MMA show in Australia shut down over safety concerns

Autralia’s Brace MMA has seen their 53rd show, at the AIS Arena in Canberra, canceled by the regional government authority – The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Combat Sports Commission. Caden Helmers has the story for the Brisbane Times.

The decision was based on “the need to prioritize the safety of all competitors,” explained a rep. However, “if Brace MMA can meet the legislated requirements for the rescheduling of this event or for future events, there is no reason why Canberra cannot remain an event location for the promotion.”

Light heavyweight Duke Didier was supposed to have defended his belt vs. Jacob Malkoun. His coach, UFC middleweight Daniel Kelly, was to have cornered at the event, and expressed his frustration via the social network.

“The blame lays squarely on Brace and you should be paid,” wrote Kelly to Didier.

Brace released an official statement.

“After setting up the event arena on Friday and as we were in the process of conducting the weigh-in we were notified via phone that the ACT Combat board (ACT government) was not permitting the event to proceed,” it read.
“Brace had already applied for permits well in advance and had the sanctioning body approval. We will be receiving a full report on Monday 7th of May from the ACT government as to the reasons. The only limited information we have at this stage is that some of the fighters’ registration status was not completed.

“ACT Combat board is new to governing MMA within the territory and we can only hope situations like this for all events are handled differently moving forward. After 10 years of events across nine cities, four states and two countries we have never had an event canceled from a governing body.

“It is not the norm, in fact we have never heard of this happening for the little limited reasons given, we have however had at almost every fight event had fights removed from the card due to incomplete fighter registrations (this happens at nearly every show we have staged) and is something we are used to. We can say we were very ready to proceed with this event on Saturday, the Arena was ready, the AIS and Brace were set for action.”

A government spokesperson responded, citing, “a number of medical clearances and other technical requirements under the Boxing Control Act were not met.”

The Brace organization is now begun a process to, “refund all tickets in full.” It is the second time in under three months Brace canceled a show in Canberra; an event scheduled for March 3 was postponed due to a co-main event competitor failing a medical requirement, and others withdrawing.

“I traveled interstate for it,’ wrote fan Nicole Ferguson. “Took two days off work, pulled kids out of school, and paid for two nights accommodation. Not doing that again. Second time postponed is enough for me.”