Issue 056

November 2009

In 1974, the Professional Kickboxing Association (PKA) was born, legitimizing kickboxing as a professional sport, but they neglected to include formal training for judges and officials as part of the ‘professional package’. Anyone with knowledge of the sport was accepted by the PKA. Luckily for them (and for the successive birth of MMA) Nelson Hamilton was in the right place at the right time – and with the right training. “I had been in the sport and I had boxed, so I had started out judging. When I decided to referee, I was told that I had to pass a proficiency test. I used to go The Jet’s Gym with Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez, work out with the fighters and practice in the ring, refereeing, things of that sort. I showed them what I could do, and it started from there.”  

When MMA began to lift its head out of the hot California sand in the late 1990s, ‘Doc’ saw the potential of the sport, and readied himself for the landslide that would follow. “I realized in the later ‘90s that MMA was going to take off, so I started going to various schools that were teaching grappling and MMA, working with fighters on the mats, learning the ground game from a fighter’s perspective, then translating it into a referee’s perspective. I already knew the stand-up side, I just had to learn the ground game. I wanted to make sure that when I got in the cage I was as confident as could be.”  

Since the ‘dark ages’ of MMA, the sport has transformed in countless ways. From rules to public perception, the sport of professional MMA was molded into what you see today. Surely, the rules governing officiating have evolved alongside other developments?  

“Right now there is no recipe for qualifying as an MMA referee. The burden of training falls on the state athletic commission. But in my estimation, the states have been very negligent in affording the training that is necessary for their people – in fact, I know that to be true. 

“It’s a sad state of affairs. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t get requests from people about how to become a referee or judge. It’s one of those things that there’s no cookie-cutter answer for. There is no ‘path’ to getting licensed or to getting work.”  

Although MMA has made leaps and bounds in a short time, a solid foundation of integrity is what will keep the sport held high. And, with untrained officials and judges casting their rule over each bout, the integrity of the sport is very much at stake. “I firmly believe that no major sport can exist without the public’s confidence. Every time there is a questionable stoppage by a referee or a questionable decision by the judges, it just undermines the sport. That’s paramount. If you look at any major league sport, you’ll see that each one of those leagues spends a fortune training their officials. And they hold their feet to the fire to do the right job, and, if they make a mistake, they punish them for it. That’s where we have to get.”  

Even with this impending threat to the integrity of MMA, athletic commissions have continued to brush-off proper training for their officials. “I kept getting back this mantra from each one of [the athletic commissions] – ‘That’s great, but we don’t have a budget for that.’  How can they say that they’re going to regulate a sport, get revenues from it, yet not set aside a certain amount of money to train the officials? It just boggles my mind! What company hires an employee and then says, ‘We can’t afford to train you for this position, but go ahead and do it.’”  

‘Doc’s reaction to the lack of proper training is to make his knowledge and experience more accessible to those who take it upon themselves to be properly educated. “I have made two instructional videos. I got so upset with the athletic commissions not bringing in people to train their people. What else can I do? At least I can come up with these videos for the commissions or anyone else who needs them. If someone is looking to start getting into judging or refereeing, these videos would be the place to start.”  

Officials with proper training are vital to the continued growth of the sport, and to the respect and integrity of the sport and all athletes involved. With his insistence on properly trained judges and officials, ‘Doc’ continues to steer the sport towards the path of respectability and honor.  

Learn more about ‘Doc’ Nelson Hamilton’s MMA Judge and Referee training seminars and instructional DVDs at 

www.mmarefs.com

DID YOU KNOW?

‘Doc’ gets his nickname from the fact he is a practicing chiropractor.