Nico Ali Walsh challenges Dana White to sit-down over boxing reform bill bearing Ali's name
Nico Ali Walsh challenges Dana White to sit-down over boxing reform bill bearing Ali's name
Nico Ali Walsh, grandson of Muhammad Ali, has publicly called on UFC President Dana White to meet and discuss the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act of 2026, a proposed federal law that carries his grandfather's name but which Walsh argues strips core protections away from professional fighters. Walsh requested a meeting - "public or private, you choose" - as the bill advances through Congress with White and TKO Group's Zuffa Boxing among its most prominent industry supporters.
The Revival Act is a revision of the original Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, which became law in 2000 and was co-sponsored by the late Senator John McCain. That legislation was designed to combat unfair and anticompetitive practices in the sport. Among its central provisions: a structural firewall prohibiting promoters from holding a direct or indirect financial interest in a boxer's management, and barring managers from holding a financial interest in a boxer's promotion. Walsh argues the new bill dismantles that firewall by creating a framework for "Unified Boxing Organizations," or UBOs, which would be permitted under the legislation to simultaneously contract with fighters, promote bouts, operate rankings systems, and award titles - functions the original law was specifically designed to separate. "That's what the current Muhammad Ali Act protects from happening in boxing," Walsh said.
Walsh, the son of Muhammad Ali's daughter Rasheda Ali and nephew of undefeated former champion Laila Ali, is himself an active professional boxer. He stopped short of opposing reform outright, acknowledging that provisions of a law passed more than two decades ago warrant updating. He cited new health benefit provisions in the Revival Act as a genuine improvement for fighters, but maintained that those gains do not offset what he characterized as a rollback of fighter rights. "The health benefits at the front end doesn't negate the rights that are being stripped from the fighters on the back end," he said. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya has separately criticized the bill, arguing it risks creating near-monopolistic control over the sport.
The legislation is bipartisan. It was co-sponsored by Representatives Brian Jack (R-GA) and Sharice Davids (D-KS) and passed the House of Representatives with broad cross-party support before being referred to the Senate Commerce Committee on March 25. Supporters contend the bill modernizes boxing's regulatory framework and furthers the well-being of professional fighters. Walsh's more immediate objective is awareness: he said many fighters and fans remain uninformed about what the original Ali Act provides and what the proposed revision would change. "You need to know your rights as a fighter," he said. White and the UFC had not responded publicly to Walsh's challenge at the time of publication.
