Boxing Losing Steam to MMA
It’s no secret that boxing has come under siege in recent years, due to any number of reasons, from lack of popularity to the rise of mixed martial arts.
On July 1st there was another huge shift in boxing, at least in the state of Indiana. The Indiana Gaming Commission completed its legislature outlining the mandated monopoly-takeover of combative sports in the state, opening itself up to include professional boxing, mixed martial arts and, perhaps, professional wrestling.
"They dissolved the athletic commission, which was a three commissioner board. Now we are under the Gaming Commissioners," said Andy Means, the director of the Gaming Commission's new athletic division.
The changes are a culmination of those which began a year ago, when the Indiana Boxing Commission renamed itself to the Indiana Athletic Commission and started regulating professional MMA shows.
Some believe the state regulations have gone too far, especially as boxing continues to get downplayed and reduced within the confines of greater, broader areas of sports regulating. The latest change effectively eliminated three experienced boxing commissioners in Jake Hall, John McCane and Jason Barclay.
Hall devoted 20 years to being a governor-appointed head for boxing, but accepted that future changes were inevitable. He was still partial to the renaming of the Boxing Commission to the Athletic Commission, and the regulatory authority over MMA events.
"By the time we found out about the latest changes, it was too far along to fight it," Hall reflected bitterly. "Maybe it makes sense to cut us out and let the Gaming Commission do it. But we were a three-member commission and almost all of our meetings were over the phone. They are a nine-member commission and I believe all their meetings have to be live.”
On the issue of cost, Hall speculated that he thought it would “cost more, not less” to regulate sports as a whole in Indiana.
As a result of the changes, he hopes that insight won’t suffer.
Sources said the goal set by the athletic commission will be to have four inspectors at each event. But many of them may well lack the expertise and be assigned the work through employment agencies. Background checks will be issued by the commission, but the question of adequate training and expertise is bound to raise its head.
"That was a big concern that was raised when the Gaming Commission proposed going that way," said Hall. "They're concerned about the state's liability. But in 20 years, we never had a lawsuit filed against any of the inspectors that were being used."
Means said that the athletic commission will attempt safety in numbers, but that he currently lacks the state funding to hire an assistant director.
"The statute says we have to have a minimum of one person (inspector), but I'm not comfortable with us having an event and just having one person there.”
In the state of Indiana there are multiple events every weekend, and in different parts of the state, insuring that a large quantity of people is necessary for attendance. Means said that presently there are about three to four professional MMA events per month, as compared with about one boxing card a month.
If the trend continues, part-time inspectors are bound to get experience from the MMA events, but not so much from boxing cards. This is drastically different from past years, where Hall recalls that just five years ago there were 26 boxing cards held in the state alone. By 2009, there were nine—the lowest figure in 20 years. This year has generated six.
According to Hall the dominance of MMA over boxing is a nationwide trend, despite the former still being illegal in some states. As cultural trends and popular attitude continues to affect competitive sports, one can only hope legislative bodies will be able to account for them structurally.
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