Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has raised significant concerns about recent legislation affecting combat sports regulation, specifically targeting changes to the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act that TKO (the parent company of UFC) successfully lobbied to pass through Congress.
The controversial legislation creates a series of exemptions that critics argue were essentially written by corporate lobbyists to benefit a single firm. Patrick English, one of the original architects of the Ali Act, went so far as to call the new bill “a betrayal” of the law’s original intent.
Khan expressed alarm about the structural implications of the changes, particularly regarding conflicts of interest that the original Ali Act was designed to prevent. “Some of the key goals of the Ali Act and what it was able to achieve was both protecting boxers from coercive exploitative contracts, but also preventing certain structural conflicts of interest in the industry,” Khan explained.
The former FTC chair highlighted a critical concern: the original Ali Act prohibited promoters from having excessive influence over titles and rankings, ensuring that those judging fighters weren’t simultaneously controlling them. “As I understand it some of what’s being suggested with this new bill would basically create new entities that would again be able to have those conflicts,” she warned.
Khan drew parallels to broader market concerns, noting that such conflicts of interest have proven problematic across multiple industries. “That’s something that we’ve seen in industry after industry if you’re not policing for the conflicts of interest that can get real bad real quick for the workers, for the consumers in terms of how some of these entities are be able to be on multiple sides of the market, exploit all sorts of information asymmetries, and use that against you.”
The discussion also touched on the dangers of unchecked monopolization. Khan emphasized that without proper controls, monopolies in one industry can easily expand into related sectors.
“You’re absolutely right that there can be a way in which you have monopolies just roll over from one industry to the next. And if you don’t stop the problem in its inception, it can really just snowball into all sorts of other areas.”
The legislation represents a significant victory for TKO’s lobbying efforts but raises fundamental questions about corporate influence in shaping regulations meant to protect workers and maintain competitive markets in professional sports.
