Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya couldn’t hide his dismay with how today’s Senate hearing on the Ali Act went, with certain interested parties lobbying to do away with it. Following the hearing today De La Hoya shared these thoughts on what took place.
“It felt like that there was already a decision made beforehand, and it felt like an uphill battle” De La Hoya said of the senate hearing. “But I really am optimistic that the Senate will take a look at the bill, dissect it, and maybe put some of our
inputs into the new bill and hopefully clean it up and make it a better bill, enhance the bill for the betterment of the sport and the betterment of the fighter.
“That’s why we’re here today, to make sure the protection stays. With the current Ali Act, the Ali Act protects the fighter 100% and there’s a reason why we haven’t changed that bill in the last 26 years. Nobody has complained about it, nobody has said anything about it until Zuffa Boxing comes into the circle and tries to change everything, for a reason. Obviously, we know what those reasons are but it was very frustrating today but hopefully we can enhance the bill for the betterment of the fighter.
“How safer can you make the sport where we have everything in place already. They keep on talking about ambulances and they keep talking about life insurance. Well, if you read the fine print — because we got hold of a Zuffa contract — if you read the fine print they do have life insurance in place, but guess who is the beneficiary? Zuffa. How crazy is that?!”
De La Hoya vowed to continue fighting the good fight on behalf of fighters everywhere and also said he would continue to educate boxers who might sign with Zuffa on what they’re actually opting into.
