I am on vacation and have limited access to email etc. so I will need to keep this short.
I received a question from a reader concerning efforts in Washington to get MMA within the purview of the Muhammad Ali Act.
As set forth in my post here where I discuss Geoff Varney's law review article, "FIGHTING FOR RESPECT: MMA’S STRUGGLE FOR ACCEPTANCE AND HOW THE MUHAMMAD ALI ACT WOULD GIVE IT A SPORTING CHANCE," he describes current efforts to bring MMA within the Ali Act and also describes how the Act could easily be expanded to reach MMA. Given the scope of Geoff's excellent analysis, I won't reinvent the wheel here.
The reader also states that the UFC has hired a lobbying firm in Washington to prevent passage of any bill so expanding the Act and asks how the bill could be expanded in light of that opposition.
Without getting into the textbook details of the legislative process, in my mind there simply needs to be lobbying on the other side of the equation, i.e. on behalf of the fighters, through management or otherwise, or perhaps other promotion organizations, or active political involvement by politicians who see this as a critical issue.
Fight Lawyer
