The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) unanimously voted to endorse the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act at a Wednesday morning meeting following yet another contentious and extended session of public comment. The vote was 6-0 in support of the bill.
CSAC was initially forced to postpone its vote to support the Ali Revival Act following a Sept. 8 meeting in which all 12 of the public speakers criticized the act and the monopolizing power it could hand Zuffa Boxing the promotional group formed in March by TKO executives UFC CEO Dana White and WWE President Nick Khan, as well as Saudi Arabian fight financier Turki Alalshikh.
The TKO-backed bill, introduced in July by two members of Congress U.S. Reps. Brian Jack, R-Ga., and Sharice Davids, D-Kan. would allow for Zuffa to create Unified Boxing Organizations (UBOs) within the sport. Under the proposed legislation, UBOs would be allowed to run rankings systems, award UBO titles and organize events. In essence, promoters would be able to promote fights for titles and rankings, which they also control much like how the UFC is run.
Although Zuffa promoted the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford undisputed super middleweight title fight on Sept. 13, its full entry into boxing is expected in January. Zuffa Boxing announced a five-year broadcast deal with Paramount this past month, which will see it promote at least 12 shows a year.
White has said he plans to create a Zuffa Boxing belt, rather than recognize any of the four major sanctioning bodies the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF employed in boxing today. The UFC CEO, however, will need the Ali Revival Act to pass in order to do this.
Following CSAC’s decision to table its support for the bill last month, the commission appointed a two-person subcommittee to review the bill and the criticism surrounding it so that it could provide the commission with feedback for a meeting in December.
This, however, did not turn out to be the case, and the subcommittee process was significantly sped up. The subcommittee met four times in the past month to discuss the bill and meet with key stakeholders, and they formally recommended that the CSAC support the legislation at Wednesday’s meeting.
A motion was put forward by commissioner Chris Gruwell to support the act with the inclusion of a mechanism for a state-level cost-of-living adjustment to both the minimum purse and minimum insurance requirements, so that protections for athletes kept pace with economic conditions over time.
Following the motion, the floor was opened up for public comment, with TKO’s Khan being the first to speak.
“My experience of boxing, I believe, has given me a front-row seat to see a business that is stagnant on its best day and is precipitously degenerating on its normal days,” Khan said. “It’s a fragmented business driven by organizers who lack any modern sense of driving media rights dollars, gate revenue, sponsorship, merchandise, or any of the other revenue categories that drive athlete pay in every major sport outside of boxing.”
“Outside of Zuffa’s recent announcement that Paramount CBS will be our home, and outside of Netflix deals driven by us and our partners at Zuffa Boxing, not one of the major media conglomerates in the United States shows boxing. HBO got out, Showtime got out, ESPN got out because the current system leads to a series of one-off events with organizers that are clueless about building fighters’ stories in the modern world of media.”
Currently, in U.S. boxing, only Zuffa, Matchroom and Golden Boy have major TV deals, with the latter two aligned with the niche streaming service DAZN. Top Rank has yet to find a television partner following ESPN’s decision not to renew its contract earlier this year. Although Premier Boxing Champions has an agreement with Amazon Prime, the shows have been infrequent and mostly behind pay-per-view.
The first six public comments at Wednesday’s meeting were all in favor of the Ali Revival Act a stark contrast to September’s meeting, where all of the comments opposed the proposed piece of legislation. Several of Wednesday’s comments in support of the bill came from individuals either employed by TKO or with financial ties of some kind to the company.
There were 32 public comments in total, with 12 in favor of the act and 20 against it. Of the 13 former UFC fighters who spoke, 11 were against the bill and two were in favor of it. One of the ex-UFC fighters in favor of the bill, former champion Forrest Griffin, has been employed by the UFC in a non-fighting capacity since his 2012 retirement.
In a particularly pointed piece of commentary, a 17-year-old amateur boxer who identified himself as “Gabriel” called the legislation “a slap in the face to fighters who fought so hard for Ali Act protections, to independent sanctioning bodies, and to Muhammad Ali himself.”
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“How dare they put his name on a [bill] to circumvent the Ali Act?” he said.
“The UBO model is a circumvention for TKO and the UFC. Under this UBO model, fighters signed to the UBO would waive the right to a free market with co-promotion, which is a restraint of trade. They would waive the right to financial transparency and non-coercive contracts, and their right to independent ranking with the title not being controlled by the promoter, along with other rights the Ali Act provides. If this passes, it will monopolize the boxing market and fighters will have no choice but to sign in to this exploitive system to make a name for themselves.”
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, introduced in 2000, gives boxers the right to know how much revenue is coming into the event they are fighting on, including television rights fees and the gate receipts. This gives headlining fighters an idea of whether they are being fairly compensated by their promoter and prevents them from being exploited or underpaid.
In the UFC, however, it is not uncommon for the majority of the revenue to go to the company rather than the talent. Fighters in the UFC are not aware of how much money an event makes because there is no Ali Act for MMA, and are often thought to be under-compensated compared to boxers.
“It feels like this is some sort of joke,” said Matt Brown, a 15-year UFC veteran who owns the second-most knockouts in the promotion’s history. “Like you guys are just supporting this no matter what. I don’t know if y’all are bought and paid for or whatever like [veteran MMA official] John McCarthy [who spoke in favor of the bill], what the hell? This is my point nobody has ever been on our side since the beginning. I’ve fought for 15 years no one ever fought for me. My manager didn’t fight for me. I’d try to negotiate, [but] no one ever worked for me. I thought that was what athletic commissions were for, but I don’t feel like none of y’all are working for fighters.
“If you see all the fighters coming on to this little meeting you’re having here, it’s got to be a joke, right? Because we all come on and oppose it, but I don’t think you’re going to listen to a thing we say. My God, it’s really frustrating. We just want someone on our side. … We’re not even asking for anything crazy. All we’re asking for is the basic protections that the Ali Act provides.
“Financial transparency. How about no conflicts of interest, like the promoter controlling the rankings and the title, which is ridiculous. That’s so ridiculous that you guys would support that. … I mean, what kind of f***ing joke is this?”
Despite the majority of comments again being against the Ali Revival Act, the CSAC ultimately voted to throw its support behind it.