One of the most controversial regional MMA promotions in the country is taking a step to clean up its act.
Xplode Fight Series, one of the principles in a recent investigate series by MMA Fighting, has hired a third-party sanctioning body, the U.S. Mixed Martial Arts Federation (UMMAF), to oversee its events, the UMMAF announced last week. XFS is able to avoid regulation by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), because it runs events on the San Pasqual Native American reservation near San Diego. UMMAF will begin regulating Xplode in November.
Recently, CSAC launched an investigation of Xplode Fight Series and other unsanctioned events like Gladiator Challenge due to their alleged practice of egregious mismatching and potentially unsafe conditions for fighters. The commission’s discussion is ongoing about possibly disciplining fighters who compete on those shows and CSAC executive officer Andy Foster said last week that he would no longer recognize wins earned in unsanctioned events when he vets matchmaking for licensed, regulated promotions like the UFC and Bellator.
Fighters, managers and coaches told MMA Fighting that Xplode Fight Series uses a stable of seemingly untrained fighters listed as coming from “independent” or “freelance” gyms against legitimate, trained pros. XFS also does not always require fighters to get medicals or blood work done. Medicals are required in sanctioned shows to see if a fighter has a pre-existing injury and blood work is necessary to prove a fighter does not have any communicable diseases.
XFS owner Gregg Sharp has maintained he doesn’t believe his matchmaking is any different than other regional promotions across the country and has denied that fighters don’t need the proper paperwork to compete. However, he said he has sought sanctioning for “almost a year” to increase the legitimacy of his organization and believes UMMAF to be the correct fit. Sharp said that he considered CSAC, but the costs were too high.
“I have recognized the need to have an independent third-party relationship working with XFS with a strong level of integrity, trust and credibility that was financially feasible for us for a long time,” Sharp told MMA Fighting. “It is truly the key for us to be able to take the next step with our company and the timing for XFS worked out well. Until I was able to talk to UMMAF, I was not able to find what we were in need of. Now that we have a working partnership with UMMAF moving forward we are excited for what the future holds for XFS.”
The fight that spurred the CSAC investigation into Xplode was a vicious knockout in January. Ilima McFarlane finished Katie Castro in just 10 seconds in particularly brutal fashion. MacFarlane was making her debut and Castro was 0-2 coming in with both losses coming via TKO in under 30 seconds. Castro, who was not even wearing appropriate gear, appeared ill prepared to fight.
That bout was not an aberration for XFS, which has fighters on its roster with records like 1-16 and 0-22 who are matched up with trained professionals, some of whom moving onto major promotions. MacFarlane has since signed with Bellator.
UMMAF director of operations Ryan Brueggeman told MMA Fighting that McFarlane-Castro “never should have happened” and it wouldn’t on his organization’s watch.
“One of the biggest triggers in a fight is fight gear and equipment,” Brueggeman said. “Just the attire alone would have disqualified that fight from happening. But more than that and beyond that, when we go back and we’re vetting a fight card we would have seen that fight should not have happened to begin with. It would have never made it to the cage.”
UMMAF is the United States designate of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF), an organization that hopes to institute blanket rules for amateur MMA across the world with the final goal of getting MMA into the Olympics. The UFC hosted the IMMAF tournament at its fan expo in July.
UMMAF helps sanction regional promotions likes King of the Cage and Rage in the Cage. It lists Steve Mazzagatti, Kim Winslow and Frank Trigg among its referees. UMMAF, a non-profit organization, is the sister company of Kick International, which has been sanctioning boxing and kickboxing for 35 years. Mostly, UMMAF works with amateur promotions, but Xplode holds pro and amateur fights and that fits into UMMAF’s mission.
Brueggeman said that in some cases UMMAF has stricter standards than state athletic commissions.
“We require HIV, hep B and hep C testing for all fighters,” Brueggeman said. “Our periodicity on that is actually more than what most states require. Most states will require a blood test with the submission of their annual licensing fees. UMMAF right now, we require it within 30 days of the fighter stepping in the cage.”
UMMAF also verifies minimum insurance coverage by promoters; provides judges; requires there be a doctor on site; and has inspectors making sure things like handwraps are consistent and legal.
“We operate in many ways just like a state athletic commission,” Brueggeman said. “In some ways, even stricter. And the reason we have to do that is because we are charged with pushing amateur mixed martial arts into the Olympic games. So any type of hiccup or impropriety would absolutely go against that drive.
“One of the things we certainly care about is record clarification and making sure that the matchmaking is equal. So when a promoter submits a card to us, we vet those fighters. So we’ll use outlets like [mixedmartialarts.com] or Sherdog and we’ll check for those fighters. Not only their records, but we’ll check different spellings of their names just to make sure they’re not under a different name or whatnot.”
Sharp said UMMAF’s cost is “much more reasonable” than CSAC and he is more than willing to cede regulation to the body for the sake of his fighters. Sharp’s main principle has been to nearly guarantee fighters the opportunity to compete, even if their opponent drops out at the last minute. In many cases, that has resulted in a fighter getting matched up with a foe with a terrible record.
That will change with UMMAF. Brueggeman said matchmaking will end the day of weigh-ins.
“We have looked to deliver on that principle time and time again to set ourselves apart,” Sharp said. “By moving forward with UMMAF we have to recognize that we may not have a reasonable solution to fighters that pull out last minute by ignoring their opponents’ hard work, sacrifice and integrity so that they can usurp their commitments. That will be a change that for me is tough.”
Brueggeman said Sharp has embraced regulation and is making a statement that he wants to improve his promotion with his fighters in mind.
“He’s actually going in my opinion above and beyond what CSAC would mandate,” Brueggeman said. “But I think what’s important is that he has recognized a need for this to happen, he has recognized a need for fighters to be more safe and he’s recognized a need for regulation.”