Nick Khan walked into a Senate hearing room with a clear message, the moment for boxing reform has arrived and TKO Group Holdings has the financial credibility to back it up.
The WWE president and TKO board member appeared before the Senate committee to advocate for the Muhammad Ali Boxing Revival Act, a proposed overhaul of the existing 2000 legislation that would create a new framework for the sport. His argument was bolstered in part by a recent business development, Paramount’s seven year, $7.7 billion deal for the U.S. media rights to UFC, TKO’s flagship mixed martial arts property.
That agreement, which runs through 2032, was negotiated in just 48 hours following the close of the Skydance Paramount merger, according to TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro. It more than doubled what ESPN had been paying annually, jumping from roughly $550 million per year to an average of $1.1 billion. Morningstar analysts described it as an intentional overpay, writing that the deal
“can only be judged as part of a bigger vision.”
For Khan, that financial backdrop provided the foundation for an argument that TKO backed boxing reform is not merely aspirational. The organization is already in advanced talks to sell Zuffa Boxing, a TKO property co led by UFC president Dana White and Khan himself, to Paramount, further deepening what is becoming a wide ranging sports media relationship.
Khan’s Senate testimony centered on the state of professional boxing, a sport he described as being in long decline despite once commanding the top of American sports culture. He pointed to an era when the best athletes in the country chose the sport above all others.
“There was a time not long ago when boxing in America was bigger than football and basketball,”
Khan told the committee.
“Fifty years ago, when Rocky came out, during the 1976 bicentennial, boxing was the most culturally dominant sport in America.”
He cited Sugar Ray Leonard earning $8 million for a single bout in 1980, a year when the average NFL salary stood at $80,000, as evidence that elite athletes once gravitated toward boxing because the financial rewards were unmatched. That pipeline has since nearly vanished. The U.S. has claimed only one Olympic gold medal in men’s boxing in over two decades.
The core of the problem, Khan argued, lies in a sanctioning body system that has splintered the sport into a disorienting web of titles and fees.
“Today, the WBC, a sanctioning body, alone recognizes 163 champions across 18 weight classes,”
he told senators.
“To state the obvious, there should simply be 18 champions across 18 weight classes. But the more champions, the more fees to the sanctioning bodies, and those fees come directly out of the fighters’ purses, typically 3% from both champion and challenger.”
The proposed legislation would create what the bill calls Unified Boxing Organizations, or UBOs, structured to consolidate oversight of the sport under a framework with enforceable standards. Khan took care to frame the UBO concept as an option, not a mandate.
“The act as it currently stands would remain in place,”
he said.
“This is an or option.”
The boxer protections built into the proposal are concrete. Khan outlined a minimum pay floor of $200 per round, matching California’s standard, currently the highest in the country. He described mandatory injury insurance of $50,000 per bout, at no cost to the boxer, with coverage beginning at the start of training camp rather than on the night of the bout.
“Many fighters compete injured on fight night because there is no insurance until the night of the fight,”
he said.
The legislation would also impose a six year cap on promotional contracts, comparable to rookie deals in baseball and football, and require standardized medical protocols including annual brain MRIs and cardiac testing. Khan pointed to UFC’s partnership with the Cleveland Clinic as proof that sports organizations can take a leadership role in athlete health.
“The UFC is at the forefront of brain health testing with its partnership with the Cleveland Clinic,”
he noted.
He addressed opposition from sanctioning bodies head on, framing their resistance as a defense of financial self interest rather than a principled objection.
“Some of the sanctioning bodies oppose this bill,”
he said.
“That’s because it threatens their dominance over the sport.”
The timing of Khan’s push carries its own urgency. The 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will include boxing, returning to the same city where nine American athletes won gold in the sport in 1984.
“If this committee acts now, there’s an actual chance that American boxing will be prepared to meet the moment,”
Khan said.
“Otherwise, we will find ourselves spectators in our own stadium.”
To signal that TKO’s investment goes beyond testimony, Khan announced a $1 million pledge to organizations building pathways from amateur boxing to the professional ranks, beginning with police athletic leagues.
“Rebuilding boxing starts in the local communities and gyms, and it has to start now,”
he said.
It was an unconditional commitment, he noted, not tied to the bill’s passage.
The bill has already cleared the House with bipartisan support, and the Senate hearing marks a critical juncture.
