Eddie Hearn considers proposed changes to the Muhammad Ali Act under the guise of “The Ali Revival Act” unnecessary.
The promoter also said it was also “not a good look” that a promotional entity wanted to make changes by stripping away some fighter rights while giving them some benefits.
Hearn said on Monday that promoters “need to respect the fighter”
Asked whether the changes would give promoters more power, he responded: “Yeah, but I don’t think we need more power in the promoter’s hands. I think we need to respect the fighter. And I think that act is nearly always there to protect the fighter, and make sure they’re not taken advantage of. And I think to try and change that act or get it slung out isn’t a good look from a fighter’s perspective.”
The Ali Act is facing amendment via a new bill that is set to appear in front of the regulatory authorities before the end of 2025.
Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing is based in the UK, but they have a significant stable in the US.
“If I went and came out to you now and said, ‘By the way, I’m coming to abolish the Ali Act because that’s there to protect the fighters, I don’t want to protect the fighters. I want to do what I want to do at any time’, I’d get so much stick, and this is really what’s happening, kind of behind closed doors – but now it’s becoming [public],” he explained.
“The fighters that I’ve spoken to have certainly raised a lot of eyebrows, saying ‘Why are you trying to abolish an act that is there to protect us?’ And it’s probably not a great look.”
The situation has been triggered by the new promotional group that is backed by the UFC-Zuffa Boxing-TKO Group, in league with Turki Alalshikh.
“For those guys, it’s about ownership and control,” said Hearn. “And I get it. But it doesn’t work like that in boxing. You’re not going to operate in a world where fighters do as they’re told or do as you think they should do, unless it’s fighters of a particular level. And when I look at the recruitment of the league, the fighters they’re talking to and the fighters that I know that they’ve signed, they are fighters that would do whatever TKO wanted to do, because of the opportunity.
“For the bigger names, for the bigger fights, they’re just not gonna do that. And fighters aren’t just designed to do as they’re told. They have their own brains; they have their own opinion and they have a team of people that are there to structure a career of a fighter with a promoter."
