Last year New York became the last state or province in North America to allow mixed martial arts. Only in September of 2016 was the New York State Athletic Commission able to fully regulate events. And on November 12 the UFC held one of their greatest events ever, selling out Madison Square Garden for UFC 205. Regulation is like anything in life – it takes time to achieve excellence. UFC 205 was a little like a world-class wrestler being told he had to fight Demetrious Johnson, in December.
UFC 205 went off well, although a wrong result was announced for Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson. However, the commission has had several other gaffes since that earned unkind MMA media attention.
Multiple post bell strikes were landed on Holly Holm by Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208. And at UFC 210 the main event, co-main, and third-from-final fight each suffered regulatory failures. Pearl Gonzalez was removed and then reinstated from a fight with Cynthia Calvillo over breast implants. Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman suffered a confused finish. And Daniel Cormier used an ancient high school wrestling trick to make weight.
After Cormier’s shenanigans, the NYSAC altered their weigh-in policy. And after the controversial Mousasi vs. Weidman ending, the NYSAC approved instant replay. Now in remarkably good news Kim Sumbler has been appointed as the new NYSAC executive director.
In a characteristically candid interview with Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting, Sumbler acknowledged past issues and vowed to improve. You can believe her.
It was a trial by fire, said Sumbler. “We got thrown into the pit of snakes. We had the spotlight on us. We had every eyeball in this whole community on us. We were the last state to regulate. Every eyeball was on us, waiting for us to slip up. Yeah, that was really hard to take. But again, I have to go back and say, they weren’t wrong. A lot of these criticisms — the people who criticized us — weren’t wrong. So there’s nothing wrong with speaking your mind.
I’m willing to take the criticism. I’ve got some pretty heavy shoulders and I’m willing to take it. I’m willing to listen. I want people to realize this athletic commission now and this staff right now is really a good staff. We’re a staff that looks at what’s going on, we look at it realistically. We’re not an authoritative powerhouse. That’s not our philosophy any longer. We look at things realistically, we look at what the community wants and needs, we look at what’s right for the fighter and we make our decisions based on that — criticisms or not.
I believe that every criticism is an opportunity for us to review what we’re doing. If we’re not doing something or we could be doing something different that makes it better, then yeah. You know what, I think criticisms, as much as they hurt sometimes and as much as it’s a slap in the face, I think criticisms are a great opportunity for us to learn from.
Those fans who want to hate New York, I want to make them fans of New York. I want them to gain confidence in us. We have not done everything right. We’ve done everything the best way we know how and we did what we thought was best. We realize that we made mistakes along the way. But what that means to me is as we continue to grow and as we move towards the future, things can only get better.
Sumbler moving up from running MMA to executive director is not the sole change. Former interim executive director Tony Giardina, former boxing program director Eric Bentley, and former commission chairperson Ndidi Massay have all moved on. Matt Delaglio has replaced Bentley as boxing director, with Sumbler maintaining the role for MMA. And legal counsel Ryan Sakacs has taken on a more influential role. Two commission spots and the chairpersonship remain unappointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but Sumbler hopes to have those filled by 2018.
You can believe her.
