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| Midwest Report: Victory on "Capital Hill" |
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Written by Victory Jay |
 Victory Jay attended the meeting with (left to right,) Chad Bergeier, Monte Cox and John Jerome.
This year the Midwest is making great steps toward regulating the sport, adding Kansas and Missouri to the roster of the MMA-friendly. Throughout all of this, Iowa has served as the proud flag-bearer for the sport of the new age. So imagine my shock when I received a call from one of my government "insiders" informing me of a surprise bill that intends to ban the sport altogether!
Center of MMA America
With only one day's notice, I grabbed my gear and hit the road, traveling to the dead center of MMA America: Des Moines, Iowa. Upon arrival I was greeted by a comfortable cast of Midwest promoters, including my VFC co-promoter, "Fighting" John Jerome; Iowa Challenge and Iowa power-promoter, Chad Bergmeier; and one of the most influential forces in the known world of mixed martial arts, "The Godfather," Monte Cox.
It seems that any time an issue like this has arrived in the past it tends to be the same group of usual suspects that heed the call to arms. Surely, between the four of us, we could smash any problem that confronted us. The problem, though, is that we didn't even know what exactly we were confronting.
No Love Here
With a new year comes also a new athletic commission. Unlike the commissioners in the past, current Iowa Athletic commissioner, Dave Neil, has no love for the sport of mixed martial arts. Even before he had any jurisdiction over the fights, he was showing up at events and blowing a gasket at this atrocious new sport that would certainly become the catalyst for the fall of Western civilization. Calling it a violent and barbaric sport that was run by a bunch of yahoos, Neil thinks that it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt or killed doing this.
Now, this is just my opinion, but I generally believe that if you don't like the job description, then you shouldn't apply for the job. Having an athletic commissioner who hates the sport that he is appointed to regulate is like having a prison guard on death row that has an issue with capital punishment. Oh yeah, he also doesn't know anything about the sport.
As we gathered together before the meeting, we saw the commission enter the hallway, shadowed by several senators and public officials. Also in tow was a television. I couldn't wait to see what sort of nostalgic "Faces of Death" type of fight club footage we were going to be exposed to. Suddenly, I felt a spike of uncertainty run down my spine. What the hell are we getting into? Even after asking the commissioner directly, we were left in the dark about this emergency "meeting" that was almost flown in under the radar.
We were taken all the way up to the third floor of the main chamber, past large offices and heavily curtained balconies that looked as if John Wilkes Booth was going to pop out from behind at any given moment. Finally, we reached a committee boardroom and were seated around a large oval table. After a brief introduction, we dispensed with the pleasantries and got down to business.
The Mysterious Movie
The bill that was brought before us was an amendment to the current statute that would deregulate the professional side of the sport. With no ties to the sport, the state believed that in the event that someone is "seriously hurt or killed doing this" they would have washed its hands of all liability. We started off by running down the table, hearing their gripes or concerns over the sport, as well as the resolution in the bill.
The commissioner started off with his mysterious movie, which just ended up being a set of standard MMA matches. No blood, no John Matua seizure-style knockouts, nothing out of the ordinary. As a matter of fact, the fights were fairly entertaining. If it weren't for the fact that he included a boxing match and an amateur MMA bout, I would have thought that he put together a presentation that had a point. He then concluded his opening with a barrage of facts and points that were so one-sided and boxing-friendly that I thought that maybe the television was left on and still playing some old [Sen.] John McCain [R-Ariz.] footage.
The mystery guests of the commission turned out to be the Sioux City chief of police and the sergeant of the vice unit. They have been continually bothered by a less-than-stellar event in their city that shockingly reminds me of the very events that I started promoting to prevent. Drunken fighters, no weight classes, no medical staff, no rules. Although tragic, and a definite black eye to the sport, this was completely pointless in regard to the bill that was currently on the table.
We only made it halfway around the room before someone brought up the point that every complaint and problem that the state was facing was due to unregulated, amateur events. There is no problem with the professional events, and there is a track record to prove it. So why would you want to deregulate the sport altogether and only add fuel to the fire?
I admit that there is a definite problem with unregulated events, and I will do everything in my power to stop anything that is going to jeopardize the progression of the sport. Unfortunately, this bill happens to be one of them.
By the time that the line got to me, the point was pretty well driven. This bill was not going to solve the problem. I reiterated the points that were brought up by my peers and drove them home with my usual rants and quick-witted analogies. I made it my issue that we didn't need to draft new laws or abolish the old; we just need to enforce the ones that we already have.
I also left them with a few of the latest issues of Grappling so that they could further educate themselves on the sport before trying to change anything involved with it.
Cooking His Next Plot
All in all, it was a good experience. The committee was open to our suggestions, and I was impressed that they were interested in hearing our side of the issue as well. No vote was made, and the bill failed to leave the boardroom.
We stayed late and spoke to several of the senators (one whose son is actually my light-heavyweight champion's coach!), as well as the Sioux City officers. We all agreed that we needed to work together to solve the problems that the state was facing, and I agreed to help out in any way that I could.
The commissioner, however, looked as if we had a personal vendetta against him and his cause, and he scurried away, back to the drawing board to cook up his next plot to rid the world of this uncivilized "sport."
Just a thought, but maybe he should take some time to further educate himself on the sport instead.
Show comments (1) - Add comments to this article: |
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Jay,
When was this meeting held, as I being the obvious promoter from S.City and you attending my event, know that the views or statements regarding the S.City events are far from the truth, and those kind of events have not been held in S.City since the Chad Mason days more then 5+ years previous. Just Curious,
Thanks
TRI-STATE CAGE FIGHTING PROMOTER - DAN LEWIS Posted by Dan Lewis, on April 27, 2008 at 23:51 | 1
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