Despite being popular on both sides of the Atlantic, there is a great disparity between the level of regulation in UK Mixed Martial Arts compared to across the pond.
It may still be in its infancy, but the sport of Mixed Martial Arts has come a long way from its raw no-holds-barred beginnings. When the sport’s pioneering promotion the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) held their inaugural event in November 1993, there were few rules in place, no rounds, time-outs, or judges, and no weight classes in place to prevent an 135lb man from fighting a Sumo wrestler. Flash forward to today and the UFC has become a global sports brand that has weight classes, a unified ruleset, mandatory medical suspensions and the first independent anti-doping program in major sports.
US state athletic commissions sanction events when the UFC (or any other MMA promotion) comes to town which makes organising referees, officials, judges and on-site medical teams their responsibility, as well as administering pre-fight medical checks, licensing fighters, and issuing medical suspensions which are usually honoured by other commissions across the country.
When the UFC goes abroad as it does frequently, if the event is taking place in a city or country without a sophisticated regulatory commission, it takes it upon itself to self-regulate the event and cover the costs of hiring personnel such as referees, judges and officials that would normally be taken care of by state athletic commissions. The UFC was purchased in 2016 for $4.2 billion by talent agency WME-IMG, so they are able to cover all of these costs, however, many smaller promotions in these countries can simply not afford to self-regulate their events sufficiently, often putting fighter safety and welfare and risk. Without an officially recognised or properly funded regulatory body, the UK is one of these countries in which MMA promotions are often forced to self-regulate their events.
MMA events in the UK are licensed as ‘regulated entertainment’ rather than an actual sporting event which means that while the events themselves must be licensed; fighters, promoters, officials, trainers, etc, do not. Contrary to the US where fighters are licensed by athletic commissions (subject to a medical), each promotion is able to hire fighters on their own terms. MMA is also not recognised by UK Sport which is the government’s organisation for directing the development of sport and therefore does not receive any funding, making it difficult for smaller promotions to regulate themselves to the correct standard in areas such as fighter safety.
Some of the larger promotions however, are partnered with Safe MMA, a voluntary medical project dedicated to the safety of MMA fighters. Promotions register to Safe MMA and then pledge only to book fighters who are signed up with them and to adhere to medical suspensions issued by them. Safe MMA require their fighters to undergo regular medical check and blood testing in order to be cleared to compete by them, although this charge is incurred on the fighter. Safe MMA also ensure that partnered promotions hire appropriate on-site medical teams on fight night.
The UK Mixed Martial Arts Federations (UKMMAF) are another voluntary organisation that are playing their part in the fight for proper regulation by seeking to further the development and positive recognition of the sport. They aim to get the sport recognised by UK Sport so that they can be funded sufficiently to operate as MMA’s governing body in the UK in charge of regulation.
As well as the professional side of the sport, the lack of reguation also has ramifications on the amateur and recreactional sides. Unlike with Boxing and other martial arts that have their own regulatory bodies, MMA instructors and coaches do not need to be qualified and as a result some of their students could end up competing in a cage without being appropriately prepared for competition. Instructors also do not require CRB checks, and with children now participating in the sport from a young age, this creates a real concern.
With the lack of a regulatory body in UK MMA, there is no official ruleset for the sport in writing. In 2009, the US’ Association of Boxing Commissions adopted the ‘Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts’ which has been adopted by the majority of state athletic commissions. This solidified ruleset establishes regulations for fighting areas, medical testing and fouls amongst other aspects of MMA and its introduction was a seminal step towards achieving recognition as a sport. In the UK, seeing as there are no regulatory bodies in place to enforce the ‘Unified Rules’, rulesets may vary from promotion to promotion, which could in theory allow widely banned moves such as stomps to a grounded opponent and headbutting.
When comparing the US and UK in terms of Mixed Martial Arts, there is also the issue of legality. In the States, professional MMA events are legal in all fifty states, with New York becoming the last to legalise in 2016. While MMA is legal in the UK in the sense that it is not unlawful, there are no exemptions in the law that other combat sports such as Boxing enjoy that protect fighters, promoters and officials from being liable if something were to go wrong. At this point however, there have been no MMA related serious injuries or deaths in the UK (there has been one death in Ireland but led to no criminal charges), so MMA’s legal status is currently untested in a court of law, meaning in theory, an MMA bout at a licensed event could be deemed as illegal if it is not properly conducted.
The fight against doping has been one of the biggest talking points in the MMA world for many years, especially since the UFC introduced their anti-doping program in conjunction with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in 2015. This was the first independent anti-doping body in major sports and in the two plus years that it has been in operation, over fifty fighters have tested positive for banned substances and received suspensions, and mixed martial artists are the second most tested athletes by USADA just behind track and field athletes and just ahead of cyclists. UK MMA however has no anti-doping body or program whatsoever. Safe MMA have looked potentially introducing anti-doping tests but this has not ended up happening because they are very expensive to carry out and the organisation just does not have the resources.
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