Mixed martial arts legislation issues in British Columbia have been frustrating for promoters, fighters and fans in the province in the past several years, but that is all about to change.
Recently the B.C. government passed Bill 50 — proposed legislation to establish a provincial athletic commissioner — that would make it easier for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and other MMA organizations return to the province.
This means that major MMA events could potentially return to a city like Vancouver before the end of the calendar year.
“(The bill) passed. It’s done in the legislature (but) it’s not yet law because it’s going to become law by regulation,” Jonathan Tweedale of the Vancouver Athletic Commission told (Showdown) Joe Ferraro on Sportsnet 590 The Fan.
The fact the bill passed is the first of several steps before the law is finalized. In the meantime there are certain aspects of the current bill that will need to be tweaked.
“The actual act itself is a pretty general document. It doesn’t deal with the kind of details like specific requirements that promoters would have to meet, detailed regulations that are going to have to be drafted over the summer and the target date is sometime in the fall for the regulations to be done after a consultation process.”
Tweedale expects B.C.’s MMA rules to be as close to the unified rules of mixed martial arts as possible, with the exception of some small changes.
He explained that Ida Chong — the Minister of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development in the province, and the person who proposed the bill — will be meeting with local athletic commissions in B.C., and the United States in the near future to get a consensus set of rules to formulate what MMA regulation in the province will look like.
“The differences at this stage are little differences like in some jurisdictions it’s a foul to throw in the towel but in others it’s not. We’re talking really minor changes that most fans wouldn’t even notice.”
Overall, despite all the speed bumps the sport has faced in the province, Tweedale believes Bill 50 will make the process of organizing MMA events much easier.
“I think the UFC and pretty much every other promoter is going to be very happy about this because in the past, just starting with the smaller promoters, depending on whether the promoter is going to Nanaimo or Vernon or Vancouver, they’re going to be dealing with a totally different set of requirements and that’s really inefficient,” Tweedale explained.
“(Promoters) don’t know what to expect, they’re dealing with different people and it’s very difficult, where as when you have one set of rules and one set of expectations you can make things work much more easily.”
The UFC is the largest MMA promotion in the world and has held events in Vancouver on two separate occasions — UFC 115 on June 12, 2010 and UFC 131 on June 11, 2011 — but did not schedule an event for 2012 because city hall had not given MMA the green light after a two-year trial period for the sport in the province recently ended.
“From the UFC’s perspective, I think what they’re going to appreciate in particular is Vancouver in the past has been concerned about a potential liability risk to the city where the city’s agency, the Vancouver Athletic Commission, is acting as the regulator and is responsible for the safety of the participants, because the city wasn’t covered by the province in the event that something happened that could engender a lawsuit.”
Luckily that’s not going to be an issue any more because each of the municipal commissions in the province will be gone when the provincial commission comes into play.
The only potential hiccup could be the fact the cities will have the right to veto whether or not an MMA event takes place in its jurisdiction. However, Tweedale doesn’t foresee many, if any, municipalities vetoing an MMA show in the province.
Tweedale added that this bill will make it easier for mid-level promotions like Bellator, the Maximum Fighting Championship and local promotions like Battlefield Fight League to afford to hold shows in B.C. cities.
“That’s going to mean a proliferation of MMA, which is great for the fans, which is great for the local fighters.”
Another thing Tweedale believes this bill will help with is the licensing and regulation of officials, which would increase the quality and credibility of the sport from both the athletes’ and fans’ perspective.
“There are judges out there that don’t know what they’re looking at,” Tweedlae said. “There are judges out there that haven’t been to the John McCarthy course or the Herb Dean course. There are judges out there that aren’t applying a consistent set of criteria and that’s really problematic for these young fighters that are trying to develop, that they’re not being fairly judged.
“Not having quality officials, particularly quality judges, is a real impediment to developing local talent and it’s frustrating to the fans as well. I’m really hoping we’re going to see some excellence in officiating coming out of this province-wide regulation.”
It’s unclear how long it will be before the UFC returns to the province. As of now, the UFC’s next trip to Western Canada is on July 21 as UFC 149 is set to take place at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
Overall, Bill 50 seems to be a significant step in the right direction.
