Nico Ali Walsh: Senators Say Ali Revival Act Will Not Pass As Is

Nico Ali Walsh says senators have confirmed to him that the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act will not pass in its current form, in an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show on Tuesday. Helwani posted several clips of the conversation to X, covering Ali Walsh’s meeting with TKO Group Holdings executives in New York, the four changes he wants written into a revised bill, and his appearance on the Zuffa Boxing broadcast at Madison Square Garden.

“This is a huge win for us. It is not going to pass as the Revival Act. It’s going to pass as something else, but now we’re able to implement the changes we felt were necessary to better the sport of boxing and, of course, protect the fighters,” Ali Walsh said.

He pointed to his ongoing conversations with senators as the reason he entered the TKO meeting believing the company wanted to negotiate.

“I may be naive, but when they first reached out, I thought that they were trying to come to an agreement,” he said. “That was my initial thought because the truth is, with these senator calls, we’ve been winning. The side of sticking up for the current Ali Act, we’ve been winning. These senators have been agreeing with us. They know that the revival act is not going to pass as it stands.”

Ali Walsh also spelled out the four changes he brought into the meeting as priorities for a revised version of the legislation.

“In layman’s terms, financial transparency is absolutely essential. UBO disclosures, fighter pay. You’ve got to be able to show what money is being made,” he said.

“Free agency. Length of contracts. Rankings transparency. Those four are really the main ones that we stuck to in the meeting.”

“If they listen to those four, we’ll be in a way better position, and fighters will be able to keep a lot of the rights they have under the current Ali Act,” he said.

The four items track the core protections of the existing Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act that critics say the Revival Act would not extend to the new Unified Boxing Organizations the bill creates. According to ESPN, the current law prohibits coercive contracts, requires promoters to disclose event revenue to fighters, separates promotion from management, and mandates consistent, published rankings criteria. The Revival Act, H.R. 4624, would allow a UBO to sign fighters, promote events, and operate its own rankings and titles under one roof.

The New York meeting came at TKO’s invitation. Ali Walsh announced it on X on July 26, writing that he appreciated the company reaching out and would continue to “defend the Ali Act and the FIGHTERS.” The invitation followed a call with the Senate, after which he posted that changes to the legislation were coming.

Ali Walsh also explained how his appearance on the Zuffa Boxing broadcast came together. He attended Zuffa Boxing 09 at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, where he was interviewed on the promotion’s own air. According to Ali Walsh, the invitation came from TKO board member and WWE President Nick Khan at the close of the meeting.

“At the end of the meeting, [Nick Khan] said, ‘Would you guys be open to being on the broadcast for the event tonight?'” Ali Walsh said. “I’m here to support the fighters. I’m here to support boxing as a whole. Anytime I get to support boxing or fighters, absolutely. I will never shy away from that.”

“I gotta give it to Nick Khan. I even gotta give it to Zuffa. They put me on the broadcast. They didn’t give me any talking points. They didn’t hint at, ‘You gotta say this. We want you to do this.’ I respect that,” he said. “They gave me that platform, and even on that platform, I spoke somewhat against Zuffa. I was just being honest. I’m here for boxing. That’s just the truth.”

On the broadcast itself, Ali Walsh had said, “No offense, I don’t care about Zuffa. I’m only here for boxing. I’m here for the fighters. Boxing is at its best when they put the fighters first.”

The legislation passed the House of Representatives by voice vote on March 24 and was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee, which held a hearing on April 22 with testimony from Ali Walsh, Oscar De La Hoya, Association of Boxing Commissions president Timothy Shipman, and Khan. “The Reform Act was built on a simple principle: the people controlling fighters should not also control the entire marketplace those fighters depend on. That separation exists to prevent conflicts of interest and exploitation,” Ali Walsh told the committee. “If this bill is passed in its current form, it should not have my grandfather’s name on it, as it would betray the principles his Act was created to protect.”

Ali Walsh founded the Ali Act Preservation Alliance in April, a group of roughly 30 members and organizations opposed to the bill as written, as reported by ESPN. The World Boxing Council has backed his position and named him an ambassador. TKO, which supports the legislation through Zuffa Boxing, has argued the UBO model gives fighters an additional choice rather than replacing the current system, a position Khan presented at the April hearing.

The bill remains under review in the Senate, where Sen. Ted Cruz has championed it. Whether the four changes Ali Walsh outlined are incorporated into a revised text has not been announced.