{"id":637154,"date":"2026-04-29T21:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T21:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637154\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T21:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T21:29:10","slug":"gops-boxing-bill-bears-muhammad-alis-name-but-is-contrary-to-his-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637154\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP\u2019s boxing bill bears Muhammad Ali\u2019s name but is contrary to his spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservatives in Congress are using boxing great Muhammad Ali\u2019s legacy as a Trojan horse to pass a bill that could unlock more wealth and influence for people like Trump ally and fight promoter Dana White.<\/p>\n

At first glance, one might see \u201cMuhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act\u201d and assume it is some kind of homage to Ali, a man many people revere for his willingness to speak truth to power. Indeed, that seems to have been the intent behind naming the bill, which is heavily backed by executives from TKO Group Holdings<\/a>, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship<\/a>, which is led by White<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But a closer look at the bill<\/a>, which passed the House last month<\/a> and a version of which Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, expects to introduce in that chamber, suggests it\u2019s little more than a means of enriching some of the president\u2019s allies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bill would amend the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act<\/a> of 2000, which was intended to protect boxers from exploitative business practices. The new bill would create an antitrust carve-out<\/a> to allow for the formation of a boxing superleague similar to the UFC, a company that has faced lawsuits alleging exploitative employment practices<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Notably, UFC and its parent company, TKO, reached a massive $375 million settlement<\/a> in 2024 following allegations of antitrust violations and insufficient payments to some fighters. Another lawsuit<\/a> is still pending, and the UFC has said the plaintiffs<\/a> in the pending case \u201clack the standing to represent the proposed class.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJa’han Jones<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJa\u2019han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut\u00a0Blog.\t\t<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conservatives in Congress are using boxing great Muhammad Ali\u2019s legacy as a Trojan horse to pass a bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-637154","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\/637154","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=637154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}