At the Senate hearing for the Ali Revival Act, a piercing jab from Nick Khan quickly shifted the conversation toward one of boxing’s most uncomfortable truths. Backing the bill, the WWE CEO and TKO board member pointed to an issue that continues to trouble the sport and its fighters.

Khan was speaking about the sensitive subject of fighter deaths. While many know about it, they often discuss it quietly, leaving gaps in how the public understands the issue. That lack of clarity, particularly around the number of fatalities, drew some pointed reactions.

“Did Nick Khan say it was 63 boxing-related deaths this year?” Floyd Schofield Jr. wrote on X. “63 fighters died after their fights,” Mr. Khan said. 🤷🏾‍♂️”

“Why no one is really discussing that?” he wondered.

The lightweight contender’s post followed Nick Khan’s statements at the Senate hearing. Responding to a point raised by Oscar De La Hoya, who questioned how the TKO-backed Revival Act poses a risk to fighters’ safety, Khan presented some facts.

Referring back to Schofield’s post, Khan was speaking about the overall number of deaths over the last 30 years, not a single calendar year.

“In terms of the health and safety of boxers,” he stated, “in the UFC, when it was purchased 30 years ago, in those 30 years, there’s not been one death of a UFC fighter. In the last 30 years in boxing, there have been 63 deaths that have occurred within a week of a fighter’s fight, compared to zero deaths in the UFC.”

For fighters, particularly those like Schofield Jr. who are still trying to establish themselves in the sport, that distinction can be unsettling.

Fatality debate brings boxing’s risks into focus

And the concern is not just theoretical. The boxing community is still processing the grievous injury former super middleweight champion Shadasia Green suffered.

Fighting on the MVP-ESPN card at Madison Square Garden, Green lost her unified titles after Lani Daniels knocked her out in the 9th round. But for 36-year-old Green, the ordeal did not end there. Medical personnel took her out of the ring on a stretcher and admitted her to the intensive care unit, where she received treatment for brain bleeding. Thankfully, she appears to be recovering well.

“With everything in me, I want to thank those who had great concern and even the people who figured out during the fight something was wrong,” she wrote on her Instagram story. “I passed out due to bleeding out of my brain… However, I am in [the] ICU on the road to healing. I’ll be back to get what’s mine 100% covered.”

The incident involving Shadasia Green closely follows another recent case involving a teenage boxer, further underscoring the risks fighters continue to face inside the ring.

In both cases, the fighters show signs of recovery.

Even so, they bring into focus the risks fighters take and the systemic changes Khan and others are proposing with the Ali Revival Act.

Returning to the WWE CEO’s argument, what he stated about boxing vs. UFC fatalities appears accurate at face value. Still, the comparison deserves closer scrutiny. It is true that during the last three decades, as it grew into a globally recognized promotion, the UFC has not witnessed a single fighter death.

Boxing, unfortunately, does not match that record.

However, the comparison is not entirely even. It effectively places one promotion against an entire sport. When viewed more broadly, such as MMA as a whole against boxing, the picture becomes more complex, with documented fatalities in sanctioned MMA bouts.

What ultimately stands out is how, with the Revival Act, the team at TKO aims to address a long-standing issue in boxing while reshaping how fighter safety is approached across the sport.