Civil War at USA Boxing over Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act

An endorsement letter, a forced retraction, and TKO politicking.

The political infighting at both the Association of Boxing Commissions and USA Boxing over TKO’s Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act legislation has reached a breaking point.

Inside ABC, the fault lines are clear: leadership vs. the rank-and-file members.

Andy Foster (Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission), Mike Mazzulli (former President of ABC), and Tim Shipman (current ABC President and Executive Director of the Florida Athletic Commission), plus Jeff Mullen (Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic Commission) are either neutral or pro-TKO.

In October of 2025, California’s state athletic commission voted unanimously to endorse the Ali Revival Act legislation. In November of 2025, Colorado’s commission came out in opposition to the bill. Days later, Utah’s commission had its own discussion.

Opposition to TKO’s legislation inside ABC is large, but does not possess a loud megaphone. Names like Dave Hagen (Oregon), Scott Bowler (Utah), and Tony Cummings (Colorado) expressed substantive and procedural concerns on a January 22nd ABC conference call regarding the Ali Revival Act amendments that dramatically changed proposed regulatory standards on insurance, fighter medicals, and drug testing protocols (50% testing ratio).

In response to ABC member concerns and criticisms about the January 21st House of Representatives amendments to the Ali Revival Act, Andy Foster urged individuals to contact their local elected officials in Congress.

Further legislative amendments, however, are unlikely to occur. The Ali Revival Act is currently scheduled for a House floor vote.

Inside USA Boxing, it’s a similar story regarding support for and opposition to the Ali Revival Act. There’s a perception of leadership vs. rank-and-file members.

Mike McAtee (Executive Director), Tyson Lee (Chairman of the Board), and Héctor Colón (Vice President), with Stephen Hess stuck in the middle as outside legal counsel.

A majority of members on the USA Boxing Board of Directors, however, oppose an endorsement of Ali Revival Act legislation. Their opposition is stronger than the opposition currently being mounted inside ABC.

These internal fault lines over TKO politics are supposedly growing. The Ali Revival Act presents significant challenges for regulators, sanctioning bodies, and non-profits inside the American combat sports world. The proposed Unified Boxing Organization system in TKO’s legislation concentrates and privatizes a significant amount of power in the hands of financial institutions and corporations. A corporation with a market cap of $40 billion, to be specific.

Once the UBO model is legally implemented, it will function as a quasi-antitrust exemption. The gravitational pull of the UBO system will force good, bad, or neutral actors into this new world of oversight, rankings, and consolidation.

The power and scope of ABC & USA Boxing oversight will change if the Ali Revival Act passes Congress and is signed by US President Donald J. Trump.

Leadership at both ABC & USA Boxing have, perhaps, calculated that they will benefit from this legislation. The rank-and-file at ABC and USA Boxing Board of Directors members, however, view this proposed legislation as an existential threat to boxing, state sovereignty, and their jobs.

A key source of exploding heat and tension within these organizations is just how everyone found out about ABC & USA Boxing leadership endorsing the Ali Revival Act. They apparently found out about leadership endorsement of this legislation after the fact.

Leadership endorsement without consent of the body?

This contentious issue first surfaced in January 2026 when various Association of Boxing Commission members accused ABC leadership of not notifying them about a formal endorsement letter of the Ali Revival Act legislation.

Then a similar scenario raised its ugly head in USA Boxing circles. On February 17, The MMA Draw published a letter that USA Boxing Executive Director Mike McAtee sent to the US House of Representatives endorsing the Ali Revival Act.

The date on Mike McAtee’s endorsement letter was January 18, 2026 — three days before the US House of Representatives held a markup session adding various amendments to the Ali Revival Act. The amendments presented significant changes to fighter medicals and drug testing protocols for state athletic commissions while not presenting a clear pathway for Federal oversight and enforcement.

The immediate reaction from the Association of Boxing Commission members was fast and furious against the House markup session.

Rank-and-file ABC members confronted leadership — on a January 22, 2026, conference call — about recently discovering ABC’s endorsement letter of the Ali Revival Act that was sent in late August of 2025. That ABC endorsement letter was signed by both Mike Mazzulli and Tim Shipman. One particular sentence in that endorsement letter caused internal friction among ABC members:

The Association of Boxing Commissions Board of Directors is in unanimous support of the new Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act.

There allegedly was an ABC vote regarding certain Ali Revival Act bullet points raised in a presentation, but various ABC members claimed they never actually saw the text of the proposed legislation.

When Andy Foster was questioned on the January 22nd ABC call about management’s endorsement letter, Mr. Foster discussed the role of leadership and what authority they maintained when there isn’t a quorum for a Board meeting. The phone call between TKO’s most high-profile public Athletic Commission representative — who testified in front of Congress on behalf of their bill — and ABC rank-and-file members created additional tension.

Which brings us to the current state of affairs at USA Boxing.

On February 17, The MMA Draw published the contents of Mike McAtee’s January 18th endorsement letter for the Ali Revival Act. His signature was on the endorsement letter sent to Congress.

Mr. McAtee’s letter was directly sent to Congressional staffers Brad Mannion and Trey Kovacs. It’s part of their internal records. However, Mr. McAtee’s endorsement letter was apparently not published as part of the Congressional Record. Nonetheless, the endorsement letter is still considered a public record submitted to a governmental agency.

Mr. McAtee’s public endorsement of the Ali Revival Act is not a confidential document. A letter featuring the USA Boxing logo would be reasonably interpreted as a professional endorsement by the organization.

USA Boxing’s Board of Directors supposedly found out about Mr. McAtee’s endorsement letter after he sent it to Congress. The Board of Directors never officially voted on either an Ali Revival Act endorsement or opposition letter.

Over the last 30 days, The MMA Draw contacted members of USA Boxing’s Board of Directors, Executive Director Mike McAtee, attorney Stephen Hess, and USA Boxing's public relations for on-the-record comments regarding this developing situation. The only response we received in return was a short e-mail from Mr. Hess on February 13th. Mr. Hess stated that his clients would have no problem speaking for themselves in the media.

We repeatedly contacted as many individuals as possible in USA Boxing on-the-record on the phone and via e-mail. No replies to our various messages. Silence.

Behind the scenes, it was a very different story at USA Boxing. The finger-pointing and rush for accountability were proceeding apace.

Around Valentine’s Day weekend, Mike McAtee was busy with the 2026 USA Boxing International Open in Pueblo, Colorado. When members of the Board of Directors discovered Mr. McAtee’s endorsement letter supporting the Ali Revival Act, Board members made sure this endorsement letter was the center of attention at their February 18th meeting. The Board of Directors did not support an endorsement letter for the Ali Revival Act and demanded a retraction from Mr. McAtee.

This development raised an obvious question: Did Mr. McAtee possess the authority to speak on behalf of USA Boxing and endorse TKO’s legislation? And what motivated him to do so?

On February 25th, the House of Representatives moved the Ali Revival Act legislation out of subcommittee and onto the floor for a future vote.

Also on February 25th, USA Boxing’s Board of Directors held a second meeting about Mr. McAtee’s retraction letter. There was allegedly a contentious debate about specific language used in the retraction letter.

At the current time of publication, there are no minutes publicly available online of USA Boxing Board of Director meetings since January 7th. Go look for yourself.

On February 27th, USA Boxing leadership e-mailed Congressional staffers a letter stating that they were retracting Mr. McAtee’s initial endorsement of the Ali Revival Act because his endorsement was not approved by the Board of Directors. Unlike the January 18th endorsement letter, which was only signed by Mike McAtee, the February 27th letter was signed by both Mike McAtee and Tyson Lee.

This February 27th retraction letter was published online (on March 6th) by Sean Zittel and Erik Magraken. Here is what the retraction letter reportedly stated:

Re: Withdrawal and Clarification of January 18, 2026, Correspondence

Dear Chairman Walberg and Ranking Member Scott:

On January 18, 2026, correspondence was transmitted to your offices regarding the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act (H.R. 4624).

Following review, the USA Boxing Board of Directors determined that the January 18, 2026, correspondence did not reflect a formally adopted Board position at the time of submission and was not authorized by a vote of the Board. Accordingly, the Board issues this clarification and confirms that the January 18 correspondence does not represent an official position of USA Boxing.

Accordingly, the Board hereby withdraws that letter.

After discussion, the Board has determined that USA Boxing will not take a position on H.R. 4624.

We appreciate the Committee’s attention to matters affecting the sport of boxing.

Respectfully, Tyson Lee & Mike McAtee

On behalf of the Board of Directors/USA Boxing

The February 27th retraction letter, like the January 18th endorsement letter, was submitted to House staffers for internal records but was not directly published in the Congressional Record. However, it is still legally considered a public record.

Given the wide disparity in opinion on the Ali Revival Act legislation between USA Boxing leadership and the Board of Directors, will this current Board maintain its vote of confidence in Executive Director Mike McAtee’s job performance? Are there significant trust issues that can be reconciled?

This workplace matter is far from settled.

Purged or be purged

These recent developments within USA Boxing and the Association of Boxing Commissions lead an outsider to reasonably conclude the following:

Whoever wins the battle over the Ali Revival Act is going to keep their jobs — for the time being. Whoever loses this battle is likely going to pay a price, whether that’s with a stiff reprimand or outright termination.

TKO politics are impacting cohesion between leadership and members in both ABC & USA Boxing. Marching through the institutions.

In legislative text, the Ali Revival Act will empower the ABC trade organization to publish report cards as a mechanism to influence Federal oversight. You read this claim correctly. Hall monitors have gone to hell. This is the bypass around Tenth Amendment issues?

If a state athletic commission doesn’t play ball with ABC regarding Ali Revival Act implementation, then phone calls theoretically could be made for enforcement. Lobbyists calling up a Governor’s Office? DOJ calling up state Attorneys General? This will further inflame tensions between various state athletic commission administrators.

The UBO system proposed in the Ali Revival Act not only bypasses regular Ali Act standards but likely strips whatever political independence remaining for administrative oversight while simultaneously increasing regulatory burden for non-UBO contests. Constrained commission budgets will combust due to newly imposed costs, meaning there will be financial pressure on various state governments to embrace UBOs over their own state athletic commissions.

Who is going to have primary Federal oversight over UBOs? The Federal Trade Commission?

The days of someone like Larry Hazzard reportedly making $165,000 a year in the state of New Jersey or a mid-sized state athletic director making $100,000 a year are fat targets to get whacked in a new TKO world.

Memo to current state athletic commission executives: look at the UBO system as the combat sports version of AI. Think your job is safe?

Athletic commissions largely function on auto-pilot for UFC events. The new UBO system would create a very similar scenario for boxing oversight.

And for non-UBO events? Insurance costs as a boxing promoter just doubled or tripled overnight. Game over. Fewer shows. As event promoter Larry Goldberg recently asked, Is It Over for the Little Guy in Boxing?

There is already a boxing revenue crunch. As noted on Page 12 of an upcoming California State Athletic Commission meeting document, Andy Foster recently requested a $200,000 state loan from Sacramento. This is despite TKO running big events in 2025 at Steve Ballmer’s Intuit Dome.

Over two years ago, The MMA Draw published an article about the financial risks for California’s commission. The state needs big events to make up for revenue shortcomings. This is why legislation was recently introduced in Sacramento that would allow the Athletic Commission to accept sponsorship money.

The powers-that-be in combat sports have gone all-in with TKO. They are tying their entire futures to the whims of UFC, WWE, and Zuffa Boxing. This is why the turf wars are so ugly.

What about USA Boxing? We already know about Zuffa Boxing’s attempt at establishing some sort of relationship with USA Boxing leadership last November in Lubbock, Texas, at the Nationals.

Ari Emanuel is very interested in the LA 2028 Olympic Games. Notwithstanding all the noise surrounding Casey Wasserman, of course. Boxing is a legacy piece of the ‘28 Games and TKO wants to visibly make its mark on the sport.

Is someone going to win big at ABC and USA Boxing at the expense of their enemies getting publicly humiliated? Someone is going to lose in an ignominious fashion. As Mark Shapiro loves to say, “It’s an eat what you kill world.”

Leadership at both entities believe they have a winning hand. They believe that there is a role for them in a TKO-dominated world.

The likely calculation from ABC & USA Boxing leadership is that their critics will either shut up and play ball or get flushed down the toilet. The only question remaining for leadership is the scope of awareness, organization, and aggression of their opposition to this current state of political affairs. Careers and reputations are on the line.

Zach Arnold is the lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. You can e-mail him at fightopinion - at - protonmail dot com.