Tony Bellew wants Dana White to remember who the real stars of the UFC are.
White, the UFC CEO who recently entered a new field of combat sports with the launch of Zuffa Boxing, has long touted himself as the man to challenge boxing’s longstanding traditions and restore it to a level of prestige he believes it has last. A major part of his mission involves backing the Ali Revival Act, which seeks to alter the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. The Revival Act has seen its fair share of supporters and detractors,
with critics taking issue with several aspects of the proposed changes, including clauses that would allow promoters to control titles and rankings and limit financial transparency.
This doesn’t sit well with Bellew, a former WBC cruiserweight champion, who addressed the topic on the Fight Your Corner podcast alongside UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
“It can’t happen,” Bellew said. “If the Ali Act gets turned over, it’s the worst thing ever and it can’t be. It will be the most frightening thing that would happen to boxing ever because it would just ruin the whole bit. It’s not even about the business model and the money. You’re allowing one man to control the whole narrative and he is controlling everything that involves the fighter. And understand this, he ain’t even f*cking fighting.
“Imagine turning up in an arena and they’ve all come to watch the two people. This is the ring and everybody around the ring comes in to see what these two guys are going to do. But there’s a guy sitting on the front row, wants more than everyone everybody’s come to see. No one come to see you, f*ckface. No one comes to see you sitting on that first row. No one come to see your bald head sitting there. They all come to see what these two guys are doing in the ring and it’s them guys that should be taking the lion’s share. I don’t care about your background and that built this infrastructure from scratch. You didn’t bleed. You didn’t sweat. You didn’t take the punishment to help build all this. These boys in here did and that’s what people forget and by the Ali Act being taken away, that’s what it’ll do. It’ll take away from these two guys who everybody’s come to watch.”
Bellew pointed to how UFC stars like Aspinall are treated to support his argument that greater promotional control and less separation between promotions and managers can only hurt fighters when it comes to contract and purse negotiations. Aspinall won an interim heavyweight title in 2023, successfully defended it once, was promoted to undisputed status following Jon Jones’ retirement in 2025, and then saw a title defense against Ciryl Gane end in a disastrous no-contest due to Gane poking him in the eyes.
In Bellew’s eyes, these are meant to be the top-earning years of Aspinall’s career now that he’s at the top, but he still isn’t receiving anywhere near what he’s worth.
“He’s a heavyweight champion of the world and he hasn’t been able to maximize his earning potential yet. … And Tom is in a position now where in mixed martial arts, the earning potential and revenue comes when he gets to the top,” Bellew said. “But believe you me, before he’s got that belt, the revenue is probably the same as me as a four- or six-round fighter.
“That’s how embarrassing it is in his discipline, because one man owns the whole project. One man is in control of everything you earn and what you can monopolize.”
Bellew claimed his first world title in 2016 and closed out his career just two years later with high-profile bouts against Oleksandr Usyk and David Haye. Since his retirement, he has regularly worked as an analyst and commentator, and he’s eager to let White and his TKO bosses know what he thinks of their business practices.
“Ultimately, I care about the fighters,” Bellew said. “Whether it’s mixed martial arts or boxing, and I care that they get what they deserve. You shouldn’t get more than you deserve, you should get what you generally bring to the table, and in Tom’s profession, it is so far off the mark. It is truly frightening. It’s actually, it’s borderline, it’s sad. I don’t care if you want to say. I think it’s pretty well-known Tom was supposed to get a million dollars for his next fight and people are going to go ‘that is life-changing money.’ Yeah, it is, yeah.
“Do you know what he’s gone through to earn that? Because there’s a guy who could work at McDonald’s for 10 years and probably end up managing McDonald’s who can generate that himself, and that’s no slight on McDonald’s whatever have you, but to put things in perspective, the guy’s punched and banged and knocked up all over the place. The goal, yes he wants to win the heavyweight championship of the world, of course, that’s always the life-long dream. He’s now done it, but once you win them belts and once you become that and you lift that title and get that goal, you’ve got a family and the goal after winning that belt and that title is financial security. That’s what you deserve when you get to the top of the sport. You do not deserve to be dictated to by anybody else. You know why? Because you’re the king of that discipline. You’re the king of that sport.”
