During my vacation, Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia and Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas (herself a former MMA fighter) introduced the “Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act (H.R. 4624).” As you’ll hear me explain in this video, it doesn’t actually eliminate or negate the protections the Ali Act provides for all parties. Instead, it offers a carve out for TKO.
TKO isn’t mentioned by name in the legislation, but the only way to accurately describe this bill is to call it designer lawmaking. It’s bespoke legislation built for one company. In essence, this proposed law would allow TKO to operate in boxing precisely as it does in MMA, a sport where no federal regulation exists. It would allow them to have their own titles, rankings and coercive contracts the Ali Act forbids. Moreover, unless other promoters were able to meet exceedingly difficult thresholds, the bill essentially prohibits them from operating as such. They would still be subject to all the existing regulations.
It’s a naked attack on the rights of labor; a trojan horse presented under the auspices of “revival” and modernization, but really just a play to allow one company to use its considerable advantages (which were amassed in a relatively unregulated space) to break all the known rules en route to becoming either the dominant player or outright monopoly.
If you want a fuller breakdown, please listen to John Nash’s report. This conversation with Erik Magraken on the Boxing, Esq. podcast is also good.
