The business methodologies of the UFC have come under fire for years now, and the UFC’s first-ever Canadian champion has offered up his viewpoint on things. That fighter in question is Carlos Newton, who captured the UFC welterweight belts years back, and recently spoke at an NSAC hearing regarding aspects of the UFC antitrust lawsuit.
Though not mentioning the new Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act specifically, Newton’s rhetoric did describe UFC’s business model which they want to bring into boxing.
This amended act was recently voted on by the California commission with full support, and the aim is to expand it into Nevada and beyond. All of this comes ahead of Zuffa Boxing’s planned official launch for 2026, and while not referring to the revival act specifically, but more discussing a UFC-style framework that the Dana White helmed boxing league seems to be looking to impose on boxing athletes, Newton said [via MMA Fighting],
“This has been litigated time and time again in other sports but for some reason Nevada in the early days allowed the UFC to run its course and nobody used independent sanctioning bodies. Why? Because promoters had the choice but the sport is here to be governed and regulated on behalf of the athletes.”
“For the athletes to be able to compete freely, openly and unfettered for titles, in order to get what the market will yield fairly for their services. Right now in mixed martial arts, athletes compete for the promoter. That is unfair. It is not a sport.”
UFC business practices and the polarizing, looming presence of Zuffa Boxing
The business practices of the UFC that Newton has not spoken highly of were prevented in sports like boxing from the previous permutation of the Ali Act, which was enacted in 2000. With multiple UFC-related antitrust lawsuits playing out publicly for years now, understandably many combat sports athletes are worried about Dana White‘s new TKO-helmed boxing property utilizing a framework that is highly disparaged by so many.
The original Ali act was established for the purposes of athlete transparency and to avoid any conflicts of interest which were pervasive in boxing prior to 2000. A new provision added into this Revival Act effort would allow United Boxing Organizations the ability to utilize UFC-style hierarchical considerations within their promotional efforts.
With Zuffa Boxing locked into a media rights deal on Paramount set to kick off next year, while stalwart boxing promotions like Top Rank and Premier Boxing Champions are seemingly not in any kind of a prime position for TV deals, the future of the sweet science has many speculating heavily on what that even looks like.