By Quintin Harlan, Herald Bulletin Sports Writer
ANDERSON — The state of Indiana appears to be headed toward full regulation for the sport of mixed martial arts. Senate Bill 160 was drafted primarily by Sen. Dennis Kruse of Auburn. It has been ratified, and regulation for MMA will take effect on the first day of July.
According to mmafacts.com, MMA is currently regulated in 32 states. A bill to add Hawaii to the list has passed that state’s legislature and is scheduled to go into effect later this year.
There are seven remaining states that do not regulate the sport.
They are: New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Connecticut. However, in the case of Connecticut, the Mohegan Sun casino is on an Indian reservation and has run MMA shows.
There are also five states that have no athletic commission for MMA or boxing. Those are Alaska, Alabama, Wyoming, South Dakota and Maine.
Full regulation is a move those in the sport feel is necessary.
“It’s needed because at the lower levels, you could have the Wild West,” said Indianapolis’ Chris Lytle, an MMA competitor for 10 years and a UFC veteran. “You could have guys that have never fought before fighting guys that have been in the ring 10 times. You’re protecting the competitors, and that’s the main thing.”
“Last year we had something like 175 MMA shows and 25 boxing shows in the state,” said Myron Gerber, the promoter/owner of the Iron Cage Clash promotion. “Regulation is going to be really good (for the sport). It’s about safety of the fighters.
“The one thing we went back and forth on was having a regular MD versus EMT personnel; which was better at a show.”
Gerber estimates total medical personnel, a licensed MD and emergency personnel with an ambulance on site, could run north of $1,000 for promoters.
“You’re looking at $600 just for the ambulance,” said Gerber. “I think it all depends on how far away you are from a hospital. If you have an MD that gets called away, your show’s on hold.”
The only rules for a mixed martial arts show used to be that there be no tournament-style format, and no one fights twice on a card. After that, it was mere suggestion for safety’s sake.
“It’s about establishing minimum standards for medical personnel, referees, judges, promoters and fighters,” said John Manley, an Anderson lawyer and veteran MMA referee. “There are three things we’re trying to preserve: the safety of the fighter, the integrity of the (martial) arts and the small Indiana business man.”
As to Manley’s point on preserving the state’s small business man, Gerber is one of an estimated 25 to 30 people putting on MMA shows in the state.
Some states, like Florida, have made the cost of putting on an MMA show so expensive the smaller shows go out of business simply because they can’t afford the fee of putting on a show. Without the smaller shows, or a feeder system, bigger shows like the UFC will not have that next generation of fighters to draw from.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has had successful shows in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, Minneapolis and suburban Chicago. Indiana lawmakers have attended those shows and saw firsthand what a week of UFC fans could mean to local hotels and businesses.
Lytle, who has fought on a United Fight League card in August 2007 at Conseco Fieldhouse, maintains the UFC would come to the Hoosier state on one condition.
“They’ve had interest in (coming to) Indy,” said Lytle. “But they would not come without a commission.”
“If the UFC does come here, they’ll sell a lot on Chris Lytle, Jake O’Brien, Chris Price and others (Indiana fighters),” said Manley. “We want the UFC to come because, according to their statistics, their staff alone rents out 600 hotel rooms. Indiana could use that money.”
Other major MMA promotions in the United States include World Extreme Cagefighting — which, like the UFC, is owned by Zuffa LLC. — Strikeforce, Affliction and King of The Cage.
Even though regulation is soon to be official, those closest to the sport expect some modifications to the rules and regulations as time goes on.
“I think it’s going to be a work in progress,” said Gerber. “It might be six months later and we’ll find something doesn’t work very well, and we’ll tweak that so it does work.”
