Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali and founder of the organized opposition to the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, attended Zuffa Boxing 09 at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night at the invitation of TKO Group Holdings, the company behind both the promotion and the legislation he has spent the year fighting. He appeared on Zuffa’s own broadcast, interviewed by the company’s own announce team.

For TKO, the image is the victory. The chair of the Ali Act Preservation Alliance, on the company’s air, at the company’s invitation, at its New York debut. Whatever was said, the footage belongs to Zuffa. TKO, formed in 2023, is the parent company of both the UFC and WWE, and no company on earth is better at turning conflict into content. A defiant interview on their broadcast is not a disruption of the show. It is the show.

Ali Walsh announced the invitation on X ahead of the card, Zuffa’s first in New York City, writing that he appreciated TKO reaching out and would continue to “defend the Ali Act and the FIGHTERS,” adding that he looked forward to a productive discussion.

On the broadcast, Ali Walsh insisted the setting changed nothing. “No offense, I don’t care about Zuffa,” he said. “I’m only here for boxing. I’m here for the fighters. Boxing is at its best when they put the fighters first.” He described ongoing weekly conversations with senators about the bill, said he has at times felt he is fighting alone on a hill, and repeated that he is confident the Revival Act will not pass in its current form.

The appearance marks a new chapter in a standoff that has defined the sport’s year. In April, Ali Walsh founded the Ali Act Preservation Alliance, serving as its chair and spokesperson, in response to TKO’s push to pass the Revival Act. “People don’t understand what this bill is,” he said at the group’s launch. He traveled to Washington alongside Oscar De La Hoya to testify against the bill before the Senate, and the WBC named him an ambassador for justice.

His opposition has centered on the claim that the legislation would let TKO’s Zuffa Boxing consolidate the sport the way the UFC consolidated mixed martial arts. “They want Zuffa to be boxing,” he told BoxingScene in June, warning the sport would become a monopoly. “That’s how monopolies start,” he told Yahoo Sports in May, describing a future in which Zuffa signs the top talent, independent promoters go out of business, and fighters are left without alternatives. In June, he framed the campaign in his grandfather’s terms, telling BoxingScene, “It’s Ali against the United States again.”

The invitation comes with the legislative fight at a critical stage. The Revival Act has passed the House of Representatives and awaits action in the Senate. TKO already counts Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali’s widow, among the bill’s public supporters. Oscar De La Hoya, who testified alongside Ali Walsh in Washington, remains the most prominent voice in the sport publicly opposing the bill. Zuffa Boxing, led by Dana White with backing from TKO’s Nick Khan, has spent 2026 signing top fighters including Conor Benn, Jai Opetaia, and Richardson Hitchins, who fought on Sunday’s card.

Nothing about Sunday required Ali Walsh to soften a word, and he did not. That is precisely the point. In the WWE model, the resistance does not need to lose its voice. It needs to perform on the company’s stage. The disagreement continues. The show goes on. And the name on the bill, the widow behind it, and now the grandson fighting it have all appeared under the same corporate banner.

What was discussed privately between Ali Walsh and TKO executives in New York, and whether it produces changes to the legislation, has not been disclosed.