Ali-Walsh later touched on what Zuffa Boxing has already shown itself to be, and he feels it is just trying to replicate the UFC model in a boxing setting. 

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the Zuffa Boxing events. But if you have seen the events, it, from my perspective, looks very plain. It looks very corporate,” he opined. “In current boxing you have the freedom to have those sponsorships. Unlike in Zuffa where you’re forced to wear their trunks, or you’re forced to not have certain amount of sponsors of whatever their rules they may be in their contract.”

He said as a fighter he knows having those sponsorships, and the autonomy over which and where, provides the opportunity to make more money. 

He concluded, “They’re moving that same UFC model over to boxing. You can see it in their events already. And if that model was truly for the fighters you wouldn’t see the $375 million antitrust lawsuit that the UFC had to settle. You wouldn’t see former UFC fighters complaining about pay. You wouldn’t see current UFC fighters begging for raises in their pay. If that model truly worked and it was truly for the fighters, you wouldn’t be hearing so much about money from these UFC fighters.”

Fighter pay has been a constant discourse for UFC over the past few years in particular, given the company’s consistently touted commercial success. Officials have always pushed back against that narrative, but the likes of former UFC Heavyweight Champions Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones have both had public falling outs with the promotion over it. 

Ngannou in particular went on to fight in boxing against former World Heavyweight Champions Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. He will be fighting Philipe Lins on the MVP MMA card streaming on Netflix on May 16, headlined by Ronda Rousey against Gina Carano. Both of which have their own grievances with the UFC after failed negotiations.