The Worsties: Worst Commission Voting

January 7, 2009 – 11:20 pm by fightlinker

I don’t think anyone disagrees that mixed martial arts needs to be sanctioned in order to keep things safe and fair. But thus far we have seen countless incidents showing that the commissions doing the sanctioning simply have no idea what the fuck they’re doing. Worse, there have been a number of incidents that raise the specter of not mere incompetence but straight up corruption.

Again, I point to boxing as an example of what happens when this kind of garbage goes unchecked. Let’s hope that someday we’ll be able to eliminate this category. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening any time soon. We mentioned shitty reffing a few days ago … well, these guys don’t seem to be interested in doing anything about it. Ditto with judging, which often defies all sanity. But that’s just the shit that’s par for the course. Here’s a list of nominees who’s fuckups make them stand out from the pack:

NOMINEES
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California State Athletic Commission

Not many commissions get as much heat as the California State Athletic Commission. As a hotbed of MMA activity, they deal with tons of events every year, which would make you think they’d have the hang of doing things by now. Unfortunately that’s not true, and the CSAC is constantly in the news for the wrong reasons. Keep in mind that this Worstie only applies for the year 2008, so the (mis)handling of the Sean Sherk steroid case isn’t really part of this year’s body of work. But don’t worry, there’s a whole bunch of other reasons to hate the CSAC! Let us go through them:

Allowing a promoter to ‘borrow’ another promoter’s license, resulting in the clusterfuck that was the WCO cancellation. The CSAC canceled the WCO at the last second claiming the promoter didn’t have the funds to throw the event, although the promoter claimed otherwise.

Denying Nick Diaz the right to fight on the basis that he listed medical marijuana on his license … this was before he was even tested for the substance. Diaz contends that he was not using and would have tested clean.

Re-licensing Mike Kyle, a fighter who illegally kicked and punched another fighter repeatedly in the face and had to be pulled off his victim by several referees. His opponent suffered several broken bones in his face that required several screws and plates to fix.

Pooching the Antonio Silva drug suspension. Silva tested positive for boldenone, but claims it was due to his use of a legal supplement that is known to cause false positives. The CSAC refused to investigate his claims or make a decision regarding the legality of the supplement he used.

Other accomplishments from 2008 include re-licensing fighters that fought internationally while under suspension, creating an ‘unofficial’ definition for strikes to the back of the head, refusing to let fighters fight at the last second for no clear reason, releasing vague statements about fighters testing positive for steroids, releasing vague statements that create confusion as to whether a fighter has hepatitis or not, getting involved in a sexual harassment scandal that resulted in the resignation of Armando Garcia, the head of the organization. Oh, and shutting down it’s entire drug testing operation for a week at the end of November because it was so pathetic.

Florida State Boxing Commission

Lest you think that California holds the monopoly on shitty commissions, let me tell you something: they fuck up on a regular basis but not in as huge a manner as Florida does. Not many people even knew that Florida had a commission until they threw UFC fighter Din Thomas in jail for holding a smoker in his gym. Their incompetence was our gain when EliteXC rolled into town and Gina Carano came in .5 of a pound over the 141 pound limit. Word from several fighters afterwards was it was the commission’s scale that was the problem, reading heavy for everyone. That didn’t stop the commission from having Gina strip naked in front of a packed room. Standard operating procedure is to have this done privately in a back room.

The fun didn’t end there … the same event also featured the now famous Standgate incident, where EliteXC promoters allegedly paid Seth Petruzelli to keep his fight with Kimbo Slice off the ground. Despite numerous leads from experienced journalists and EliteXC staff, the Florida State Boxing Commission’s response was to speak to the fighter and the main promoter, then declare the issue resolved and EliteXC innocent.

The ‘eh, whatever’ attitude towards one of the worst stories of corruption in MMA’s history infuriated MMA fans. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find that we’re not the only ones who hate the FSBC. Apparently, it’s head Thomas Molloy was brought in via cronyism, with Acting Executive Director Max Parker Jr. (a man with 24 years of experience in the commission) overlooked for political reasons. Since then there have been numerous accusations of all sorts of monkey business including judges communicating fight scores to the referees as the fight progressed, racial and sexual discrimination, overcharging a promoter 50k in fees, and taking bribes from officials in exchange for the chance to ref world title bouts.

Ontario Athletics Commission

Ontario’s commission is different from the others in that there have been exactly zero mixed martial arts events held under their jurisdiction. And that’s exactly the problem: OAC commissioner Ken Hayashi has single handedly blocked every attempt to legalize the sport, and has also shown himself to be an enemy of all martial arts save for his own personal preference: point karate.

Hayashi has stated that he will not allow MMA in Ontario unless an amateur system is set up and run for at least two years so the OAC can gather data on the sport’s safety record. At the same time, the OAC has been rebuffing all attempts to set up an amateur association, stonewalling an organization that was formed specifically to provide the amateur structure Ontario has demanded.

On top of this, the OAC has a history of blackballing other combat sports. In June, a multi-million dollar suit was brought against Hayashi and the OAC for creating an environment where it was impossible to legally organize kickboxing events. Near the end of the year the OAC took further steps to marginalize kickboxing, revoking the licenses of a kickboxing organization and trying to force it under the umbrella of a karate association.

Last but not least, boxing has been completely castrated in Ontario due to the OAC’s refusal to license events. The commission refuses to issue licenses for events outside the greater Toronto area, citing lack of staff to oversee the event. As well, even when events are withing a 2 hour radius of Toronto, they must still be further than a month apart or again the commission will refuse to approve them. In effect, this operational incompetence and utter laziness to fulfill even the most basic tenets of their job has killed boxing in the province.

Honorable Mentions: New York’s athletic commission hasn’t had much of a hand in keeping MMA out of the state; that particular move you can blame on state legislators. We all agree that England really needs to get off their arses and put together some sort of commission, but it’s hard to hate on something that doesn’t exist yet. Several native reservation commissions have shown themselves to be crooked and incompetent when it comes to safety issues (Grand River Athletics Commission, I’m looking at you), but pale in comparison to the level of corruption listed above.