Oscar de la Hoya admitted frustrations at how the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act hearing in front of the Senate played out this week.
Advocates of the Revival Act say it provides greater protections and options for fighters, while critics claim it’s little more than a power grab with parties like Zuffa Boxing benefitting because it would provide the TKO Group company the sort of powers that UFC has enjoyed in mixed martial arts.
de la Hoya, alongside another prominent critic in Nico Ali Walsh — Muhammad Ali’s boxer-grandson, attended, and spoke at, the hearing.
“It felt like that there was already a decision made beforehand, and it felt like an uphill battle,” de la Hoya told Fight Hype shortly after this week’s hearing. “But I really am optimistic that the Senate will take a look at the bill, dissect it, and maybe put some of our inputs into the new bill and hopefully clean it up and make it a better bill, enhance the bill for the betterment of the sport and the betterment of the fighter.
“That’s why we’re here,” he said, “to make sure the protection stays.
“With the current Ali Act, the Ali Act protects the fighter 100% and there’s a reason why we haven’t changed that bill in the last 26 years. Nobody has complained about it, nobody has said anything about it until Zuffa Boxing comes into the circle and tries to change everything, for a reason.
“Obviously, we know what those reasons are but it was very frustrating today but hopefully we can enhance the bill for the betterment of the fighter.”
He continued: “How safer can you make the sport where we have everything in place already. They keep on talking about ambulances and they keep talking about life insurance. Well, if you read the fine print — because we got hold of a Zuffa contract — if you read the fine print they do have life insurance in place, but guess who is the beneficiary? Zuffa. How crazy is that?!”
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Alan Dawson is Boxing Social’s editor.
He is also a columnist for Uncrowned at Yahoo Sports, and the founder-moderator of Boxing Twitter — a 20,000-strong community on X.
A 17-year sports media veteran, Alan has enjoyed extensive stints at Business Insider as a correspondent, BT Sport as digital editor, and Give Me Sport as combat sports editor.
He is a 2-time Sports Journalist of the Year finalist and has been honored six times by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Alan grew up near London but is based in Nevada with his young family. Outside boxing he plays 8-handicap golf, hikes, and rides his ebike through the Sierra mountain trails.
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