EXCLUSIVE – BAMMA to implement full athletic commission-style regulations over the next 12 months

One of the most important factors in legitimising MMA as a safe, controlled sport is the implementation of stringent, independently monitored regulations covering PED’s, drugs of abuse and medical suspensions. In the US, these are taken care of by State Athletic Commissions. In an EXCLUSIVE conversation with MMABay, BAMMA’s Liam Fisher explained how and why they intend to become the first promotion in the UK to follow suit.
MMA is an unregulated sport in the UK. While Ultimate Challenge have taken steps forward in terms of fighter safety by introducing blood test for communicable diseases like HIV and Hepatitis, there is no independent sanctioning body and the multitude of smaller promotions are left to regulate themselves. While for many promoters the cost of getting full medicals and blood work for fighters is simply too prohibitive, others are happy throw caution to the wind with regards to fighter safety, booking athletes who have suffered recent knock outs without requiring medical clearance.
Frankly, it has to stop, but with no sporting body in the UK willing or able to step in, the industry has for years debated, argued and ultimately failed to pull together to put sufficient checks and balances in place. For the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts, things have gone far enough; it’s time for somebody to step up and set an example.
When in a surprise move BAMMA announced that they had bagged the signature of Nate Marquardt, hints were dropped from both parties suggesting that the promotion would be implementing a full and frank regulatory process. MMABay can for the first time reveal the details behind their three-stage master plan. I spoke to Liam Fisher, BAMMA’s VP of Business Development, for the details.

“It just turned out actually that this was gonna be a story that we were gonna releasing in about 2 weeks time, the fact that we are introducing mandatory blood tests, PED tests…that would be phase one of the regulation process..” said Fisher. “Phase 2 would be looking at medicals, mandatory medicals, full medicals, not just the standard weigh-in day medicals. We’re looking at mandatory MRI scans, medical suspensions, all those kind of things. It was a three-stage process basically that we were gonna launch in two weeks.“

So why the rush? Many had speculated that by signing with a promotion outside of the US athletic commission’s jurisdiction, Marquardt was essentially running away to the UK where he would be free from scrutiny. Fisher was quick to dispel the notion that BAMMA’s new policy had anything to do with their most recent aquisition.

“When we spoke to Nate about this and Nate’s management we said ‘look, we’re gonna be announcing this in two weeks. What we don’t want you to think is that the reason why we’re announcing it is because you’re joining the roster’” Fisher explained. “ This isn’t a witch hunt about Nate, this is…we have absolutely no concerns about Nate with any kind of PED testing. He’s not a target, he never will be a target, we’re completely 100% behind Nate. And we’ve gone through everything that happened with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, we know the facts – which haven’t been widely reported by everyone – and we’re perfectly happy with that.”

Full medical and blood work does not come cheap. If it did, we’d venture that more promotions would be doing it. So why does BAMMA feel the need to go to that extra expense?

“The regulation side of things, the reason why we’re introducing that is first of all,  we wanna be the only UK promotion that’s doing that, or the first UK promotion to do that (NOTE: UCMMA does blood testing for infectious diseases, not PEDs) and it’s a massive step forward for us to try and regulate the sport. We can’t force other promotions to do what we’re doing, but hopefully by setting this benchmark now, other promotions will start to follow suit. And it will get to the point that if everyone takes responsibility for their own actions in the UK, we don’t necessarily need a board of control straight away.”

And that’s the fear, of course. Were the government to get involved in UK MMA, it’s possible that they would impose rules or restrictions that would force smaller shows out of business. The UK MMA industry is growing, but it’s yet to hit its peak; additional government-imposed taxes or licence fees could make an industry where it’s already tough to get a return on your pound even less attractive to potential investors.
One thing that always raises its head when the matter of self-regulation is brought up is the issue of accountability. Is being accountable to yourself really enough? Can you truly enforce your own rules when ultimately, you’re running a business? BAMMA appear to have found the answer by recruiting some neutral parties to sit on their regulatory board.

“The way we’re doing it is that we have a board internally, we have two members from BAMMA, we have two independent people that aren’t on the BAMMA payroll, that aren’t paid by BAMMA at all. They’re independent consultants that come in with experience with, um, well one guy’s got very good experience with MMA, and then the other person’s experienced in general athletic, ah, regulation.”

“So for us, this is just us holding our hands up in a pretty crowded marketplace and saying “Right guys, this is what we’re doing”. We’ve tried…we’ve gone through every avenue with the Boxing Board of Control, we’ve gone down (the) Sport England route, we’ve tried all these different governing bodies to see who is gonna pick this up, and we’ve just got to the point where we don’t wanna keep waiting around for something that may never happen. So that’s really why we’ve done it, and that’s the important message in this kind of story really. It’s that this is about regulating MMA in the UK to make it a safer sport and a more legitimate sport. Not only to help fighters, not only to show fans that this is a legitimate sport, but also to appeal to the more mainstream media to say ‘If you’re ignoring MMA at the moment, here’s a few reasons why you shouldn’t’.”

It’s a bold move, certainly and it won’t be easy. The biggest hurdle will be getting other UK promotions to follow suit, or at the very least abide by medical suspensions that are handed down. Fisher isn’t under any illusions of it being an overnight process.

“All we can implement at the moment is random PED tests and we can only work with our contracted fighters. That’s really the first phase of the policy. By next year we want full regulation in place, to the level that it is in the states. That’s what our target is. But, y’know, we’ve been talking about this for four months, and it’s taken four months just to get into a position where we can even bring in phase one. So everyone has to understand – it’s gonna take 12 months to get it to the place where we actually wanna see it, but I think this is a great start. From a place of legitimacy, it just takes MMA in the UK to a different level man.”

UK MMA is outlaw territory; BAMMA could very well be the Sherriff that steps up to bring a little law and order to the landscape. It’s a mammoth task, and a huge responsibility. If it works, fighters will feel safer stepping into the cage, fans will be confident of a level playing field and promoters will have a working model to learn from. Will it work in the timeframe that BAMMA have set out? Will it work at all? Only time will tell…
…but someone had to step up. Kudos to BAMMA for having the concern and ambition to do so.
By Brad Wharton.