Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, has been one of the strongest opponents of the TKO-backed plans to enact the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act. The piece of legislation looks to amend the Ali Reform Act of 2000 to allow promoters to create a Unified Boxing Organization (UBO) that would operate outside the sport’s current four-belt system.
The main concern many within boxing have is that the Ali Revival Act would allow TKO’s Zuffa Boxing — helmed by UFC CEO Dana White and Saudi financier Turki Alalshikh — to create a UBO that would run similarly to the UFC, which could be detrimental to fighters’ rights.
Although many — including promoter Eddie Hearn — believe that fighting against the proposed act is a losing battle because it is inevitable to go through, Ali Walsh follows in his legendary grandfather’s footsteps by potentially jeopardizing his own career to battle for what he believes in — and what he thinks the great Muhammad Ali would support.
“I never want to put words in someone else’s mouth, but I think it’s apparent what [Ali] would think about the revival act because it’s taking away the act that he put in place,” Ali Walsh told Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” Wednesday.
“He would not be for it — why would he be for something that is not [beneficial] for the fighters? My grandfather was the people’s champion. He fought for the people. He was ready to literally die for what he believed in. Why would he be OK with fighters being exploited? Wiping away his act and then coming in with this new revival act that would just build a monopoly and take away the fighter’s powers? I just really don’t see him agreeing with that at all.”
TKO essentially has monopolistic levels of control in MMA with the UFC and is now attempting to dominate the boxing marketplace as well through Zuffa Boxing. Zuffa has already signed up a list of top fighters, including Conor Benn, Jai Opetaia and Richardson Hitchins, and is already in talks to add Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney to complete what would be a star-studded roster.
“That’s how monopolies start,” Walsh explained. “They buy up all the talent, they put the promoters out of business, and then you don’t have a choice [but to join Zuffa]. You will [ultimately] have a choice — there’s no gun being held to your head that you have to go to Zuffa, but you’re not going to have any other opportunities once they put the other promoters out of business, they buy all the top talent.
“We hear every day about a new big-name boxer that’s going to Zuffa. So once they buy all the top talent and they take over the sport — they’ve got the money to do that, they have the resources to become that monopoly. Once they do that, you could get random fights in Mexico, or you could be getting some sort of opportunity with Zuffa. So you wouldn’t have a choice.”
It is no secret that fighters in the UFC command a small fraction of the money generated by their events, while in boxing, the talent receives the majority of the finances available. Zuffa Boxing may be paying above market value for the time being, but once the company can rid the marketplace of viable competition, Ali Walsh thinks TKO will be able to gradually lower purses and bring the sport closer to a UFC business model.
“They’re trying to pass the UFC model into boxing,” Ali Walsh said. “When people ask, ‘How do you think it’s going to work?’ Well, we kind of know how it’s going to work. The UFC had to settle a $375 million [lawsuit] that their fighters put against them. And that was a settlement, so we don’t even know how much the damages really were. There were over a thousand claims of fighters complaining about pay and whatnot.
“We kind of know the direction that they want to head with boxing. We see it. Their business model is apparent today. If you have any questions about what they’re trying to do with boxing, just look at the UFC. It’s kind of unfortunate because I even know that [former UFC champion] ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley, I remember watching on a podcast that he has this Reebok deal that garnered the UFC over a million dollars. I remember him saying that they used his name, image, likeness, and he only received like three grand from it. That’s the kind of stuff that would be coming to boxing now.”
One of the major advantages the Ali Revival Act would offer TKO is that UBOs would not be subject to the same financial transparency obligations that exist for boxing promoters under the current Ali Reform Act. The latter piece of legislation gives boxers the right to know how much revenue is coming into the event they are fighting on, including television rights fees and gate receipts. This gives headlining fighters an idea of whether they are being justly compensated by their promoters and prevents them from being exploited or underpaid. Such a mechanism does not exist in the UFC, so fighters are often left guessing about whether they are receiving their fair share of the pie.
“In the UFC, the fighters make around 16%, up to 20% of the revenue that’s made in the UFC gets distributed amongst the fighters,” Ali Walsh said. “In boxing, it’s the exact opposite. Fighters make up to 80% of the revenue that is made in these boxing events. That alone shows you the staggering difference in pay between the UFC and boxing.”