Would it not allow for fighters to fight in other organizations if they so choose, thereby giving them more freedom? "you want me to fight khamzat? Fuck off. Let's see what paul mvp is up to." Correct me if I'm wrong.
I have read this Law Review (
https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3651&context=flr ) which explains what the Ali Act is and what is does in wordage that non-lawyers can understand. Be warned it is a long read and yes I am a loser who read the whole thing. Also I'm not a lawyer so I am interpreting this to this best my ability but I may be reading it wrong.
From what I have understand it won't change much. Exclusive contracts are still allowed, fighters will still have to fight out their contracts before going to another organization, but Ali Act limits the time on on
contract extensions to a maximum of 12 months. That said I haven't seen hard limits on overall contract length.
Recently Canelo signed a 5-year exclusive, 11 fight contract with Golden Boy, so I assume that contract of that length are still allowed under the Ali Act.
Currently, the promoter of a champion often forces challengers to sign an option contract that grants the promoter exclusive promotional rights to the challenger in the event that he defeats the champion.2 3 The Ali Act specifically addresses option contracts by limiting them to a 12-month duration.
Here is the thing, UFC's championship clause is already limited to 12 months so that not going to change. Also the thing about 6 month injury extensions, or extensions for turning down fight may also not change.
There is a lot of stuff about disclosing pay and how much the promotion is making. It is unknown to me whether or the UFC already discloses this information. FOR ARGUMENTS SAKE, lets say the UFC doesn't share this information with fighters and managers access to this information will make it easier for managers to negotiate bigger deals.
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What is most unclear to me in this act is whether or not it will force promotions to work with sanctioning bodies. UFC titles are technicality ceremonial, like an Employee of the month trophy. They aren't officially sanctioned and the UFC isn't a sanctioning body. Fighters acknowledge this when they sign the UFC contract.
While the act has a lot of provisions about sanctioning bodies. The tricky thing here is that the act just assumes the promotions will be using sanctioning bodies because that is what boxing does. It doesn't force promotions to use sanctioning bodies. So the entire section regarding the sanctioning bodies may not apply to the UFC at all.
For the sake of conversation, let's say it that the act forces the UFC to use an independent sanctioning body, the Ali Act says...
Congress would give the ABC two years from the enactment of the All Act to establish guidelines for objective and written criteria for the rating of professional boxers, which each sanctioning body would be required to follow. 2 Earlier drafts of the Ali Act had allowed the sanctioning organizations themselves to determine the objective criteria for ratings. 3 No doubt out of a recognition that the organizations already have written criteria that are ineffective, the Ali Act has mandated that the ABC create additional criteria in an effort to make boxing rankings more objective.2 The sanctioning organizations would also be required to implement an appeals process under which they would provide a written explanation of a particular fighter's ranking following a request by that fighter. 5 In addition, the Ali Act requires that in the event of a change in the ratings of the top ten fighters in any division, the organization must post the ratings change and a written explanation of the change either on its Internet website or through submission directly to the state boxing commissions.
So it is possible that an outside a sanctioning body would be responsible for making the UFC rankings. And I know it's not said in the excerpt I quoted but the sanctioning body would also play a significant role in the matchmaking of title fights and title eliminators. That said the UFC could make any match that they wanted that didn't have title implications.
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TLDR; It may not have an effect on UFC contracts. It could give fighters more information to use in negotiations. It may or may not force sanctioning bodies into the sport that would oversee rankings and the matchmaking for title fights and title eliminators
Ultimately, I don't think it changes much, fighters would be better off to pursue a union.
