Nico Ali Walsh Challenges Dana White to Debate Boxing Reform Bill
Nico Ali Walsh Challenges Dana White to Debate Boxing Reform Bill
Nico Ali Walsh, grandson of Muhammad Ali, has publicly called on UFC and TKO Group executive Dana White to meet and discuss proposed federal legislation that would carry his grandfather’s name – legislation Walsh argues strips fighters of core protections the original 2000 law was designed to guarantee. Walsh issued the challenge as the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act of 2026 advances through Congress, having passed the House with bipartisan support before being referred to the Senate Commerce Committee on March 25.
The Revival Act would amend the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000, a law co-sponsored by the late Senator John McCain that established a firewall between boxing promoters and managers, prohibiting a promoter from holding a direct or indirect financial interest in a boxer’s management and vice versa. The new bill would create a category called Unified Boxing Organizations, or UBOs, empowering a single entity to sign fighters, promote bouts, compile rankings and award titles. Walsh contends that structure effectively collapses the firewall the original legislation built. “That’s what the current Muhammad Ali Act protects from happening in boxing,” he said. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya has raised similar objections, warning the framework could produce near-monopolies in the sport. The bill’s supporters, including co-sponsors Representative Brian Jack (R-GA) and Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS), say it modernises boxing and enhances fighter well-being, pointing to new health benefit provisions the Revival Act introduces.
Walsh, who boxes professionally and is the son of Muhammad Ali’s daughter Rasheda Ali, acknowledged the original law may be due for some updates after more than two decades, citing the health benefit provisions as a genuine improvement. However, he drew a clear line between acceptable modernisation and what he characterised as a weakening of structural fighter protections. “The health benefits at the front end doesn’t negate the rights that are being stripped from the fighters on the back end,” Walsh said. White and TKO Group have expanded into boxing through Zuffa Boxing, giving them a direct commercial stake in the regulatory environment the Revival Act would create.
Walsh framed his public appeal to White – both of whom are based in Las Vegas – as an invitation to a sit-down, open to being either public or private, focused on the Ali Act, fighter protections and the broader direction of the sport. He also directed a message at the wider fighter community, urging boxers to educate themselves on their legal rights as the bill moves toward a Senate vote. The UFC had not responded publicly to Walsh’s remarks at the time of publication.
