Months after Dana White and Turki Alalshikh revealed their desire to gut the Ali Act in order to import UFC\u2019s hideously exploitative practices into their new \u201cTKO\u201d boxing league, United States Representatives Brian Jack (R) and Sharice Davids (D) have introduced the \u201cMuhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act\u201d to implement those goals.<\/p>\n
Chris Mannix gave Jack a softball interview<\/a> to try and manufacture consent, as did ESPN\u2019s Brett Okamoto<\/a> and Sportico\u2019s Michael McCann<\/a>. Mike Coppinger, who writes for Alalshikh\u2019s ideologically captured Ring Magazine, likewise touted the bill\u2019s virtues while lying about the current rules regarding sanctioning bodies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though gussied up with attractive-sounding provisions like a guaranteed minimum payment of $150\/round for fighters (which two seconds of mental math reveal as a complete joke), the bill would allow for \u201cUnified Boxing Organizations (UBOs) where new entities can offer fighters matchups and a structure that doesn\u2019t mandate they contend with the pay-to-play sanctioning body system.\u201d<\/p>\n This is, as even the most hagiographic pieces concede, a mirror of the UFC model, breaking down the barrier between promoters and sanctioning bodies. I am the last person alive who would claim the current setup is good or even functional on the best of days, but even the flimsy pretense of an independent rankings system is better than one entirely subject to the whims of oligarchs.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody knows the format\u2014the best fight the best,\u201d White said in March. \u201cYou work your way up the rankings, and once somebody breaks into the top five [and] there is no question [about] who the best five guys are in each weight class, they fight it out. And once somebody holds that belt, you don\u2019t need three letters in front of the belt. Whoever has that belt is the best in the world in that weight class. It\u2019s a very simple model.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This is, as has long been obvious, complete crap<\/a>. Sean O\u2019Malley just \u201cearned\u201d a rematch with Merab Dvalishvili by sitting on his ass while Dvalishvili dispatched the much more dangerous Umar Nurmagomedov. Movsar Evloev has won nine straight in the Octagon and they tried to pit him against all-risk, no-reward wrecking machine Aaron Pico in the latter\u2019s UFC debut. Yair Rodriguez has been stopped in two of his last three fights and they were planning to give him another title shot to headline an event in Mexico City.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s not even mentioning them letting Jon Jones waste years of Tom Aspinall\u2019s prime for nothing.<\/p>\n There are, thankfully, those out there willing to speak up; BoxRec\u2019s Grey Johnson goes into detail<\/a> on the dangers this system poses to the club scene and Erik Magraken is sounding the alarm<\/a>. It\u2019s also worth noting that Congress is so egregiously dysfunctional at the moment that there\u2019s no guarantee the bill ever makes it to the House floor, much less the Senate.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t even hit the Commerce committee until at least September, as Congress will be in recess through the entirety of August and House Republican leadership elected to skip town early to avoid having to vote on the release of documents related to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Grey mentions, you\u2019re going to deal with a fire hose of disingenuous commentary on the bill\u2019s contents over the next couple months. Luckily for us, Jack already gave the game away by claiming that the current structure of the Ali Act \u201cstifled investment and discouraged innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n