Kimura

Friday, February 13, 2009
by Lotfi Sariahmed (sherdog.com)
Loretta Hunt contributed to this report.

The UFC’s second trip to Montreal is in jeopardy following a decision by the Quebec Boxing Commission this week to adhere to regulations that prohibit elbow and knee strikes and other standard MMA moves.

Sportsnet.ca was the first to report on the story on Thursday.

Nearly 13,000 tickets have been sold for UFC 97 “Redemption,” scheduled to take place at the Bell Centre in Montreal on April 18, according to Marc Ratner, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for the UFC. The show, which pits middleweight champion Anderson Silva against jiu-jitsu ace Thales Leites, may face tough choices in the coming days though.

The UFC broke attendance and box office records with its first event on Canadian soil 10 months ago, though that show was regulated under rules more akin to the unified rules of combat recognized throughout North America.

From 2000-2008, the Universal Combat Challenge, later renamed TKO, held 44 of its 46 events in Quebec under similar regulations as well.

But now Québécois officials are saying the province does not have the latitude to allow those or any other set of regulations outside of the ones they already have in place.

“We had a tolerance for the application of the rules in the past,” Réjean Thériault, director of communications for the combat sports division of the Governing Body of Alcohol, Races and Games of Quebec (RACJ), which oversees the commission, told Shedog.com on Thursday. “We learned today that we had a place for tolerance and we didn’t know. Now we know the rules under which to live. We informed all the promoters last week that they must now respect the rules of Quebec.”

Those rules regulate boxing, kickboxing and “mixed boxing,” which is described as a combination of boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu. Along with the prohibition of elbow and knee strikes both standing and grounded, the regulations also state that a referee will utilize a standing count to check on a fighter that has been knocked down.

The Octagon might also face downsizing to comply with the requirements, said Thériault.

Ratner, who has been in close contact with both the RACJ and commission in the last few days, said he believes the genesis for the sudden turn-around came from the near-riot that occurred last Friday at a Strikebox/Titans Fighting event in Montreal.

That event, promoted by former TKO president Stephan Patry, aimed to utilize MMA striking rules, but negated the ground aspect of the sport. However, the commission advised Patry that the proposed rule changes would not be allowed, and that the show would follow MMA regulations instead.

A private agreement amongst a majority of the fighters to keep the bouts standing was followed until the main event, when British brawler James Thompson took down Steve Bosse and began to ground-and-pound the Canadian hockey enforcer. The crowd of nearly 1,200 spectators erupted in disapproval, throwing chairs and beer cans. The commission called the contest, while the fighters had to be escorted out of the cage by security.

Though Thériault acknowledges that the Strikebox/Titans fiasco played a role in what appears to be a sudden adherence to the rules on hand, he said the decision has already been in the works for some time.

“[The Strikebox scenario] was an important part of getting us to this point, but Richard Renaud [Director of the Division of Combat Sports in the RACJ], who is replacing Mario LaTraverse, has been working with the President of the RACJ, Denis Racicot to change the sport, and noted that we had tolerated the [past] rules,” Thériault said.

Ratner believes LaTraverse’s retirement from the commission has also played a role in the recent events, but sees a positive outcome on the horizon.

“We're aware of the situation and working with [the RACJ and the Quebec Boxing Commission] to resolve the situation,” Ratner told Sherdog.com on Thursday. “I'm confident that this will all work out.”

While Ratner said discussions regarding the rules would continue into next week, Thériault emphasized that the RACJ was neither making any drastic changes nor trying to run the UFC out of town.

“We’re not following any new rules,” he said. “We’re following the rules that are in place.”

__________________

Do you have a reason not to give The Half Boy your vote for the Hall of Fame?

Do You???

I sure don't!!!!!

Suffy

Toronto won't host one with it's current commissioner, I can't remember his name but he HATES MMA. He's an old school boxing nut that just sees MMA as people who can't box.

But this is seriously FTL.

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Bigpapa42

This is not cool. Just heard about this earlier this morning. Quebec seemed like they were pretty proactive on the MMA front, in legal terms. This could be a major set back right across Canada. Things could change in Manitoba as well, after a fighter was seriously injured in a fight last weekend.

The really crappy thing about the Quebec issue is that my buddy has a fight scheduled in Gatineau at the end of March that's in danger now.

Suffy

You should see the editorials they are printing here in Manitoba, fucken stupid.

People are like "it's just people getting pucnhed with their barefists".

Like it's easily a 3-1 ratio anti-mma compared to pro-mma, our papers are doing their best to get mma banned.

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Bigpapa42

Here's the thing I find most ironic about the anti-MMA crusade... Each of the individual elements that make up MMA are accepted as legitimate sports. Boxing, kickboxing, judo, jui-jitsu, wrestling, Sambo, and all those other disciplines are legitimate. Many are even in the Olympics. Yet somehow, when you combine those different disciplines, they somehow become barbaric and horrible. That simply makes no sense to me.

One of the most interesting things about the Manitoba situation is that my buddy has fought and beat Eric Perez, who beat the guy that ended up in the hospital and started the whole deal.

Suffy

The kid who lost was an amateur fighting out of his league. I'm going to write an editorial but the way it's going there's no way in hell it gets printed.

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Bigpapa42

Amateur guys fighting when they shouldn't be seems to be a common thing in smaller promotions. Typically a guy fighting as amateur doesn't get paid. or just a token amount. When you consider that most pro fighters are going to get at least $1k plus travel expenses, and its easy to understand why a lot of promoters put a few amateurs on their card. Put 3-5 and you probably save yourself $6-$10k on the night.

I'm actually a fan of amateur fights in a basic sense. I think its important for a new fighter to prove themselves before they start making money. There are so many stories out there about guys who get in the cage for the first time and bolt, or who refuse to leave the locker room when its their time to fight. So I can understand the promoters side when they want to see a guy who has proven himself in a couple of amateur fights. But things are right when guys have a ton of amateur fights and/or are taking fights as amateurs that they clearly shouldn't be put in. That's when promoters are just getting greedy.