywood
(4:14) How infinite distribution is changing Hollywood, the future of podcasting, creators owning advertising products
(9:21) AI's impact: anticipating the 3-day workweek
(12:13) Splitting time between TKO and WME, YouTube vs Netflix for creators, modern IP ownership
(18:20) How he got a fighter's reputation, relationship with Michael Ovitz, how he built on Ovitz's vision
(22:12) Future of sports entertainment: adapting to attention spans, clip culture, going global
(24:21) Ari's relationship with his brothers and Elon Musk
Thanks to our partners for making this happen!
Solana - Solana is the high performance network powering internet capital markets, payments, and crypto applications. Connect with investors, crypto founders, and entrepreneurs at Solana's global flagship event during Abu Dhabi Finance Week & F1: https://solana.com/breakpoint
OKX - The new way to build your crypto portfolio and use it in daily life. We call it the new money app. https://www.okx.com/
Google Cloud - The next generation of unicorns is building on Google Cloud's industry-leading, fully integrated AI stack: infrastructure, platform, models, agents, and data. https://cloud.google.com/
IREN - IREN AI Cloud, powered by NVIDIA GPUs, provides the scale, performance, and reliability to accelerate your AI journey. https://iren.com/
Oracle - Step into the future of enterprise productivity at Oracle AI Experience Live. https://www.oracle.com/artificial-intelligence/data-ai-events/
Circle - The America-based company behind USDC — a fully-reserved, enterprise-grade stablecoin at the core of the emerging internet financial system. https://www.circle.com/
BVNK - Building stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure that helps businesses send, store, and spend value instantly, anywhere in the world. https://www.bvnk.com/
Polymarket - The world's largest prediction market. https://www.polymarket.com/
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Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://x.com/yung_spielburg