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Mark Shapiro got $7.7 billion for UFC. As he likes to say, ‘it’s an eat what you kill world.’

When Mark Shapiro is sitting, one of his legs is usually shaking up and down. When he is standing, he can wear out a carpet with his pacing. Colleagues joke that they have motion sickness after Shapiro makes a presentation

That energy is necessary for Shapiro as president and chief operating officer of TKO Group, parent of Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment.

In the past two weeks, Shapiro orchestrated a $7.7 billion deal to bring the UFC mixed-martial arts fights and their crowds of young male fans to Skydance’s Paramount, betting millions more will see the fights. He also negotiated a $1.6 billion deal to take WWE to Disney’s ESPN.

“He’s just a bat out of hell at all times and he doesn’t stop,” said ESPN star Stephen A. Smith of Shapiro. Smith credits Shapiro with guiding his career for more than two decades and Shapiro—in his other job as president and managing partner of talent agency WME Group—engineered Smith’s new five-year deal valued at more than $100 million.

UFC Chief Executive Dana White says Shapiro “knows more than everybody else about the business.”

White, who got a shout-out from President Trump in his victory speech on Election Night, is planning a UFC cage fight on the White House South Lawn.

The adjectives most commonly used to describe Shapiro—tireless, tenacious, boisterous, and even ruthless—have a common theme. He doesn’t mince words and likes to be in control. “It’s an eat what you kill world,” he is fond of saying.

Another favorite of Shapiro’s: “If you don’t deliver, you won’t be here.”

“Ever since the day he came out of the womb he was in charge…telling everyone what to do,” his sister Pam said of her brother in a tribute video to him when he was leaving ESPN in 2005.

A native of the Chicago suburb Glenview, Shapiro grew up one of five children. His parents split up when he was a toddler and his mother moved to New York, where she worked at Time Magazine for decades. Shapiro stayed in Glenview but often visited his mother in New York and it was not uncommon for him to be at the Time offices when an issue was being put to bed.

He idolized Bob Costas, the pre-eminent sports anchor of the 1980s and 1990s, and as a teen hosted a sports show at his high school that aired on the local cable-access channel. He went to the University of Iowa and nabbed a highly coveted internship at NBC Sports, often working events Costas was covering including the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

How Shapiro got the internship speaks to both his hustle and moxie. Worried that a cash-strapped Midwesterner lacking an Ivy League pedigree would have a hard time getting in the door, he asked his stepmom, who was a flight attendant, if she could get him on a plane to New York on standby free. He called NBC and arranged an interview, landing an internship that would last through college.

After graduation, Shapiro started looking for work and soon had a decision to make: a low-level job at ESPN or at NBC Sports. His dad asked which would be easier to advance in and Shapiro said ESPN. His father told him that he should go there and that cable was the future.

It didn’t take long for Shapiro to make himself known at ESPN. His drive and eagerness to learn impressed some superiors.

But speaking his mind as a 22-year-old often landed him in hot water. He almost got fired for saying that host Jim Rome’s no-holds barred style of interviewing would get him “thrown on his ass.” Rome would eventually literally get thrown on his ass by Ram quarterback Jim Everett during an interview.

Steve Bornstein, who headed ESPN at the time, took Shapiro under his wing, and Shapiro rose to head of programming and production. Programs he developed included the long-running “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption,” which remains one of ESPN’s biggest non-sports shows.

Bornstein is now plotting his protege’s next move—succeeding Bob Iger at the helm of Disney next year.

“He’d be a great CEO for Disney,” Bornstein said.

It was on a cross-country flight in 2002 that Shapiro had a chance meeting with Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood power broker. Emanuel spotted Shapiro frantically typing with his two index fingers. After watching him for a few hours, Emanuel was mesmerized.

“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Emanuel says. He persuaded the person sitting next to Shapiro to switch seats and asked, “what the f—k are you doing?” Shapiro replied he worked at ESPN and was preparing a report for Disney bosses Michael Eiser and Iger.

Emanuel and Shapiro, who are from neighboring Chicago suburbs, hit it off. Soon, they were talking regularly.

Today, they are joined at the hip. Emanuel is executive chairman and chief executive of TKO and executive chairman of talent agency WME Group. Both TKO and WME Group are subsidiaries of privately held Endeavor Group Holdings.

Shapiro left ESPN in 2005 to run Red Zone, a private-equity fund that was controlled by Dan Snyder, the then-owner of Washington’s NFL franchise.

In 2013, Shapiro became an adviser for WME and its private-equity partner Silver Lake, eventually rising to president of the conglomerate in 2018.

“We talk 25, 30 times a day. There’s an incredible amount of trust. He’s a workaholic and I’m a workaholic,” says Emanuel. Both have had enough success that there aren’t the petty fights that might have happened in their younger days, Emanuel says.

Rahm Emanuel, Ari’s older brother and former Chicago mayor, jokes that the difference between the two is that Mark asks how the kids are doing before telling you what he needs.

With TKO’s major rights deals mostly locked in for the next several years, Emanuel and Shapiro will now focus on integrating other assets it acquired from controlling owner Endeavor Group, including Professional Bull Riders and IMG, the sports and marketing consulting firm. Shapiro will also be tasked with keeping UFC and WWE content fresh.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who negotiated a “Monday Night Football” deal for ESPN with Shapiro in 2005, says of Shapiro: “He’s got the ability to figure out strategy and make people perform at their highest level.” Shapiro also has a sense of optimism that Goodell finds refreshing. “He sees opportunities rather than worrying about all the negatives,” he says.