I was talking to a fighter in Manitoba today that has had his licence suspended for 1 year for fighting in IQMMA (second offence).
I've heard many opinions on the consequences of fighting in Ontario from lifetime bans in some provinces to "they have no legal right to do anything to you".
I've called the commissions in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec (can't get past their French automated answering service!), Manitoba, and Calgary all with varying responses and degrees of punishment (the latter being the most definitive response so far, Candy said that if she knows you fought there you will not fight in Calgary... even said that she is fine with her number posted publicly and would answer any and all calls on the subject).
Quebec seems not to care much, most fighters that have fought on IQMMA cards have fought in Quebec right after and even the New Brunswick Commission seemed to have the strongest stance on the subject and they allowed a fighter to fight in New Brunswick 5 months after an IQMMA fight.
With more events destined in Ontario's Native Reserves and IQMMA leading the way it's a great opportunity for local fighters to finally fight near their hometowns. I'm all for MMA in Ontario and have dealt with IQMMA and feel that they run a decent promotion and seem to have gone to great lengths to ensure safety for the fighters.
Still, I for some reason have a hard time advising fighters that it's a good career move to fight in Ontario.
Thoughts, opinions..... facts?
fact, people who have fought pro in manitoba will be suspended if they fight in saskatchewan
LittleBoy - fact, people who have fought pro in manitoba will be suspended if they fight in saskatchewan
True. I spoke with Manitoba and this is what I was told:
"even though MMA is not illegal in Saskatchewan there is no government appointed provincial commission in place to sanction events. There is however a provincial support organization that the Manitoba commission works closely with in helping to run events but the doctors involved have no provincially recognized standards (regarding MMA) and do not submit medical results to other commissions in Canada. Because of that Manitoba implements a 60 day medical suspension (fighting in Ontario will get you 6 months the first time, a year the second time and possibly a full ban the third), to protect the health of the fighter".
Ontario's fuckin' it up for Canadian athletes.
what needs to happen in my opinion, is do what river cree in edmonton did. become a licensed commission directly with the federal gov and hold mma shows whenever you want to.
guess a good trick for fighting in calgary if youve fought for iqmma or sask before is go under a diff name so that candy cant catch you and take away some golden oportunities.
i think it sucks the way these commisions think they are protecting fighters when in reality, they are jsut preventing many from making a good honest living.
FanTastic - what needs to happen in my opinion, is do what river cree in edmonton did. become a licensed commission directly with the federal gov and hold mma shows whenever you want to.
guess a good trick for fighting in calgary if youve fought for iqmma or sask before is go under a diff name so that candy cant catch you and take away some golden oportunities.
i think it sucks the way these commisions think they are protecting fighters when in reality, they are jsut preventing many from making a good honest living.
Fan Tastic - What I keep hearing from these commissions is that they are trying to protect fighters, first and foremost. I'm not saying that I agree but the one thing that they keep on preaching is mostly in regards to the doctors and the referees.
With no sanctioning they say that potentially the doctors and refs have no guidelines to follow or requirements to be met... I don't know if that's true but they say they have no way of telling one way or another.
And something that they all seem to agree on is that if there is a major injury or death on a non-sanctioned event it will end MMA in Canada for a very long time.
That being said at the first IQMMA show I was at I saw the paramedics at ringside and the refs they had were two guys that ref sanctioned shows in Manitoba.
Both those refs were suspended after, they never told anyone at the Manitoba Commission that they were going to ref.
I tell every out of town fighter that they will be suspended here in Manitoba if they fight in Ontario, we even had a local fighter fight there and he was suspended for a year.
Krzysztof
Obviously I'm all for protecting the fighters and that should be number one and remain number one. I just say lets try a different way and get the fighters close to ontario that want to fight a way to fight, without having to travel long distances to get themselves in a show. Something has to be done but I don't have the answers.
It's true, with no sanctioning and not having someone watching over all the refs and docs, who knows if they've had their licenses suspended and I don't mean just the refs. The potential for some serious damage by having just one doc who was suspended for malpractice would def be the end of MMA in Canada. Can you imagine having a suspended doc watching over a fighter and that fighter gets seriously hurt. What then?!
I have seen several docs and several paramedics at all Calgary events and I've never heard of any serious injury that couldn't be taken care of by them. Maybe the commisions have a point?
There still has got to be something we all can do.
Suggestions? Besides fighting in Ontario that is.
I've dealt with IQMMA and they are doing everything that any other athletic commission is doing to protect the fighters.
Bottom line it is all being done by Hayashi,I was in contact with Jerry Dorian who is the head of the NB athletic commission and he was in contact with Hayashi and was given the list of fighters who had fought at the IQMMA.He explained that any fighter who fought there and was licensed under the NB athletic commission wouold be suspended and the suspension would be honoured by all Canadian athletic/boxing commissions.
I don't think there is anything that can be done untill mma is legalized in Ontario.Unfortunately if u fight in the IQMMA this is what is going to happen.
It's to bad that the IQMMA won't allow u to fight under a different name as long as all the proper medicals are provided.
I think this is also being driven by the ABC (Associate of Boxing Commission) which all the commissioners across Canada are a part of.
The whole situation stinks. Ontario may not have pro or amateur MMA for years (maybe never), so it seems very unjust to penalize these athletes/coaches who are just looking to compete.
whats stopping us from starting up amateur mma in ontario. thats the whole arguement for not geting it santioned right?
What a joke.
Well maybe fighters shouldn't fight on illegal, unsanctioned cards, hmm? Just because you don't like a law doesn't mean it's suddenly okay to become a criminal.
i'll ask again, what is stopping us from starting up amateur mma in ontario? if we can't go pro right away lets at least get the ball rolling. there are enough people in the mma community in ontario that we should be able to get this going.
if pro is illegal, wouldn't amateur be too because there is no governing authority. Just my 2ยข!
so what if they competed in amateur mma events on native land, would that still be "criminal"?
the answer is probably yes :S, although natives are in the right, but nobody cares/wants to hear about it.