As the United States Congress is preparing to vote on potential expanding the Ali Act in MMA, it will be holding a special summit called “Mixed Martial Arts: Issues and Perspectives” on December 8 to take a look at the sport as a whole.
The summit will feature a list of speakers (list to be announced on Tuesday, December 6), speakers will be by invitation only, but you can watch a live stream of the hearing by clicking HERE.
Oklahoma Republican and Representative Markwayne Mullin is the driving force behind getting the Ali Act into MMA and his purpose behind the summit is to educate congress and the uninformed public on MMA.
“While the purpose of the hearing is to teach the committee and the general public about MMA, I am looking forward to informing them about a sport that I want to see succeed and grow, but first and foremost we have to take care of the fighters,” Mullin said to Bloody Elbow. “This base knowledge for everyone will be instrumental in taking a closer look at the issues that MMA fighters are currently experiencing.”
If the Ali Act does expand into MMA, some of the more notable changes you will see to the sport are a governing body that would regulate MMA as a whole (similar to what boxing has), outlawing contracts that last longer than one year, promoters would have to give promotional rights to their fighters after a year and banning promoters from having any kind of financial stake in the fighters.
The UFC, which has been against the Ali Act coming to the MMA, has spent upwards of $300,000 to prevent it from coming to fruition in the sport.
