Combat Athletes Assistance Network (C.A.A.N): The Dawn of an Organizing Drive

Episode 8

Professional boxing is one of the oldest sports in human history. It's also one where the athletes are the least protected. Fighters are treated as independent contractors, which strips them of basic employee rights and the ability to unionize. Their share of the sport's revenue sits around 10 percent. In baseball, football, and basketball, where athletes have unions, that number is closer to 50.

Ernie DiStefano and Peter Olney are working to change that. They aren't chasing a headline or a big-bang announcement. They're getting into the gyms and meeting fighters where they are.

C.A.A.N builds a base one athlete at a time, offering vocational placement, contract review, financial literacy, and treatment referrals. The goal is to give fighters options and leverage they've never had.

Host Harry Marino goes behind the scenes with Distefano and Olney to talk about what it takes to start something in one of the toughest spaces in all of sports, when victory is anything but assured.

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