UFC CEO says ‘not one word’ of Ali Act, boxing’s most crucial law to protect fighters, will be changed. Instead, he says, it’ll be added to.
In a new interview, Dana White says his new boxing promotion will attempt to make “zero changes” to the Ali Act, but instead will “add on to it.”
Adding to the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act – a law signed in 2000 to protect boxers from exploitative promoters, commissions and officials – would be, in effect, changing it. The law has come under fire by White and others in his executive purview at TKO, which owns the UFC and WWE, as well as Zuffa Boxing.
White’s Zuffa Boxing announced Monday it has a broadcast deal for 2026 and beyond with Paramount, which owns CBS Sports, which did the interview with White.
But semantics aside about adding versus changing, White also said under his vision, boxers who want the protection of the Ali Act can have it – and those who don’t want the protection of it, in essence, “can bet on me and fight with me under our version of the Muhammad Ali Act.”
White said criticism of his desire to get around the Ali Act, which fighters in his UFC never have been able to have the protection of, despite attempts by some politicians a number of years ago, has been blown out of proportion.
“I knew people were going to freak out because that’s what people do,” White told CBS Sports. “The Muhammad Ali Act was put in place with all good intentions, but I think that it has held the business back.”
Under the White and TKO plan, an organization like the UFC could exist in the boxing landscape and fighters would fight for it instead of as independent athletes booked to compete by a promoter.
Critics say this will lead to the same kind of near-monopoly power the UFC has in the MMA landscape, which would allow the promoters to have more control over fighter pay and titles than they currently have.
Essentially, those against White’s proposed changes argue he’s not looking out for the fighters, but only looking for ways to have more control and power over them.
