Issue 061

April 2010

With his career on the line, Nick Lembo was under pressure. Lembo, who serves as legal counsel to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, was on a quest with Commissioner Larry Hazzard to make his state the first to legalize mixed martial arts, and allow the polarizing sport to hold a fight card within the state.  

He was driving home from a meeting with state officials who had told him that while they wouldn’t prevent the legalization of mixed martial arts, Lembo’s career would be ruined if it provoked unfavorable attention. “I had my first house-closing come up, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my god, I hope I didn’t make a mistake,’” Lembo recalls.

That anxiety has passed. Ten years since the first MMA show was held under New Jersey’s purview, the growth of the sport inside the state has mirrored its growth in the public’s consciousness. In 2000, two fight cards were held in New Jersey. In 2009, the state held 20 professional and 37 amateur MMA cards – and there are 50 amateur cards already booked for 2010. MMA found its first legal, government-sanctioned home in New Jersey, and Nick Lembo’s role in developing the rules that govern the sport as it exists today cannot be discounted.  

Lembo’s love of fighting started when his father brought him to watch boxers like Lou and Carl Duva compete at the Ice World in Totowa, NJ. He wrestled in high school, eventually receiving a few offers for partial scholarships to smaller universities, before deciding on Pennsylvania State University. After a law degree from University of Miami, a graduate degree from Villanova University, and time spent in the United States Marine Corps, Lembo landed a job in New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement. In 1994, he met the attorney who was then counsel for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. “He hated the job,” Lembo says. “At the time, it was an unpaid position, but to me it sounded like a dream job.” The following Monday, the attorney general made the transfer; Lembo has held the position ever since. 

When the UFC first appeared in 1993, Lembo was immediately taken with the sport. He had continued to follow collegiate wrestling and the wrestlers that found their way into the cage, and shortly after seeing Royce Gracie’s domination in early UFC events, Lembo began training with a Gracie-affiliated academy.  

Around 2000, California’s athletic commission drafted rules governing MMA bouts. Lembo and Hazzard waited for California to pass regulation before starting efforts in New Jersey, but the legislation stalled because of funding issues. “I suggested we start getting the ball rolling here,” Lembo says. The board held a series of meetings with Dr Mark Belafsky, who was head of the board’s medical advisory council, and Jeff Blatnick, a former Olympian and head of the UFC’s MMA council, as well as promoters, managers, fighters and politicians. “[We thought] if there are people that don’t like it, at least we could rebut their opinions with evidence from experts,” Lembo says. The MMA experiment in New Jersey first began with an MMA match on a kickboxing card in February 2000. Later, the IFC held the first MMA card in the state in September 2000, and UFC 28 arrived in November. 

In April 2001, Hazzard organized a meeting in Trenton, NJ, whose participants included Marc Ratner from the Nevada Athletic Commission and representatives from Connecticut’s casinos. “The key was that we didn’t want to do just what we thought could get passed in New Jersey,” Lembo says. “We wanted to have a rule set where we could say, ‘Look, several states or jurisdictions have accepted this,’ in order to help the sport grow.” Those in attendance hashed out the framework for the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, the gold standard that has governed virtually every sanctioned event in the United States.  

Lembo is quick to note that the UFC had already implemented weight classes, time limits and rounds (among other rules) by 2000. In 2006, a number of mainstream publications and television programs ran stories recounting the rise of the UFC, many of which cited erroneous claims that Zuffa – and not the UFC’s previous owners, Semaphore Entertainment Group – initiated the push toward regulation. In response, Lembo authored corrections that he sent to publishers in every instance that he discovered. “There’s a whole new fan base because of the UFC, and that’s great. The UFC has done fantastic things for the sport,” Lembo says. “But that one particular point is inaccurate, and I think, just from a historical viewpoint, we should be accurate.” 

Lembo’s duties pertaining to MMA include matchmaking approval for pro and amateur bouts, overseeing events and dealing with contractual disputes and disciplinary actions. He also serves as the chairman of the Association of Boxing Commissions’ MMA training and officials committee. The greatest issue facing MMA today, Lembo says, is the need for qualified officials and a uniformity in their training. “In boxing, you could bet your officials coming up have refereed for five, ten, 15 years in the amateur program,” Lembo says. “You don’t have that with MMA now.” An adequate resume, Lembo believes, involves time spent refereeing submission grappling and amateur MMA before leaping into professional leagues.  

The expansion of MMA regulation is a double-edged sword. While Newark, NJ is the site of UFC 111, it’s difficult to imagine that the UFC won’t head a few miles east next time if New York passes legislation allowing MMA. But Lembo doesn’t see nearby states passing regulation as having a discernible effect on New Jersey’s bottom line when it comes to MMA. “I’m all for expansion,” Lembo says. “I don’t think it’s going to have a great effect on New Jersey. It hasn’t had a great effect so far – the number of shows we’re having is increasing; it’s not decreasing. It’s good; more fights for everybody.”  

HOW THINGS CHANGE

It wasn’t long ago that mixed martial arts fights were a rare commodity. Lembo remembers overseeing an MMA show held in a middle school gym in New Jersey. He says Bas Rutten was the referee, Renzo Gracie was the DJ, and Bart Vale was a cornerman. It’s a marked contrast to the bi-weekly pay-per-views and prime-time TV slots. “It’s amazing to me how quickly it’s grown in less than 10 years.”