‘With every change comes trade-offs’: Ted Cruz pushes new Muhammad Ali Act in hopes of unifying boxing

Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) is hoping a unified approach to boxing organizations will return the sport to the time when it was a source of national pride and childhood heroes.

Cruz recently championed the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act of 2026, an add-on to the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000.

‘We need more predictable pathways for matchmaking.’

Sponsored by Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), the bill’s goal is to strengthen organizations’ ability to hold on to fighters, while establishing unified rules and medical procedures, including anti-doping programs.

The legislation — which passed through the House in March — demands that unified boxing organizations must implement drug testing programs, provide supplemental physicals for fighters over 40 years old, ensure that at least two ambulances are on site for matches, and allow boxers access to equipment and facilities fully operated by the UBO.

Effectively, if the legislation passes, it will allow boxing organizations to create fight leagues similar to those of other professional organizations, in which a boxer is locked in with regard to exclusivity and promotional rights.

The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, on the other hand, limited promotional contracts to 12 months and prevented organizations from being able to force boxers into granting future promotional rights as a condition for a mandatory title fight.

The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on Wednesday, which included support for and dissent from the new act and featured some of the biggest names in the sport.

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Opposing the new rules was 11-time world champion Oscar De La Hoya. The boxing legend directly criticized noted adversary and UFC President Dana White, saying that White’s Zuffa Boxing organization would likely be a beneficiary of the new rules. De La Hoya complained that Zuffa is “fully funded by Saudi Arabia” and claimed that such funding “reshaped another sport,” referring to LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed competitor to the PGA Tour.

The former boxer said LIV Golf potentially losing Saudi backing should “serve as a warning” for American boxing. However, it should be noted that De Le Hoya accepted a $10 million purchase of boxing publication Ring magazine by a Saudi Arabian who invests in Zuffa Boxing.

De Le Hoya said in March that he now regrets the sale.

Nico Ali Walsh, Muhammad Ali’s grandson, also spoke in opposition to the legislation, saying that “the people controlling fighters should not also control the entire marketplace those fighters depend on.”

Walsh claimed the new bill, in its current form, should not have his grandfather’s name on it. According to Boxing Insider, he also cited Ali’s history of speaking against the government and said that “silence is part of the system.”

By contrast, Cruz praised the previous act but claimed that it was time for change.

The previous act was “meant to set basic guardrails without remaking the sport from Washington,” Cruz said, “but with every change comes trade-offs.”

“We need more predictable pathways for matchmaking and simplified rankings. I believe allowing for a more unified structure to take hold could help the sport compete more effectively against other combat sport competitors,” he added.

Nick Khan, president of the WWE and executive at Zuffa Boxing, made the case that the new rules create a framework that “can do what major sports do — promote competition, develop talent, and enforce consistent standards under one roof.”

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Two of the biggest contentions to major fight organizations unifying in this manner have been fighter pay and health insurance. The legislation attempts to address these issues with insurance that covers fighters during their training period while simultaneously raising boxer minimum pay.

For example, according to Boxing Scene, California has a $100-per-round minimum pay, whereas the new legislation doubles that to $200 per round while guaranteeing a fight every six months.

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