With the California State Athletic Commission recently voting unanimously to support a bill that would effectively gut the Ali Act, which has heavy support from the coming TKO boxing group but faced significant
public backlash immediately, the Association of Professional Boxing Commissions (APBC) has stepped forward with clear opposition.
The APBC say that they “vehemently object” to the proposed “Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act,” as proposed by Representatives Brian Jacks (R-Georgia) and Sharice Davids (D-Kansas).
“It is clear that the members, as well as the board, of the APBC are unified in their objection to this abomination of an act, that literally will reverse all the good the original Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act has done for the protection of the boxers from unscrupulous managers and promoters,” said APBC President Albert Low.
“The original Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1996 and the later Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000 were specifically written to prevent organizations like the T.K.O. Group from having absolute control to ensure boxers are protected from the very conflicts of interests the latest T.K.O. amendment risks bringing back.
“The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act made it illegal for a promoter to act as a manager and required full financial transparency from promoters and sanctioning bodies. It was designed to keep the business side of boxing honest, or at least transparent, and to give fighters the information and freedom to make the best decisions for their careers.
“This so-called Revival Act, however, is a disgrace as it will open the door for self serving ‘Unified Boxing Organizations’ (UBOs) to operate outside the current sanctioning framework, effectively allowing one corporation, in this case T.K.O. Group, to both regulate and promote under its own banner.
“In other words this will allow T.K.O. to act within professional boxing in the same way it already does in mixed martial arts — that is control the talent, the titles, the schedules and the pay.
“We need to learn from past mistakes. We must prevent this disgrace of an act becoming law, otherwise the boxers will potentially suffer exploitation, one-sided contracts, and lack of pay transparency in the future, which are the inherent dangers of allowing one company to dominate the marketplace.”