UFC 115 next month will be the organization’s first in Vancouver. It may also be the city’s last mixed martial arts event for a while.
Council members voted in favour of permitting professional MMA to be held in Vancouver earlier this year, paving the way for the UFC to announce a show on June 12 at GM Place.
But according to a report this week in the Toronto Sun, Vancouver Athletic Commission chairman Mirko Mladenovic said the demands the city is placing on the UFC — and any potential promoters hoping to bring future shows there — are too restrictive.
“The City of Vancouver does not want to be in the sanctioning business,” Mladenovic said. “After the UFC, we’re going to be at a major impasse.”
Despite the fact that UFC 115, which is headlined by a matchup of former champions Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell and Rich (Ace) Franklin, sold out in record time, Mladenovic said the Las Vegas-based promotion likely won’t make any money from the show. According to the commission chairman, right now the cost of holding an MMA event in Vancouver — which includes insurance, taxes and other requirements imposed by the city — is “astronomically high.”
As the biggest MMA organization in the world, the UFC might be the only one in a position to shoulder those costs. But it seems unlikely it would do it regularly without making a profit, which means UFC 115 in Vancouver could be a one-off.
UFC vice-president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner, who was in Vancouver last week to finalize the details of the event, suggested things work more smoothly when the sanctioning is not at the municipal level. For example, in Montreal, where the UFC has already held three successful events, the sport is governed by a commission that is overseen by a provincial body, the Regie des Alcools, des Courses et des Jeux.
“Every place we go to is a little bit different. The city makes you go through extra steps like indemnity issues,” Ratner said. “The city has plenty to do without being in the business of athletic commissions.
“We want a provincial athletic commission as they do in Quebec. It is easier; you’re not dealing with Vancouver, and North Vancouver, and Burnaby and each city on its own.”
Before finally voting in favour of the current two-year trial period for legalizing MMA in Vancouver, city council attempted to bump the matter up to the provincial level last March, asking the B.C. government to handle regulation of the sport. But the province opted to leave sanctioning in the hands of the individual municipalities.
NOTES: Saturday’s Shine Fights event in Fayetteville, N.C., pulled by the athletic commission at the last minute, was cancelled because it did not meet its regulatory requirements with regard to fighter purses and physician availability. After promoter Don King earned an injunction preventing its headliner, boxer Ricardo Mayorga, from competing against Din Thomas, the North Carolina Boxing Authority cancelled the entire event, but a reason was not immediately known. According to a report in MMAjunkie.com, an NCBA official said Shine Fights did not satisfy the required bond to cover fighter purses and did not provide a ringside physician … Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said his organization is open to a cross-promotion bout between its lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez and Bellator’s title-holder Eddie Alvarez … Victoria’s Sarah Kaufman, Strikeforce women’s 135-pound champion, is expected to make her return on July 24 in a non-title bout. The card will also feature first-round fights of a tournament at that weight, with the winner to challenge Kaufman for the belt at a later date … Strikeforce 145-pound title-holder Cristiane (Cyborg) Santos will return and defend her throne against newcomer Jan Finney on June 26 in San Jose.
