Once in a while, some brainiac figures they have to save boxing, improve boxing, and maybe just cheat boxing. It’s a never-ending cycle.
Now here comes the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, passed by the House with a 30-4 vote, that it is hoped will improve boxing with more safety, better pay, health care, pensions, and United Boxing Organizations (UBO) to oversee the sport on a state-by-state basis. It will not be part of boxing’s four governing bodies. This bill, now heading to the Senate and if passed will be signed by President Trump, follows the Professional Boxing Safety Act (1996) and the Ali Boxing Reform Act (2000).
“They’re gutting the Ali Act,” said Lou DiBella, former boxing executive at HBO and head of DiBella Entertainment, which has produced the “Broadway Boxing” series since 2009. “It’s allowing the same entity to make the ratings, give out the belts, be the promoter, handle everything.
“It’s a new way of doing business. It’s adapting the UFC/WWE model for boxing. It’s allowing the UFC [led by Dana White and his Zuffa Boxing] to use their model to attempt to dominate boxing promotion.”
Is the new Ali Act enough?
“We need a national commission with one national set of rules,” said Bruce Silverglade, owner of Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. “It’s very tough when you can go to New York and train and box, and then get a different set of rules if you go to Texas or Nevada, or if you go to one of the states and it doesn’t even have a commission.
“There’s got to be a national commission with one set of rules, one set of medicals. Everything should be uniform and then the communication would be proper.”
Hall of Fame trainer and broadcaster Teddy Atlas agrees.
“I’ve been in the business 50 years. I’ve called for a national commission for 40,” said Atlas, who trained champions such as Michael Moorer, Shannon Briggs, and Timothy Bradley. He’s known for speaking his mind and taking no prisoners. “I got fired from ESPN because I was critical [of the sport].”
Atlas was working with the late Senator John McCain about fixing boxing with early legislation. What he told the senator then still resonates today: “Senator, this [bill] would be tantamount to putting forward a bill to stop the transportation of drugs into this country and then passing it by [Pablo] Escobar to see if he approves.” Atlas believes a national commission is paramount to boxing’s survival.
“All the other major sports have a national commission. We don’t have one,” he said. “We’ve got to have a standard unilateral healthcare and demand on what the insurance should be.”
If anyone can speak about what boxing needs, it is Marian “Lady Tyger” Trimiar, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2021 in the Women’s Trailblazer category.
She, Cat Davis, and the late Jackie Tonawanda filed a lawsuit in 1978 to get boxing licenses in New York State. They won and Trimiar went on to capture a lightweight title in 1979. Now 72 years old and using a wheelchair, but very mobile, Trimiar wants more from politicians than lip service.
“The most I ever made was $1000,” said the bubbly Harlem resident. “A pension for fighters. That’s an excellent idea that would be helpful to people like me.”
Does boxing have a future when it’s not even on free TV? “That’s a hard one,” Trimiar said. “It depends on how much coverage we get.”
Both in and out of the (political) ring.