SPORTSNET.CA

The UFC met with members of the Quebec Boxing Commission and government officials in Montreal Tuesday night, sources told Sportsnet, in an attempt to save UFC 97.

The UFC’s second event in Canada, scheduled for April 18 at the Bell Centre, is in jeopardy of being moved out of the province because of different rules the commission has said it must insist on enforcing.

In an interview with a Quebec radio station on the weekend, UFC president Dana White said he was hopeful the event will go on as planned. White, along with UFC majority owner Lorenzo Fertitta, was to be part of the meetings in Montreal, whose purpose was to convince the commission to allow the event to carry on under the Unified Rules of MMA in North America as have other MMA events in the past, including last April’s Canadian debut for the UFC.

However, it recently came to the attention of the provincial board under which the boxing commission in Quebec falls (La Regie des alcohols, des courses et des jeux) that the rules it has for "Mixed Boxing" are different.

The discrepancies include a smaller Octagon size and not allowing strikes with elbows or bent knees.

Stephane Patry, former CEO of the Montreal-based promotion TKO Championship Fighting which held MMA events for 10 years, told Sportsnet if it were up to the commission, there would be no problem. But it’s not.

"The way it works is the athletic commission is governed by the Regie des alcohols, des courses et des jeux," Patry said in an exclusive interview. "The commissioner Richard Renaud knows what we’re doing, understands the situation that mixed martial arts is in right now and he’s a big fan of the sport.

"But the problem is above him."

It was after a Feb. 6 debut show for Patry’s new promotion titled "Strikeboxing," a sport similar to MMA but which doesn’t include grappling on the ground, that the issues with regard to rules differences in Quebec were brought to light, though Patry said the decision to strictly enforce Quebec’s regulations came prior to his event.

Patry said the commission made him aware of its intention to apply its rules to all combat sports the day before his event.

"When we first started promoting that show and started spending money it was because we had it sanctioned," Patry said. "And then all of a sudden (the week of Feb. 6) they told us we have to go back to whatever rules we were using back in 1999. Basically whatever rules we never used."

Patry said his lawyers are in the process of speaking to representatives of the board to try to resolve the situation. He believes that the board is not legally allowed to change the way it sanctions events after doing it one way for a 10-year period.

While he was aware of the rules and the fact that they were not those being adhered to when MMA events were sanctioned during that period, the sudden change still came as a shock to him. But Patry remains confident things will be resolved.

"I really have a strong feeling that everything will be settled accordingly and a catastrophe will be avoided," Patry said. "UFC will happen. Strikeboxing … will come back, and the other MMA promotions will be able to do shows like they used to in the past."