Alabama bullish on MMA

Alabama to grapple for cage fighting dollars

Cage fighting is about to get a boost from Alabama’s legislature, legitimizing the fast-growing sport in the state and opening the door for millions in tourism dollars for big-ticket events, supporters say.

The house and senate are nearing approval of the final version of a bill that would regulate mixed martial arts in the state and change the newly created Alabama Boxing Commission to the Alabama Athletic Commission, said Casey Sears, boxing commissioner.

The legislation will protect professional and amateur fighters in the controversial sport and regulate events to ensure fairness.

But it also is likely to attract tens-of-thousands of people to marquee shows held at larger state venues and ramp up attendance at club fights already happening in local communities – unregulated – throughout the state, said Sears.

It is wildly popular here, he said of one of the nation’s fastest growing sports. Mixed martial arts combines boxing, wrestling, karate, judo and more and its regulation has been approved by most states in the nation with an athletic commission, with the exception of Alabama, New York, West Virginia, Vermont and Connecticut.

One of the sport’s largest promoters, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has had a full-time lobbyist working in Alabama to help move the legislation through.

We look at television ratings and pay-per-view buys and there’s a lot of interest in the sport in Alabama, on a per capita basis, said Marc Ratner, vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs for the UFC. We’ve had interest from Birmingham, even from Mobile. We know in the future there will be a day when we do come there and it’ll probably be next year.

UFC fights can attract thousands, said Ratner, who is the former boxing commissioner in Nevada. He said UFC will hold its first fight in New Jersey at the end of March. After tickets went on sale five weeks ago, more than 13,000 tickets were sold for gross receipts of $3 million. And UFC shows bring fighters, trainers, production and other staff to town, filling nearly 600 hotel rooms for at least three nights.

While UFC events come to certain towns once or twice a year, smaller mixed martial arts fights are held more frequently and can bring in just as many dollars, said Bernie Profato, executive director of the Ohio Athletic Commission.

Mixed martial arts were sanctioned in Ohio in 2005 and four events were held that year. Last year, the state held 145 mixed martial arts shows, he said.

Profato said mixed martial arts is gaining steam ahead of boxing in most areas of the country, as people begin to grasp the concept and understand the need for regulations of the often controversial sport.

MMA is successful because it learned from boxing’s mistakes, which created too many weight divisions and too many championships, he said. If you lose at boxing, it’s the end of the world. In MMA, losing means you just didn’t have it that night. It’s like a chess game.

And the long-term effects on the fighters aren’t as severe in mixed martial arts, he said.

Birmingham’s Gene Hallman, president of Bruno Event Team, said the Magic City has the potential for more opportunities in mixed martial arts than in boxing, because its talent pool is deeper.

And Birmingham’s lack of a professional sports team bodes well for events looking to come here.

As a result, when things like this come to town, the discretionary dollar is freer here than in other areas that do have professional sports teams, said Hallman. Birmingham is a great event town. With the Fed Cup and Indy Racing coming to town, I don’t see why special events like MMA wouldn’t do well.

Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, agreed the regulated fights would be an economic boon for the state. As sponsor of the Senate bill, he said adding mixed martial arts was a natural progression from passing the boxing bill last year.

I had talked with some senators that had gone to Memphis and said there were about 15,000 people crammed into the coliseum there, he said. These events are well attended and being regulated, we feel, is a better way to go.

Under the regulations, fighters will be required to have a license, said Alabama’s Sears. The license number will be kept in a database that tracks a fighter’s history, including medical history, suspensions, previous fights and other pertinent data to ensure safety within the sport.

Sears said the state is currently finalizing regulations for boxing and once Gov. Bob Riley signs the bill, the commission will finalize the regulations for mixed martial arts, using other states as a template and ushering in an opportunity for professional and amateur fight promoters to begin holding events.

The regulations will help promoters and fighters realize the state has legitimate intentions toward the sport, hurt by underground and back yard fights between unlicensed fighters in clubs and shows throughout the state.

We will be working as collaboratively as we can with promoters of MMA so they can participate in something that everyone will want to attend, he said.

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