Canada has turned into one of the biggest markets for mixed martial arts in the World, as the recent stadium sellout of 55,000 tickets for the recent UFC 129 event stands as a testament of that statement.
On Friday night, the land of “True North Strong and Free” held three events, two of which featured several big names and television deals. The Maximum Fighting Championship held its MFC 30: Up Close & Personal event in Edmonton, Alberta airing live on HDNet, while the Score Fighting Series inaugural event in Mississauga, Ontario is set to air via tape delay on TheScore television network (and via live video stream last night). Also taking place, was the smaller Edmonton based Aggression MMA “Confrontation” event.
Now that I’ve established that, I’ll get to my point.
These three events stand as examples of why it’s important to have an overall regulating body for combat sports, such as the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) and the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC).
The Score Fighting Series was overseen by the Ontario Athletic Commission, who presides over all events in Canada’s biggest Province, follows the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts and as recently as April 1st of this year began started its duties. Friday’s nights event ran smoothly, there didn’t appear to be any hiccups with the show, and the event drew in such big names as DREAM welterweight champ Marius Žaromskis, former UFC vets Joe Doerksen, Luigi Fioravanti, and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou.
This is an example of how things should be managed for the sport of mma for those States and Provinces who do not have one single regulating body.
Now if you look at the two events in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday night, you have two separate events and two different regulatory bodies. The Province of Alberta, as well as British Columbia which hosts tonight’s UFC 131 event, have sanctioned the sport of mixed martial arts but have delegated the task of monitoring events to local commissions.
Edmonton features two commissions, with the River Cree Combative Sports Commission overseeing the MFC events and the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission overseeing the AMMA event.
Despite the River Cree’s years of regulatory experience, they still have a ways to go to establish them as a top commission within Canada. There were several examples on Friday night of issues that are never seen, or non-issues seen at UFC, Strikeforce, or Bellator events.
The first that stands out is the miscalculation of scores by the judges initially awarding Robert Washington the split decision win over Curtis Demarce. This was later overturned later in the evening after the scores were recalculated giving the split decision win to Demarce. It would be easy to discount the incident if it only happened once, but in 2009 judges at the MFC 23 event scored a fight between Jason ‘The Athlete’ MacDonald vs. Solomon Hutcherson a draw after miscalculating the scores once more. The bout was announced as a split decision win for MacDonald by the end of the evening.
I also take objection to the point deduction to Sheldon Westcott, who earned a unanimous decision over Thomas Denny. From my vantage point, Westcott was not targeting the back of his opponents head, hitting Denny only once in each incident before the ref stopped the action. Now I agree that strikes to the back of the head can be dangerous, but there has to be some lee-way when your opponent keeps turning the back of his head into his opponents oncoming strikes.
I also take issue with the Drew Fickett vs. Brian Cobb stoppage in the first. I think it was an early stoppage but I also think Cobb would have stopped it in the second. I could go on more but I’ve ranted long enough.
Unfortunately I don’t have first hand knowledge of Friday’s AMMA event, which apparently went well for the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission but not so well for the promotion. According to TopMMANews.com, the co-main eventt was declared a “No Contest” after a hole opened up in the cage floor, taking 15 minutes to repair in order for the main event between Ryan Ford vs. Nick Hinchliffe to happen.
No the main issue I take with the ECSS is their willingness to set mixed martial arts back about ten years by sanctioning an upcoming Colloseo Championship Fighting: Bushido event in the city of Edmonton. The event will feature rules based on the days of PRIDE Fighting, allowing soccer kicks and head stomps to downed opponents.
With the sport looking for good examples to help move it into the main stream, providing more ammunition to those who oppose mixed martial arts hurts everyone involved. Certainly the nostalgia of the action from PRIDE is exciting, but it shouldn’t effect the future of the sport and it’s further development.