Saudi/TKO to launch new league for up and coming boxers

[Ruthless-RKO]

TKO interested in tweaking Muhammad Ali Act to award its own belts

If Dana White, the UFC CEO and head of the new Saudi Arabia-funded TKO boxing promotion, wanted to fully assert his political muscle given his years-long friendship with President Trump and a Republican-ruled Congress, he likely could institute wholesale changes to the Muhammad Ali Act that requires safeguards and firewalls to protect boxers’ financial and health interests.

That’s not the intention that has emerged through preliminary meetings with boxing regulators.

An alarm was sounded this week, when a memo to state regulators was posted on the website Combat Sports Law.

In it, Association of Boxing Commissions President Mike Mazzulli wrote to the regulators, “Presently, the UFC/TKO is requesting an amendment change to the Muhammad Ali Act. The board of directors is working with them to make sure the ABC is still part of the federal law.”

Mazzulli’s message in that final sentence is clear: White can likely wrangle up the votes to alter the Muhammad Ali Act however he wants.

Yet, TKO is asking for far less than that now.

The promotion is seeking to function like the UFC model by awarding its own “TKO” belts to the champions of the limited weight classes once the promotion begins staging bouts, likely in 2026.

“Like the UFC, they want to sign fighters, put them in a league and provide belts to them,” said an official who’s been briefed on TKO’s position but is unauthorized to speak publicly on the matter because of the preliminary nature of the talks.

White’s former boss, ex-UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta, adopted a philosophy of “running to regulation” after mixed martial arts was panned in its formative years by the late Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) as “human cockfighting.”

The UFC was first regulated by the commissions in Nevada, New Jersey and Mazzulli’s Mohegan Sun Tribe portion of Connecticut.

In a diligent national effort to communicate and meet regulator concerns and requests led by former Nevada Athletic Commission head Marc Ratner, the UFC won state-by-state approval, finally appearing in New York for a 2016 debut after a powerful culinary union that protested Fertitta’s non-union employment of workers at his Las Vegas hotels was silenced by legislature votes.

This TKO effort is similarly characterized as a “run to regulation” by explaining that the promotion prefers to award its own belts in its circuit rather than ask for minor versions of belts from the four major sanctioning bodies, WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF.

TKO’s interest is adjusting a clause in the Ali Act that would allow for that additional belt in its case alone. The body of the federal law – requiring contract disclosures and other protections – would remain unchanged.

[mickey1975]

Reading Donald Macrae's new book, this has been the plan all along. Turki told him himself.

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

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[Ruthless-RKO]

‘It’s going to strip the rights of boxers’: Everything you need to know about proposed changes to Ali Act

[Controversial]

Tris Dixon has an interview out with Erik Magraken about the proposed changes to the Ali Act, if it goes how Eriks claims it would it seems it's a bad move for boxing.

[margaret thatcher]

mike cop's behind must be as loose as big baby miller's trunks on a flyweight with how much he is giving it up for turki these days

[Ruthless-RKO]

mike cop's behind must be as loose as a 10xl sweatshirt with how much he is giving it up for turki these days

Yh he doesn’t even score fights RBR on his X account like he used to.

[SeanBrennan]

wasn't Mike taking the Kinahan cash too and popped up like Jim White as a shill for Probellend/um whatever it was briefly called? He's like a hack for hire.

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

CSAC withdraws support of Ali Act destruction after public outcry

Vocal pushback has forced the California State Athletic Commission to reconsider its backing of TKO’s attack on boxing

In preparation for a vote to support the “Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act,” TKO’s grotesquely bad-faith attempt to defang the original Ali Act, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) opened the floor to public comment.

The public did not take kindly to their position. As a result, CSAC scrapped its initial plan to back the bill, instead creating a subcommittee to investigate the bill ahead of a potential vote in December.

The bill, led by Representatives Brian Jack and Sharice Davids, has yet to be heard in either the Committee on Education and Workforce or the Committee on Energy and Commerce. It would need to pass out of committee, pass the House, and then secure 60 votes in the Senate to reach the President’s desk. That’s an extremely tall order, especially with a hideously divided Congress scrambling to cobble together a funding bill ahead of their end-of-month deadline.

Still, I’ll keep you all abreast of any developments. This is your chance to have a hand in defending the sport you love.