Yesterday was the day.
March 24, 2026. When the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favour of suspending the rules and passing the Muhammad Ali Revival Act to the Senate.
In a December hearing by the House Subcommittee on Education and Workforce from, chairman Tim Walberg said: “This bill is a strong step toward protecting fighters, ensuring fairness, and honoring the legacy of one of our nation’s most celebrated sports.”
There are not a lot of people in the sport who do not share his views, but almost nothing has been done about it.
One boxing insider has called the sport’s answer to the proposed changes “a total failure.”
“Same old story,” they said. “No one truly cares. I’ve spent months getting people to submit protests and speaking with senators staffers; just all a waste. I’m sick. I feel like everything we wanted to do to protect fighters was for nothing. All these people protesting now stayed quiet for months and months… now they want it stopped? They should have spoken up then.”
“It’s a shame it’s come to this,” said another administrator. “I hope it gets killed in the Senate or at the very least constructively amended.”
To varying degrees, there have been objections. Top Rank’s Bob Arum has submitted his disapproval, though another boxing veteran wished Arum was 20 years younger and could have fully shown his teeth at what was going on.
On Tuesday, Oscar De La Hoya took to social media to write: “Tomorrow they will push the amendment to the Ali act through the House of Representatives. Holding and lying through the process. But it still needs to pass in the Senate. Why isn’t the media covering any of this? Where are you? Have you all been bought off?”
So why aren’t large sections of the media covering any of it?
And why hasn’t anyone formed a powerful and influential coalition within boxing to do anything about it?
Everyone seems to be looking at one another and shrugging.
Maybe, in a time of short attention spans, anything with H.R 4624 and the Muhammad Ali Revival Act doesn’t grab the attention as it might have done years ago.
It is not rocket science, but bills and laws are often of little interest to those who simply want to see two people punch one another in the face.
One side of this feels like the changes would enhance and strengthen the act, the other fears it would gut it.
It will allow entities, like Zuffa Boxing, the ability to create their own titles and manage their own rankings but the control of the sport and the fighters would run far deeper.
It speaks to the power of those involved that there were no galvanised efforts from those in boxing to stop the so-called Revival Act, likely because if they made their true feelings felt, they would fear the reprisals of being frozen out of whatever is to come next.
There has been the odd voice here or there. A few hardcore custodians on X and alike. But no one of serious note staunchly put their head above the parapet and tried to unite what boxing was to take on what boxing will become.
There is also the possibility, it is worth noting, that those seeking change wield so much political and financial power that there was no point in trying to stop it.
There has been the feeling, since Day One, that whatever happened in congress was going to merely be rubber stamping.
But there have been so many troubling aspects to it, not least that attorney Pat English, one of those who drew up the original act in 2000, called the proposed version “a betrayal.”
USA Boxing, the body that governs amateur boxing in the States, did an about turn and went from approving it to withdrawing their support, although they certainly didn’t go all out to slam it.
If the role of USA Boxing was interesting the role of the ABC has been more troubling throughout.
“In my opinion the ABC threw fighter rights out the window,” said the administrator.
There were apparently plenty of dissenting voices within the group, fearful of speaking up.
There are also many unanswered questions about relationships that have been formed between those in the ABC and those who proposed the changes.
Then there are those who have been loath to voice dissention to those changes because they were actually fed up with boxing, something many had called a “broken sport,” and how it was working, with poor rankings, a lack of the best fighting the best, unsuitable and questionable punishments for drug cheats, and that is even before you get to the recent rows between the IBF and Jai Opetaia and the WBC and Shakur Stevenson. Some people do think the new way will be the right way.
But it clearly won’t suit everybody, not least small promoters, as explained here by Larry Goldberg and the team at Boxing Insider.
Still, it has been interesting to see how little coverage the story has received everywhere given the twists and turns.
When the Ali Act was first rolled out, Ring magazine, then edited by Hall of Famer Nigel Collins, called it “Another step in the right direction.”
It listed 13 things that would benefit fighters, from having the right to be treated in a professional manner and be fully informed about all aspects of their sport to having the right to have any terms of any contract with a promoter and manager in writing. It also said that fighters had the right to have contracts read and explained to them by the local commission, an attorney or anyone else of their choosing as well the right to receive “written postbout accounting from either promoter, your manager or both, which shows you how the total amount of your bout was distributed.”
Now some say the Ali Act as we knew it was wonderful. Some say it would have been wonderful had it been enforced. Whatever, there are plenty who contend that – with the legal speak it current consists of – that it does have the fighters’ best interests at heart.
On the other side of the fence, there are those who worry that the proposed changes will lose important firewalls between the various levels of bureaucracy and leave fighters vulnerable to signing coercive contracts, which is something the Ali Act was chiefly set up to prevent.
It was, of course, named after Muhammad Ali.
This new version, which Dana White has insisted has no real changes, just a few additions here and there, has been endorsed by Lonnie Ali, Muhammad’s widow.
Interestingly and perhaps coincidentally, Lonnie – in the not-too-distant past – appeared on World Wrestling Entertainment programming.
WWE, the UFC and Zuffa Boxing all fall under the TKO Group umbrella and it’s an astonishingly powerful one.
Lonnie Ali, on WWE programming, presented Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson with a “The People’s Championship.” It seemed like an odd fit at first, but not so much with hindsight.
Ali was soon on board and ready to support the changes.
Another Ali, however, Nico Ali Walsh, The Greatest’s grandson, has not been all for the changes. In fact, he is one of only a few current fighters to speak out.
He told BoxingScene in December that fighters likely feared being cut out of the future if they said what they were thinking – and what he was thinking.
“I don't see a problem with the Ali Act now,” said the middleweight about the Ali Act in its current form. “I want to talk to the people who are trying to make these changes. I’m sure there's fine print somewhere where not every single change could possibly be bad. But why change it at all? What’s the problem with the Ali Act now? I don’t think there's any reason to change it. So, I mean, it’s very unnecessary.”
Of course, there are some who are compromised. They might have jobs to go into, for instance.
There is a fear within the industry that the personality will be taken out of the sport and it becomes too corporate, that sports’ Wild West and its Red-Light District will become more like a kindergarten or an early-1900s Ford production line or that it might become Walmart or Target with gloves.
What is particularly mad about the timing of it all is that it comes when there is a backdrop of the UFC having recently settled antitrust lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars with former fighters and at a time when there is serious unrest – if not financially visible – in the WWE fanbase and more unrest in the UFC about fighter pay and the quality of shows. Indeed, many argue that the best in UFC do not actually regularly fight the best – especially given that the UFC has really been the only game in town for so long.
Those antitrust lawsuits, by the way, were centred around many things that have been highlighted by boxing’s dissenting voices with the proposed Revival Act amendments, with – among the findings, the organisation using its power in MMA to limit fighter pay, to lock the athletes into restrictive contracts and to suppress competition.
The antitrust laws were created to prevent monopiles and unfair business practices.
With the money involved, and the indication that Zuffa Boxing is a five or 10-year plan, it would be fair to say that the initial plan would be more monopsony than monopoly.
Either way, there is as much inevitability about it as a 19-year-old Mike Tyson fight.
And I suppose what is also interesting here is if there are improvements to be made, is there not a grey area where everything set up previously by the late Senator John McCain – who loved the fighters – is held sacred and a vote with key industry people (rather than politicians who do not understand the sport) is undertaken to determine what is right?
“If there is a case to be made for the UBO model to exist there is no reason why fighter labor rights should be abandoned as part of the process,” the administrator added. “UBO promoters should not be allowed to use coercive contracts. They should not be allowed to hide revenue details from fighters. They should not be allowed to control/manipulate rank and title.”
Of course, you could easily say boxing has had years to get its house in order and never has. This effectively takes it out of boxing’s hands and gives it over to a group/groups. And, of course, there is nothing to say more of these groups could not be created. But the vast TKO (etc) wealth would likely make a race to the top a one-horse race at best.
The messages of not wanting to work with other promoters and the sanctioning bodies has been heard loudly and clearly.
Now we wait.
