Update April 16, 2024 – Texas has already given Powerslap a promoters licence. Even though slap fighting is not yet approved. I reached out to the TDLR who provided the following explanation on this sequence of events “promoters are not licensed by fighting discipline; there is no boxing promoter or MMA promoter license, for example. If an entity meets the statutory requirements for the promoter license (see subchapter C of Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2052), they will receive it, regardless of the type of combative sports events they plan on promoting. However, we will not approve any promo ..read more

Concussion and CTE are serious occupational risks of combat sports. Despite these risks many have a false sense of belief in the ‘protection’ offered by gloves and headgear. According to the Association of Ringside Physicians “Headguards should not be relied upon to reduce the risk of concussion or other traumatic brain injury. They have not been shown to prevent these types of injuries in combat sports or other sports” Gloves protect an athletes hands, not their opponents brains. Many people in combat sports do not fully appreciate these important facts. According to Dr. Charles Bernick, the ..read more

In Canada the Criminal Code makes all ‘prize fights’ (a broadly defined term that can even capture light contact and grappling events) illegal by default except amateur combat sports that are “on the programme of the International Olympic Committee or the International Paralympic Committee“ The Criminal Code then gives individual Provinces the ability to change this default position. BC exercised these powers to create the Office of the BC Athletic Commissioner who oversee professional boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts. In 2013 BC passed an Order in Council naming a host of amateur com ..read more

There is room for improvement when it comes to appeal rights in combat sports. In most jurisdictions fighters can only successfully appeal a bout result if they could prove there was collusion (ie crooked officiating), the scorekeeper made a mathematical error in adding up the judges scores, or there was an error in interpreting the rules (ie an official outright not understanding a basic rule and therefor misapplying it). The major omission? No recognition that officials are human and sometimes can make major errors (like missing a tap out or missing fouls during a fight ending sequence). Col ..read more

Litigation has probably been the best tool to shed light on contract terms of various MMA promotions. Recently a PFL contract made its way into the public sphere as a result of this (HT to Elthon Costa for first breaking this news). By way of background a fighter and the promotion were involved in a contractual dispute. The fighter sued in Brazil. The contract contained an arbitration clause and PFL argued a Brazilian court could not deal with the dispute. The Brazilian judiciary sided with the fighter finding they had jurisdiction to deal with this labour dispute. In the process the entire pr ..read more

Presently CTE can only be diagnosed after death. But there are criteria for diagnosing suspected CTE in the living which is useful for research and other purposes. It is called Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome “TES”. A recent study was published researching athletes with and without TES and seeing how they performed on double leg balance testing. The study found there was a ‘significant association’ of worse balance testing in the group with TES with the authors concluding “This pilot study provides preliminary evidence of a relationship between declining postural balance and a TES diagnosis ..read more

In a court filing this week in the UFC antitrust lawsuit it was revealed that not a single eligible fighter asked to be removed from the lawsuit. By way of context several fighters started a proposed class action against the UFC arguing they are operating an unlawful monopsony which economically exploits fighters. The lawsuit was certified last year expanding it from a handful of fighters to include over 1,200 fighters who competed in the promotion from 2010-2017. Once certified a court approved plan was created to notify all these fighters and give them a chance to opt out, meaning to remove ..read more

Yesterday the ABC’s MMA Rules Committee met and voted to address two controversial aspects of the Unified Rules of MMA. The 12-6 elbow foul and the definition of grounded fighter. The straight up to down elbow is a longstanding foul since the initial creation of the unified rules in New Jersey over 20 years ago. Recently data has been published demonstrating the 12-6 elbow is no more forceful than other legal elbows, whether from a standing or grounded position such as mount or side control.  The committee also voted for a new definition of ‘grounded’ fighter. The definition is important becau ..read more

If you have a good fight record you probably will have better long term brain health than fighters with a losing record, right? This was the hypothesis in a recent study. Turns out the answer is no. In fact fighters with a better win/loss ratio had greater measurable brain harm than fighters with a losing record. The recent study, titled Association of Win-Loss Record With Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Brain Health Among Professional Fighters, was published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. In it the researches examined data from the Professional Fighters Brain Heal ..read more

Next week the Association of Boxing Commissions MMA Rules Committee will be discussing removing the 12-6 elbow as a foul and also further clarifying the definition of a grounded fighter. Recently data has been published demonstrating the 12-6 elbow is no more forceful than other legal elbows, whether from a standing or grounded position such as mount or side control. The ‘grounded’ fighter language has evolved over the years but remains controversial. The proposed new language the committee will be discussing for the unified rules is as follows: A fighter shall be considered grounded and unabl ..read more