The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and TKO, a newly formed boxing promotion led by Dana White and Turki Al-Sheikh, are reportedly seeking to make changes to the Muhammad Ali Act.
“Presently the UFC/TKO is requesting an amendment change to the Mohammad Ali Act. The board of directors is working with them to make sure the ABC is still part of the federal law,” Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports President Michael Mazzulli said, according to Combat Sports Law.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was passed into law on May 26, 2000 in an effort to expand upon the 1996 Professional Boxing Safety Act and protect the rights of boxers. In the absence of a central governing body in boxing, passing the act into law provided a myriad of protections for fighters such as preventing promoters from simultaneously acting as managers and requiring promoters to disclose financial details of fights, including revenue distribution, to boxers. Twenty-five years after it was passed into law, a spokesperson for the UFC says it is looking to “expand the Ali Act to create more choices and opportunities for boxers.”
“TKO is having preliminary conversations with members of Congress about how we can work together to expand the Ali Act to create more choices and opportunities for boxers,” a spokesperson for the UFC told ESPN’s Andreas Hale. “We believe the enhancements we are discussing could help to inspire a boxing revival in America, provide American boxers with access to greater opportunities and better protections, and lead to more boxing events across our country.”
TKO and UFC’s push to amend the Muhammad Ali Act is not entirely surprising. In 2016, the UFC lobbied against an amendment that would extend the act into mixed martial arts. More recently, TKO Executive Chairman Ari Emanuel told Pat McAfee that the Muhammad Ali Act “hurt” boxing.
“We’re starting to talk about boxing,” Emanuel said. “We’re kind of looking at that right now. I think you’ve got the Ali Act that hurt it. Hopefully, who knows what’s going to happen with the Ali Act. And then Dana has a plan for boxing. We’ll see.”
The efforts of the UFC and TKO to amend the Muhammad Ali Act are not exactly well received by many fans and some former fighters. As news of the organizations’ efforts to amend the act began to circulate, it was met with push back from many.
“The Muhammad Ali Act protects fighters from coercion & exploitation. For the president of the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) to partner with a promoter to weaken it is a betrayal of duty,” X user Carla Duran wrote.
“This should be BIG news. Proper scandalous and is gonna impact fighters ability to negotiate massively. They want you to bleed for peanuts,” another X user added.
Many insiders expect TKO to launch in September when Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Terence Crawford meet in a super middleweight super fight, but nothing has been confirmed. In the meantime, the UFC will move forward with UFC on Saturday, April 11, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada as more is learned about organization’s joint effort to “expand” an impactful piece of legislation.
