Dana White just gave Congress an excuse to kill the Ali Revival Act

Heartburn for both USA Boxing and Association of Boxing Commissions.

If a bank robber knows that the police aren’t going to arrest them or a prosecutor isn’t going to charge them for grabbing money, why would that bank robber worry about the laws on the books?

Hypothetically — and metaphorically — speaking, of course.

TKO, via Zuffa Boxing, has successfully promoted three club show-level events on Paramount+. Their next fight, on March 8th, features Jai Opetaia in the first-ever Zuffa Boxing title match. The Nevada Athletic Commission and Executive Director Jeff Mullen will put their seal of approval on these proceedings later this week at a formal commission meeting.

Notice no sanctioning bodies listed for Opetaia’s fight?

TKO, through its actions and words, has demonstrated two points very clearly to the public:

1. They’re not afraid of any accusations or repercussions regarding potential Ali Act violations because no athletic commission cares, no one is going to file lawsuits, and no one is going to prosecute them for promoting their own title belt and rankings.

2. No one has the power to stop them, obstruct them, or finance opposition to their endeavors.

In a Sunday night post-fight presser, Dana White elaborated on his surprise at how non-existent the reaction has been from legacy US boxing promoters towards Zuffa’s entry into the space.

“There hasn’t been any push back. This is like beating up babies. Feels like I came in and I’m beating up babies. I expected more. I expected some push back. I expected them to be more game. They’re all way out of their league. Like, absolutely positively out of their league. I’m actually a little shocked.”

Dana White also had some comments directly pointing at the absurdity of boxing’s highest-profile sanctioning body, the WBC.

“I think that guy from the WBC (Mauricio Sulaiman) is the greatest PR thing to ever happen to Zuffa Boxing. I mean, that guy should just keep doing interviews every day. Keep talking. It’s incredible. Love it.

This Sulaiman guy is incredible. He’s incredible. He’s absolutely the greatest PR guy for how fucked up boxing is of all time. He’s incredible.”

Which begs the obvious question…

If it’s so easy for Nick Khan, Lawrence Epstein, Harrison Whitman, and Dana White to destroy the promotional competition with Zuffa Boxing, then why do they need passage of the Ali Revival Act if TKO is already taking over the American boxing landscape?

After the third Zuffa Boxing club event for Paramount+ at the APEX warehouse in Las Vegas, Dana White was busy doing what he does best: being a laser pointer on behalf of his billionaire masters.

“All the shit De La Hoya talks. I mean, we all know he’s fucking mentally ill. The guy’s talking all this shit and his place is in foreclosure. He’s suing his fighters to try to stay with him. Has he done a Clapback Thursday recently?

“What more could you say or do to Oscar De La Hoya right now? I mean, this guy is beautiful. The ship is sinking like this and he’s talking shit all the way down.”

The same Dana White, who recently testified in front of Federal Judge Richard Boulware regarding missing evidence during the course of UFC antitrust litigation, is now attacking Oscar for suing Vergil Ortiz. I’m sure Ken Shamrock and Randy Couture would like to have a word.

Hypocrisy and whataboutism are the two least effective tools in human persuasion, yet UFC has somehow masterfully used them for decades against promotional rivals, tying them into mental knots.

We’ll see if Dana White still has the magic touch to make the public sales pitch that TKO is all about meritocracy and defeating evil forces in combat sports. It’s a little bit more challenging making that sale when Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro are your bosses, but why not give it the old college try?

Dana White, Looking For a Foil

The funniest sideshow right now is watching Dana try to figure out how to compete with Eddie Hearn in the battle of public relations. But there is a method to this madness.

“I saw Eddie Hearn saying that the (Zuffa) belt is cringey and all this stuff. I don’t think anybody looks at Eddie Hearn and says, oh, this guy’s a visionary. The guy’s been in boxing forever. I look at him like most politicians. You’ve done nothing in the sport except stay in your lane and play by all the rules and ride along but you ended up becoming part of the problem. I don’t want to sit here and smash Eddie Hearn but Eddie Hearn works for his dad. You know what I mean? He works for his dad and I don’t think he’s come in and ever had any type of vision. Whereas we do and we’re going to change the entire sport and I understand the people who are the status quo in boxing don’t like it but it doesn’t mean they can’t still do their thing. If your thing is as good as you think it is and you are as good as you think you are, then do your thing. Good luck to you.”

“The sport has been out there for over a hundred years and there’s plenty of guys that are involved in the sport. There’s plenty of money in the sport. Eddie Hearn and his dad have a lot of money. It’s not like they can’t compete. They can’t compete because they don’t know how to compete. There’s no vision there.”

Dana is shocked there’s no resistance yet claims there’s plenty of money in boxing, which is the opposite rationale given by Representative Brian Jack for his sponsorship of the Ali Revival Act.

This is standard UFC 101 public relations: they’re the good guys, and their “competition” is a bunch of wannabes who have resources but no intelligence to build a real promotion. It’s only UFC that embraces the concept of rugged individualism based on merit.

“I’ll lay out a body of work this year and then you can judge me by how this thing plays out. But everybody knows that this thing’s been broken for a long time. I said what I was going to do. I didn’t say anything, I’ve never said anything bad about the WBC or IBF. I just said I’m not going to do business with [them], I’m going to do my own thing.”

“What we do is we go out and we sign the best fighters in the world. The people that we think have the potential to be world champions and they all fight each other until we find out who is the best in the world. That’s what we do. There’s no secret to it. The talent is flooding in.”

“I mean, everybody feels it. It’s already happening and it’s going to be a fun year.”

“I’m sitting here my third fight in. I’m either right or I’m wrong. We’ll find out.”

We can all develop our own conclusions as to why TKO has spent big bucks lobbying for the Ali Revival Act. Here’s my conclusion: the Ali Revival Act is a quasi-antitrust exemption. It’s a piece of legislation codifying a bypass of the current Ali Act and creating conditions for TKO to monopolize the sport of boxing.

America First. All while Zuffa Boxing is currently 60% owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia via SELA.

Of course, this promotional game is going to be easy when you have a pack of lobbyists on your side in Washington DC twisting arms and exchanging Congressional pleasantries. It also helps to have The White House pushing your agenda.

As easy as a referee allowing a quarterback to throw completions to wide receivers who are out of bounds. As easy as an umpire calling strikes for a pitcher with a batter outside of the batter’s box. As easy as running off the bench and joining a fast break to dunk a basketball or scrambling offside to get a one-on-one against a goalie or goalkeeper.

Sure, you could win fair and square on the field within the rules of the current system. But why bother playing by the old rules? Instead of making tens of millions of dollars, you can make hundreds of millions instead with your own system.

By the time everyone else smartens up to the scheme, it will already be too late.

What TKO is engaging in is a giant psychological campaign. It’s about creating a sense of anxiety and acceptance of the inevitable. Instilling in the public a sense of learned helplessness. Look at how easy it is to dethrone Top Rank, Golden Boy, and PBC. Why, they didn’t even put up a fight. Bunch of babies.

That is the impact of Dana White acting as TKO’s rodeo clown. Distracting everyone else while creating psychological conditions for fans, fighters, and other promoters to believe that they just can’t fend off this multi-monopoly.

Join the circus or get out. Take it or leave it. This is the choice both USA Boxing and the Association of Boxing Commissions are facing right now.

Public endorsements and strange parallels

When rumors surfaced of the Ali Revival Act legislation in the Summer of 2025, ABC Executive Director Mike Mazzulli volunteered to be a public face of the marketing campaign. We’re not entirely sure why, but Mr. Mazzulli made sure the world knew about his full-throated support.

In August of 2025, Mike Mazzulli and Tim Shipman of the Association of Boxing Commissions sent Congress a letter endorsing the Ali Revival Act.

It turns out that several members of the ABC claimed they never saw this endorsement letter, nor did they see the actual legislative text. This became a hot flash point in a contentious January 22, 2026, emergency ABC conference call.

Things quickly got heated among ABC members after a markup session in the US House of Representatives that added amendments to the Ali Revival Act. These amendments changed drug testing and insurance standards for everyone, regardless of whether or not promoters operate under the current regulatory system or the new TKO-backed UBO system. This raises significant Tenth Amendment Constitutional issues under the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine for state athletic commissions. Who is going to enforce these new Federal standards on the states — and how?

Mike Mazzulli did not appear on the ABC emergency call. Instead, Andy Foster ran the call (at the request of Tim Shipman). When Mr. Foster was confronted by Tony Cummings, Director of Colorado’s office of combative sports, about the official ABC letter endorsing the Ali Revival Act, Mr. Foster pushed back on Mr. Cummings by stating that ABC leadership had the authority to send the endorsement letter.

The positioning of Andy Foster, Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission, as the lead government official lobbying on behalf of the Ali Revival Act deserves scrutiny. He has been the most aggressive spokesperson for the bill, including testifying in front of Congress last December. Mr. Foster has also been a lead attack dog on sanctioning body fees for boxing title fights. Zuffa Boxing has been openly antagonistic of sanctioning bodies as well. Symmetry.

By having the California State Athletic Commission endorse the Ali Revival Act on a 6-0 vote, it gave Mr. Foster the political and legal cover to lobby on behalf of this piece of legislation. A form of immunity from any lobbying activities moving forward. He’s just doing his job, whatever his motives may be.

Enter Mike McAtee of USA Boxing.

Days before the House markup session on the Ali Revival Act, USA Boxing purportedly e-mailed a three-page endorsement letter to Representatives Tim Walberg and Bobby Scott.

The letter, dated January 18, 2026, includes some rather interesting assertions.

Re: USA Boxing’s Position on the State of Olympic-Style and Professional Boxing in the United States

Dear Chairman Walberg and Ranking Member Scott:

As Executive Director/CEO of USA Boxing and as someone whose life has been shaped by this sport, I am writing to share our perspective on the current state of “amateur” Olympic-style and professional boxing in the United States, and why evolution of the professional boxing ecosystem is urgently needed for the long-term health of the sport of boxing at every level.

Boxing is unlike any other competition. It demands discipline, resilience, and courage, and it offers young people a path to personal growth and opportunity. I have seen firsthand how the ring can transform lives, including my own as an at-risk youth, and that is why I am committed to ensuring that boxing not only survives, but thrives, for future generations.

USA Boxing’s understanding is that the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act (H.R. 4624) is designed not to replace the current system, but to enhance and modernize industry standards for professional boxing. By updating protections and practices, it aims to help the sport grow back toward the levels of participation and excitement Americans experienced in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. The Revival Act would create a stronger environment for success at every level of the ecosystem: grassroots, national, international, Olympic, and professional. We support the legislative process, to enhance professional boxing in ways that strengthen and grow the entire boxing ecosystem from grassroots to professional.

USA Boxing is the National Governing Body, certified by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) for Olympic-style boxing in the United States. We are, in every practical sense, a professional organization: we license and train coaches and officials; we administer medical and safety protocols; and we sanction (authorize), staff, and oversee more events and bouts each year than all state athletic commissions combined. We are responsible for the bulk of the sport’s organized activity in this country, particularly for youth and developing internationally recognized boxers, many who go on to be successful professional boxing World Champions.

From that vantage point, we are deeply concerned about the current state of the professional boxing industry and the way it is failing both professional and Olympic-style boxing.

Over the past decade, the sport’s professional infrastructure has eroded. Major U.S. broadcasters such as HBO, ESPN and Showtime have exited the sport, and others have sharply reduced their investment. The current “mega-event” model produces occasional blockbuster nights that benefit a small number of elite fighters, but it does not support a broad, sustainable system for the approximately 3,000-4,000 boxers who aspire to make a living in boxing. The calendar is fragmented, key stakeholders are siloed, and there is no cohesive framework that connects the grassroots to the top of the pyramid.

This failing ecosystem has direct consequences for Olympic-style boxing. When the professional side is unstable, under-regulated, and narrowly focused on a handful of marquee events, several things happen:

• The sport’s overall visibility and credibility has declined, unlike the 1980s and 1990s, when professional and Olympic-style boxing had consistent exposure through Tuesday Night Fights, ESPN fight nights, and USA Boxing vs. the World on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, making it harder to attract sponsors, medical and performance experts, and long-term partners to support our athletes and programs.

• Investment in grassroots and developmental programs declines, because there is no clear, coordinated pipeline that links Olympic-style success to professional opportunity.

As we look ahead to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, these concerns take on even greater urgency. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase American boxing talent on home soil and to inspire a new wave of participation. For that to matter beyond a single Olympic cycle, there must be a modernized professional environment waiting for our athletes when they decide to move into the professional boxing arena.

USA Boxing believes that athletes who transition from Olympic-style to professional boxing should enter a system that offers enforceable protections, such as but not limited to:

• National minimum payment standards, health insurance, strict Anti-Doping testing, enhanced safety, and

• Greater protections for boxers and the sport, including rankings and contractual relationships

Again, we support the legislative process and the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act (H.R. 4624) to enhance professional boxing in ways that strengthen and grow the entire boxing ecosystem from grassroots to professional.

Our commitment is, and will remain, boxer-first. We stand ready to work with policymakers, regulators, promoters, and other stakeholders to build a healthier, more transparent ecosystem that honors boxing’s legacy while preparing it for the future.

Thank you for your attention to this critical issue and for your support of American boxers at every level.

In your corner,

Mike McAtee

Executive Director/CEO of USA Boxing

Here is a picture of the signature on this January 2026 USA Boxing letter:

We went back and looked for a signature comparison from previous letters published under Mike McAtee’s name for USA Boxing. Here is the signature Mr. McAtee used in an April 2023 letter:

USA Boxing’s endorsement letter of the Ali Revival Act was produced two months after Nick Khan, Dana White, and TKO staff attended the USA Boxing nationals in Lubbock, Texas.

Included in USA Boxing’s letter to Congress is a rather curious footnote:

USA Boxing does not consider itself an “amateur” organization. Our grassroots membership is recognized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and currently includes more than 67,000 members; boxers, coaches, officials and physicians, who support over 2,800 boxing gyms and administer over 40,000 bouts annually, which is more than all professional boxing world-wide.

This is the same USA Boxing that sent out a memo dated October 30, 2025, in Mike McAtee’s name, declaring that USA Boxing athletes cannot compete in other combative sporting activities. The rationale involved concerns of a lack of athletic injury reporting, specifically concussions.

Mr. McAtee appeared at the December 9, 2025, California State Athletic Commission meeting and addressed this memo in person. Andy Foster told CSAC board members that this memo was discovered by a third party. Given that California regulates delegations in other combative sports, this McAtee memo raised regulatory conflict issues between USA Boxing and California. Watch this video to see a tense exchange between Mr. McAtee and Mr. Foster.

Confusion and communication were key themes in this exchange.

Nearly a month after a letter in Mr. McAtee’s name was sent to Congress endorsing the Ali Revival Act, there are now questions supposedly being raised by various USA Boxing members. Some of these questions sound strangely familiar to questions raised by ABC members about their Ali Revival Act endorsement letter to Congress.

After we obtained this January 2026 USA Boxing endorsement letter, we formally contacted several USA Boxing members and asked if they would speak to us on the record regarding Mr. McAtee’s purported endorsement of the Ali Revival Act.

Here is part of our message sent to USA Boxing members:

Because the letter frequently uses the term “we” in expressing that support, I’m hoping you can clarify a few points:

• What formal process did the USA Boxing Board follow to endorse the Ali Revival Act (HR 4624)?

• Was there a board vote or other official action taken in support of this legislation?

• Can you—or a Board representative—offer comments on why USA Boxing determined it was important to publicly endorse the bill?

Our outreach included messages sent to both Executive Director Mike McAtee and the attorney for the Board of Directors for USA Boxing, Stephen Hess. Mr. Hess responded with the following statement:

“Most of my clients are very sophisticated and do not like to hide behind lawyers regarding media inquiries.”

We have yet to receive any response from anyone we have contacted at USA Boxing. Our messages provided multiple avenues of communication for members to reach out to us at The MMA Draw. Our invitation for communication always remains open.

The end result is that TKO got exactly what they wanted. TKO obtained public endorsements from both the Association of Boxing Commissions and USA Boxing to Congress on behalf of their Ali Revival Act legislation.

At least two key questions are outstanding:

1. Did all of the members of both ABC and USA Boxing formally vote to support an endorsement of the Ali Revival Act and its specific legislative text?

2. What are the primary motives for ABC & USA Boxing leadership in supporting this legislation?

What is it that TKO can provide these organizations that they previously were unable to obtain under the current status quo?

Because if you listen to Dana White speak, TKO apparently doesn’t need a whole lot of help in conquering the American boxing landscape. It’s like beating a bunch of babies.

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.