Midterms Shake Up the Ali Revival Act: What a New Congress Means for Boxing's Big Bill

The ballots are in, and boxing's biggest rewrite in a quarter-century just got a lot harder to call. The Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act was built in a Republican-run Congress. The next Congress won't look like that.

Where control stands

The Associated Press has called the U.S. Senate for Democrats. In that report, AP said the House "remains too early to call." NBC News has since projected that Democrats will win control of the House. The new majorities take over when the next Congress is seated in January.

Where the bill stands

The House passed H.R. 4624, sponsored by Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), by voice vote on March 24, 2026. The Senate version, S. 5188 from Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), cleared the Senate Commerce Committee on Sept. 16, 2026, amended by a Cruz-Rosen substitute and amendments from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). It has not had a full Senate vote. The two chambers would still have to agree on one text.

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The bill would allow Unified Boxing Organizations: promotions that run their own rankings and titles under one roof. TKO, which owns the UFC and launched Zuffa Boxing, backs it. Critics including Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya warn that such outfits could gain too much control over rankings, titles and fighter pay.

The clock

The current Congress ends Jan. 3, 2027. A bill that hasn't passed both chambers by then dies, and the process starts over in the next Congress. That leaves the lame-duck session as the bill's realistic window under the current majorities.

The read from ringside

SI's Chris Mannix called the bill's future "murky," noting it "was expected to make it through GOP-controlled House/Senate" and that a "Democrat-controlled Congress could view the TKO-backed legislation differently."

Dan Rafael's one-word take on Mannix's post: "Yup."

Kimster's take: the bill has bipartisan sponsors in the Senate, Rosen among them, so this isn't a simple party-line knockout. But the timing has changed. Either it moves in the lame duck, or it goes back to the start in a very different Congress.

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Meanwhile, Zuffa keeps fighting

Zuffa Boxing isn't waiting on Washington. It is in London this week (our fight-week preview), then heads to Riyadh with Carlos Adames vs. Gerome Warburton on Nov. 14.

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