Intelligent Defense: A Call for Federal Regulation of Mixed Martial Arts
In early 2009, fight promoter Monte Cox sought to bring the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA) together by promoting a boxing match in New Jersey between a representative from each sport.
Olympic gold medalist and World Boxing Organization (WBO) Heavyweight Champion Ray Mercer would represent boxing, while former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia would represent MMA. Although both had impressive credentials in their respective forms of combat, Mercer had significantly more experience in the boxing ring, as he had amassed a 36-7-1 record over his career, while Sylvia never competed in a professional boxing bout.
The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board (NJACB), which would have been responsible for overseeing the fight, vetoed the bout by refusing to sanction it within the state. Presumably, the NJACB acted under the authority of the New Jersey Administrative Code, which allows the NJACB to “disapprove any [boxing] match on the ground that it is not in the best interest of boxing or of the health of either of the combatants.”
The Commissioner refused to comment publicly on why he vetoed the bout, but it is possible that he was concerned about Sylvia’s boxing inexperience and the fact that Mercer was a former world champion and gold medalist.
Undeterred, Cox rescheduled the fight to take place in Birmingham, Alabama.
At the time, Alabama did not have any state commission in place to oversee, and potentially put a stop to, the fight. Two days before the fight was set to take place, however, the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) notified Cox that the match would directly violate federal law, and possibly subject the participants to criminal penalties.
The ABC was referencing the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act (MABRA), amending the Professional Boxing Safety Act (PBSA), which provides that, if no state boxing commission is available to supervise a match, it may not be held unless another state’s boxing commission or an association of boxing commissions supervises it. Compliance was not much of an option for Cox because it is highly unlikely that another boxing commission would have approved the fight after NJACB expressly refused to sanction it.
After state and federal boxing regulations worked together to successfully prevent the potentially unsafe boxing match, Cox turned to MMA. With neither Alabama MMA regulations nor a federal safety net like the one provided for in boxing, the fight was able to take place.
Much as the NJACB likely feared when it rejected the fight, the result turned out to be lopsided, and endangered both Sylvia’s health and MMA’s reputation. Mercer knocked the former UFC Champion unconscious after a mere nine seconds of stand-up fighting, which amounted to nothing more than boxing with lighter-than-normal gloves.
Despite the fact that most states currently regulate MMA, and others are currently in the process of doing so, there is still a need for uniform safety regulations. Although seemingly intrastate in nature, MMA affects interstate commerce under Supreme Court precedent. Therefore, Congress has the power under the Interstate Commerce Clause and Indian Commerce Clause jurisprudence to promulgate uniform MMA health and safety regulations to adequately protect fighters.
This power permits Congress to legislate MMA without violating the Tenth Amendment principles of federalism articulated in New York v. United States and Printz v. United States.
Mike Daum is an attorney in Syracuse, New York who focuses mainly on Employee Benefits law. He attended law school at Michigan State University College of Law and has been an avid MMA fan for years. To view the entire article, see the Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, at http://law.shu.edu/Students/academics/journals/sports-entertainment/Issues/current/index.cfm. Mike Daum can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MikeDaum1 with any questions or other feedback.
Comments
On Monday, January Jan 2012 Simon said...
“Excellent, well argued piece and one of the first of its kind I've seen on the sport. Well done.”
On Tuesday, January Jan 2012 Kongzilla said...
“This is a State issue and needs to be decided accordingly. There's too much complexity and bureaucracy seeping into MMA anyway so why tamper.”
On Tuesday, January Jan 2012 Ron Balk said...
“Very well written and interesting paper. I would love to see some follow up about other legal issues.”
On Tuesday, January Jan 2012 john hessey said...
“seriously believe that these decisions have anything to do with the safety of the 2 fighters?... Tim Sylvia has been beaten convincingly by every decent striker he has ever faced... literally in seconds in most cases.. why would anyone pick him to represent MMA against a boxer? These kind of match ups are pure money driven spectacles of the bizarre... like the headless boy or the bearded woman, they attract an audience by virtue of their sheer ridiculousness... ”
On Tuesday, January Jan 2012 john hessey said...
“no offence to bearded women, headless boys or carny people.”
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