Issue 105

September 2013

Gareth A Davies MMA and Boxing Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, London, ponders the UFC’s legal rights in choosing officials

A couple of heavyweight legal matters this month, so bear with me. 

UFC president Dana White’s raking criticism of referee Steve Mazzagatti over his handling of the Josh Burkman guillotine choke of Jon Fitch in the World Series of Fighting main event has set up an interesting proposition.

Could the UFC take a civil lawsuit against the Nevada State Athletic Commission, a statutory government office, to remove Mazzagatti from its list of officials overseeing UFC events? 

White made his views public that repeated complaints to NSAC about Mazzagatti – even after a ‘greatest hits’ DVD compilation of his errors – were falling on deaf ears. “It’s disgusting. At what point do you realize this guy is an incompetent fool?” White fumed. “The Nevada State Athletic Commission used to be the best in the country. It’s not anymore.”

So would the UFC consider taking out a civil law suit? I asked White. “I have a bunch of lawyers, so maybe we could consider it…” was the reply.

For the uninitiated, NSAC has the statutory right to choose its own licensed judges and referees for all shows – boxing and MMA – in Nevada. Thus, every US state has its own dictum for officials. The reality is that a lawsuit has never been brought against NSAC before.

There are previous examples of complaints, however. Mike Tyson and promoter Don King did not want referee Mitch Halpern to oversee Tyson’s second fight with Evander Holyfield. Publicly, King and Tyson waged a war against Halpern through the media, and said at the time, ‘we’re not going to fight, you’ve got to pull him out.’

Halpern was given a vote 4-1 by NSAC, but in the end, the official decided to remove himself from the Tyson–Holyfield contest, and Mills Lane was brought in to referee the now infamous fight in which Tyson bit a chunk from Holyfield’s ear. 

In another example, boxer Bernard Hopkins tried to remove Joe Cortez, a Puerto Rican, from judging one of his fights. Hopkins had upped the ante in a previous fight with Tito Trinidad by stepping on the Puerto Rican flag. NSAC refused to take Cortez out of the fight, with Hopkins threatening to head to the airport. Anyway, Hopkins stayed – and he won the fight, on points.

But what if the UFC were to take out a civil lawsuit against Mazzagatti officiating? “I think it’d be a drawn out thing, and I don’t know if it would be successful. It’s never been done to my knowledge,” Marc Ratner, the UFC’s head of regulatory affairs, told FO. Ratner, of course, once headed up the commission after all.

The stage above that would be for the UFC to call on the Attorney General to make a judgement, but he would most likely refer back to the commission. Historically, the AG would concur with the NSAC commissioners. Legal food for thought.

LEGAL CANADA DITCHING THE ‘CAGE’

What few people may be aware of is that professional mixed martial arts was not actually technically legal in Canada for 12 events before the wording in the criminal code was changed in June this year.

For a dozen events, most jurisdictions in Canada had turned a blind eye. Nobody had actually come out and sued over it, and the outcome will never be known because there was never the test of a legal challenge. But who knows what would have happened in front of a judge in court?

What it had also created, behind the scenes, were huge insurance implications.

Intriguing. But now, at least, it’s fully legal. 

Tom Wright, the UFC’s head in Canada, explained that a law created in 1934, during the Prohibition, had forbidden ‘prize-fighting’ outside the jurisdiction of Canada’s Boxing Commissions. With MMA such a new sport, there was no provision for it under law, which made it technically not legal. Now it is.

The influential and very smart 60-year-old, who once headed up the Canadian Football League, has another campaign, too. He wants the nomenclature ‘cage’ removed from the vernacular. He reckons it confuses as much as it explains the sport. “People react emotionally, subjectively and they don’t take their time over the world ‘cage’. And I’m talking about politicians,” explains Wright.

I’d like to add my vote to the campaign. Indeed, I have never used the word ‘cage’. It may not sit well with MMA die-hards, but it’s time we all stopped using it… so pass it on.