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‘The Don King of MMA’: Congressmen, UFC exec spar at Ali Act subcommittee hearing

There was no cage and no gloves, but things got pretty heated Thursday at a Congressional subcommittee meeting regarding MMA in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), himself a former fighter, grilled UFC executive Marc Ratner during a hearing discussing the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act bill currently in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mullin, who authored the bill last year, called the UFC’s rankings and process to earn title shots “insulting to every professional athlete.”

Ratner, the UFC’s senior vice president of government and regulatory affairs, was among the witnesses called to speak in front of the Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, which is part of the House’s Committee on Energy and Commerce.