Two U.S. Congress representatives have introduced legislation that plans to make massive changes to how boxing operates in the country.
The Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, a new piece of legislation supported by
TKO Group Holdings, the parent company to UFC and WWE, was first unveiled this week.
A draft of the 21-page document was published Wednesday.
Georgia Republican Brian Jack and Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids introduced the bill, which is also supported by the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC).
The new act introduces the concept of Unified Boxing Organizations (UBOs), groups which will be allowed to run events, manage their own rankings systems, and award titles “without reliance on a sanctioning organization operating independently.”
The legislation, if passed, would eliminate many of the checks and balances that sanctioning bodies have attempted to impose on boxing promoters for decades.
Currently, sanctioning bodies like the World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Council (WBC) manage their own ranking systems, distribute championships, and order matchups to be made. Under the newly proposed bill, those competing in UBOs would compete entirely separate from this system.
Boxers would be given the option to compete for a UBO or remain under the current sanctioning body-based system in boxing, per Georgia Rep. Jack.
“The thrust here is we have a system and if you want to stay in that system, you can,” Representative Jack told
Sports Illustrated, referring to boxing’s current sanctioning body-focused setup. “We are not touching the Ali Act. Instead, we are adding an additional section to U.S. code that allows for the creation of UBOs, and we’re touching the PBSA [Professional Boxing Safety Act] by amending it.”
Sanctioning bodies would continue to operate, but with boxers and promoters altogether opting out of the system, it could possibly give them less influence than ever before.
The UBO system has parallels to how UFC manages itself inside the MMA ecosystem. MMA promotions have their own titles and rankings, which are not controlled by outside parties, unlike boxing.
No oversight from sanctioning bodies has given UFC more freedom over the years to make the matchups they’d prefer, and control their titles in the way they’d see fit.
While sanctioning bodies in boxing can order matchups to be made, forcing different promoters to work together on a fight to maintain title status, no such requirements have ever been forced on the UFC, allowing them to completely shut down any collaborative opportunities with smaller companies.
Many have argued that these freedoms have helped UFC maintain dominance in the sport’s market.
These changes come amid TKO’s plans to begin promoting boxing events alongside Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh, beginning later this year. After announcing a formal partnership in March, UFC CEO Dana White spoke about how they plan to implement a proven model into a new sport.
“The model is proven to deliver the fights that fans want to see,”
White said in March. “The best will fight the best, and the fighters will continue to move up the rankings and become world champions.”
TKO plans to promote their first-ever card in September, hosting a super-fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Along with the massive overhaul to how boxing is organized across the country, the “Revival Act” will also introduce new rules that would protect fighters.
The new bill would require promoters to pay boxers a minimum of $150 per round, and force them to provide up to $25,000 in health coverage for injuries. While these numbers seem low, they would be raising a limit that, in some places, doesn’t exist at all currently.
Rules regarding pay and health benefits would be in effect on both the UBO and non-UBO side of boxing, Jack said.
“The only overlap, so to speak, is that amending for minimum fighter pay and specified health coverage,” Jack said to SI. “That applies to both models.”
Discussions regarding a potential retooling of the way boxing is governed in the United States have been a focus of TKO for months. In April, a spokesperson for the company told
ESPN that they were in “preliminary talks” regarding how the act, which prevented boxing from being governed by any league, could be “expanded.”
Boxing has been regulated by Congress since the early 1950s, although no changes have been made since the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 2000. The newly proposed changes could shift power away from sanctioning bodies in a way that could completely change the landscape of the sport.