By Scott Roblin

Local reaction mixed to a provincial combative sports commission

Nov 28, 2017 | 4:32 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A push is on from Alberta’s mayors to better regulate combative sports in the province.

At the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association meeting last week, a motion to look into creating a provincially regulated commission passing with 67% of the vote.

Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston didn’t participate in the vote in Calgary, but said he doesn’t support the Red Deer-based motion.

“I totally respect Red Deer for doing that because they don’t have a commission as far as I know, and just wanted to let the province look after it,” said Clugston. “But, it was very quick, we’re happy with our own, and why would we change that?”

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Medicine Hat has one of the oldest combative sport commissions in the province, alongside commissions in Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Cold Lake, and Penhold.

Executive Director of the Medicine Hat Combative Sports Commission Randy Taves said the move could drive away promoters, especially in smaller markets.

“I’m not so sure how they’re going to regulate 50 or 60 events a year,” said Taves. “I suspect it’s going to cost promoters a lot more, and that’s going to impact local promoters from putting on events.”

The vote was prompted by the death of Tim Hague, who died following a boxing match in Edmonton on June 16.

The 34-year-old was knocked down four times over the course of the bound and was boxing in only his fourth career match after a lengthy MMA career.

In the months since Hague’s death, the local commission has implemented longer rest periods to match levels in Calgary.

Bryan Anderson owns Now & Zen Martial Arts Studio in Medicine Hat and said there’s too much inconsistency from one city to the next.

“You’ve got some cities that’ll have a couple of knock-down rules, you’ll have some cities that have no knock-down rules at all,” said Anderson. “You’ve got other cities that allow certain take-downs and certain submissions, other cities that outlaw them.”

Alberta is the only province without a combative sports framework in Canada, with rules surrounding aspects of fighting including rest periods, suspensions, and fighter participation varying.

According to Anderson, he’s in support of the motion in the hopes of identifying who should be entering the ring.

“It’s really hard for promoters and anyone else to track without going from city to city to check their record,” he said. “Having a provincial outlet I think will help to be able to track which fighters should be fighting, and which fighters shouldn’t.”

Clugston said while he support standardized rules for fighters, he feels more comfortable with a Medicine Hat focus on regulation.

“We kind of like the autonomy, we like to have the control of the commission here,” he said. “We know who the members are versus when the province gets involved in stuff, often times it becomes a bureaucracy and they make a mess of things.”

“Whether it’s football, roller-derby, or combative sports, there’s always a risk of injury and or death, unfortunately,” said Taves. “There’s some things that you just can’t regulate.”

With regulation already in place for a number of different martial arts, Anderson said the next logical step is to incorporate MMA into the equation.

“All the main sports from karate, to judo, to taekwondo, have these kind of governing bodies that have done it nationally and internationally,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before MMA would evolve to that point as well.”

There is no timeline for when an official request regarding a provincial commission will be made to the NDP government.