Is the new Muhammad Ali legislation worse for boxing?

Once in a while, some brainiac figures they have to save boxing, improve boxing, and maybe just cheat boxing.

- By TONY PAIGE Special to the AmNews

Newark, New Jersey, native Shakur Stevenson, WBO and Ring Magazine world welterweight champion, with his fellow professional boxers, face changes in sport with new Muhammad Ali bill.

(AP Photo/ Frank Franklin II)

It’s a never-ending cycle.Now here comes the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, passed by the House with a 30-4 vote, that it is hoped will improve boxing with more safety, better pay, health care, pensions, and the United Boxing Organizations (UBO) to oversee the sport on a state-by-state basis. It will not be part of boxing’s four governing bodies. This bill, now heading to the Senate and if passed will be signed by President Trump, follows the Professional Boxing Safety Act (1996) and the Ali Boxing Reform Act (2000).

“They're gutting the Ali Act,” said Lou DiBella, former boxing executive at HBO and head of DiBella Entertainment, which has produced the “Broadway Boxing” series since 2009. “It’s allowing the same entity to make the ratings, give out the belts, be the promoter, handle everything.