The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) became the focus of the boxing world this past week when it unanimously voted to support the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act following a second extended and contentious session of public comment.

Despite widespread concerns about the act's passing and the monopolizing power it could hand TKO — the parent company of UFC, WWE and Zuffa Boxing — and mass condemnation of the controversial bill from a host of ex-UFC fighters who spoke at the meeting, the CSAC and its executive director, Andy Foster, believe the act is beneficial for the sport of boxing and thus endorsed the fast-moving piece of legislation. Foster explained the commission's decision Tuesday on "The Ariel Helwani Show."

"The fact of the matter is, we've lost four networks [HBO, FOX, Showtime, ESPN] in the last seven years," Foster said, summing up boxing's problems to Uncrowned. "The number of titles issued is up 404% since 1996, and the public doesn't know who the champions are in many of the weight classes. It's hard to make unification fights.

"There's four tracks that you can go with the current sanctioning organizations. You can do WBA, WBO, IBF or WBC, and they're all very similar types of tracks. You will move up the rankings depending on who you fight and [who your promoter is, because] different promoters associate with different sanctioning organizations. But a lot of time, everybody works with everybody, you will move up that way.

"Once a year, you will have mandatories in that organization if you're the champion. You'll often see big fighters being stripped of their belt because they just can't fight — if they have multiple belts, you can't fight that many times because another fight might make more financial sense, or whatever. Really, just having a system where the best fighter will fight the best fighter, and then they will rise without having to ask permission from a different group on the ratings, or in some cases four different groups, is beneficial to boxing, because we're not always seeing the best fights that can be made."

TKO is expected to fully enter boxing in early 2026 under the Zuffa Boxing brand, and when it does so, Dana White's new venture will have the biggest TV platform in U.S. boxing with Paramount.

As it stands, boxing is struggling to attract major networks to broadcast it. While Matchroom and Golden Boy have existing agreements with DAZN, Top Rank and PBC — the two biggest U.S. players in the sport for the past decade — are struggling to replace the voids left by ESPN and Showtime, respectively. Top Rank is still without a network deal, and though PBC has found a home with Amazon Prime Video, its activity and momentum in the post-Showtime era have experienced a seismic drop-off.

Another issue earmarked by Foster is the number of belts and champions that exist in the sport. Nowadays, pretty much every fight of 10 rounds or more seems to have a title attached to it, further devaluing the significance of the belts. Boxing's 17 weight divisions and four belts per weight class allow for the possibility of 68 concurrent world champions. 

When Zuffa Boxing formally begins its boxing campaign in 2026, it hopes to do so with just one title per weight class. There has long been debate over whether having a single belt per division would increase the possibility of the best fights happening, as it could reduce the politicization of the belts and potentially force the issue.

It must be said, though, that despite the UFC's one-belt approach, plenty of MMA's most desired matchups — including Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall — have struggled to come to fruition. Boxing's talent pool is also spread across multiple major promoters, and should TKO successfully create a Unified Boxing Organization (UBO) under the new bill, it would remove all possibilities of its fighters facing off against fighters not in the UBO, potentially closing the door to a host of top matchups.

"Without the broadcast money, we are seeing more and more purse bids," Foster said. "I've got a fight that's coming up in December [Badou Jack vs. Noel Mikaelyan 2 for the WBC cruiserweight title]. [Promoter] Steve Bash got that for $ 301,000 cumulative for that fight — it's a world title fight. 

"We just had one [world title fight that] Sean Gibbons bid on and [won], it's a world title fight — $ 30,000. Absent the very, very elite — [Terence] Crawford and [Saul] 'Canelo' [Alvarez], there's a few — absent that, the idea that boxers are making a lot more than MMA fighters or UFC fighters, in particular, is false. That is a fairy tale. It's a fable. It's being told and told, and it's not true. I've got the numbers."

For context, Bash was the only bidder for Jack's rematch with Mikaelyan, while Gibbons secured the promotional rights to the Masamichi Yabuki vs. Felix Alvarado IBF flyweight title fight for just $ 30,000. 

Those examples, however, are misleading in relation to the financials of the sport, as Yabuki and Alvarado have nonexistent profiles in North America, and there is little clamor for a Jack vs. Mikaelyan rematch. On the other hand, the recent Subriel Matias vs. Dalton Smith purse bids were won by Fresh Productions for $ 1.9 million, despite neither fighter being a major star.

In a recent exhaustive dive into the publicly available data, Uncrowned's John S. Nash determined that boxers earned more on average than MMA fighters at nearly every percentile, with top boxers also earning many multiples of what top MMA fighters make at the highest levels.

Foster also doubled down on a belief that Zuffa's league will lead to more evenly matched, viewer-friendly fights. In boxing, it is common for the majority of boxing cards to feature lopsided matchups designed to build the stock of a prospect or contender and allow them to develop against overmatched opposition. White, however, plans to replicate the UFC's Contender Series model for talent development, with the aim of making 50-50 fights throughout a fight card rather than focusing on building one particular fighter, as TKO's business model isn't as reliant on the talent as boxing has been.

"The biggest thing this bill does, and why it's so important that this bill [passes], this bill addresses the four-, six-, and eight-round fighters that were not addressed the first time," Foster added. "In the sense that there is a minimum purse requirement, a minimum insurance requirement, and a minimum medical requirement for every boxer in this country. California exceeds these standards, but many states do not.

"This bill [doesn't repeal] the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000. If you want to go down that path, you can. That bill didn't really impact the four-, six-, and eight-[round fighters] like this bill is going to. This bill, if it's signed into law, will automatically raise the floor across this whole country. Just that reason alone [is why it should pass], because boxing can be exploitative, especially to really, really low-income people."

The Ali Revival Act plans to enact a national minimum payment for all professional boxers at $ 150 per round. While this appears insignificant, six states have minimums below $ 150, and most states have no minimum payments at all. The legislation would also create a national minimum of $ 25,000 for coverage for injuries sustained during a fight, higher than current minimums in 43 states. UBO boxers would benefit from additional health and safety protections, including enhanced comprehensive medical exams, more licensed physicians and ambulance units present at each event, and health coverage for injuries sustained during training for a bout.

It is not uncommon for boxers on club shows to compete for zero money, as they often have to sell enough tickets to cover the cost of the opponent and pay what is known as a house fee — a contribution toward the total cost of running a show, exclusive of the fighters' purses. The Ali Revival Act would guarantee every fighter a minimum purse regardless of ticket sales, so they are not fighting for nothing. 

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"This is an option," Foster said. "No boxer has to do this track, but I think it's fair to say that the UFC is clearly the most successful MMA promoter that's ever been, and if the people over there at TKO or whoever decide to get into the space, they're going to bring the same ammunition, the same degree of promotion to boxing, and I think the fighters will be able to choose [where best benefits their career].

"Nobody is making the people do this, and I don't think somebody like [Jaron] 'Boots' Ennis is really who [Zuffa would target]. The way I view this at the beginning would be more like a developmental league, probably something like the [UFC's] Contender Series or something to start with. I don't think they're going to jump feet-first with the UBO system into the four-belt system. I don't think they're trying to — I don't know what they're exactly [trying to do], I've not asked them, but that's not the way I envisage it. I envisage it being built up, signing good fighters if they want to come over there.

"The other groups in the four-belt system will be just fine. I don't think this changes boxing that much. I do think that the best fighting the best, or the people with the media that they're bringing with Paramount, and the whole thing — it will put boxing back on TV."

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