{"id":151855,"date":"2025-09-18T03:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T03:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151855\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T03:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T03:52:07","slug":"is-arum-right-about-the-muhammad-ali-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151855\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Arum Right About The Muhammad Ali Act?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Arum<\/a> has spoken out against any potential amendments to the Muhammad Ali Act, calling the new bill \u201ca tragedy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arum\u2019s comments come as he hit out at what he sees as Dana White\u2019s push to make changes to the law. The original Ali Act was designed to ensure transparency, ban extreme contracts, and keep rankings free from manipulation. However, a new bill, titled the \u201cMuhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act,\u201d would allow unified boxing organizations to establish their own championship titles and rankings, separate from the four major sanctioning bodies (WBC, WBO, IBF, WBA).\u00a0<\/p>\n

This new structure would closely resemble the UFC\u2019s model in MMA, where a single promotion controls the titles and rankings. Many in the boxing community, including Arum, believe this would consolidate power and hurt fighters who are not already major stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s exactly what he\u2019s trying to do (undermine the bargaining power of fighters) and the Ali Act has worked very, very well and what it\u2019s done is raise boxing purses to an unprecedented high level\u2026It\u2019s fair. These fighters risk their lives and health every time they step in the ring and they should be compensated and unlike the UFC fighters who fight for pittance, if that happened to boxing it would be a tragedy,\u201d Arum said <\/a><\/p>\n

The Reality<\/p>\n

The current boxing landscape, with its four major sanctioning bodies, has created a confusing and frustrating environment. Instead of a clear hierarchy, there is often a list of \u201cworld champions,\u201d \u201cinterim champions,\u201d and \u201csuper champions\u201d in a single weight class, which devalues the prestige of winning a title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A promising fighter can also be stuck on an undercard for years, receiving minimal pay and exposure. The proposed \u201cContender Series,\u201d which Dana White has discussed, could provide a clear path for these fighters to earn a professional contract and build a following. The UFC\u2019s model has been successful at this, taking fighters like Sean O\u2019Malley and Paddy Pimblett and turning them into stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, Arum\u2019s position is not without its irony. The original Ali Act was designed to prevent promoters from holding a monopoly, yet Arum has been accused of using his power to protect their fighters and make in-house matchups rather than risking them against a rival promotion\u2019s talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Arum has spoken out against any potential amendments to the Muhammad Ali Act, calling the new bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-151855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}