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On Wednesday, January 14th, Illinois Governor Rod
Blagojevich banned "Toughman" events. Along with it, the
State of Illinois is cracking down on other fighting events as well, including
Kickboxing and MMA/NHB (Ultimate fighting style events). The
State Department of Professional Regulation closed legal loopholes that have
permitted Toughman bouts in Illinois in the past. In the past, Toughman's claim
that it was a kickboxing event in Illinois exempted it from the state's boxing
act. No longer. The new Illinois rules strengthen the previous definitions in
the Boxing Act that had previously allowed promoters of "Toughman"
events to mask their events and advertise them as "kickboxing"
events. Officials said Toughman organizers got away with the "kickboxing"
loophole but now the competitions are subject to the standards of professional
boxing, including strict weight classes and medical safeguards. Violators face
stiff fines and criminal charges. State inspectors say that many of the
participants lack fight training, the referees are unlicensed, or at the very
least...lax. Toughman and other amateur competitions must now ensure that the
promoter, all the fighters, referees and ringside doctors are properly licensed
by the state before the event can go forward.
The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation effectively
halted the matches through emergency rule changes to the state's boxing law. The
new law also says that Promoters and participants of MMA/NHB (Ultimate
fighting style events) must now follow the same rules as professional
boxing. When you look at the toughman weightclasses, one needs to wonder, "HOW"
did they get away with such massive weight spreads: Light Heavyweight: 160 -184
Lbs., Heavyweight: 185 - 400 Lbs. With an entree fee as high as $62.50, toughman
had a pretty good profit margin.
Last year Toughman came into the
headlines here at the IKF
because of owner Art Dores' "Insulting" attempt to
legalize his events by calling them "Kickboxing!"
Toughman pits amateur fighters against each other in a bid to
be called the toughest in a community. Toughman drew attention last June when a
30-year-old Florida woman was coaxed into fighting an experienced woman boxer
and suffered fatal injuries. Jodie Meyers, the sister of Stacy
Young, who died in such a fight in Sarasota, Florida last year, and Meyers'
husband
Donald joined Illinois Professional Regulation Director Fernando
Grillo in announcing the change. The Meyerses have become activists
in getting states to prohibit the fights. Illinois is the 14th. "These
competitions amount to organized street fights," Grillo said. "The
participants lack training, the rules are loose -- at best -- and the outcomes
are often seriously damaging, if not deadly."
During the last 17 months, four fighters have died after
suffering injuries in Toughman bouts around the country. In Texas, where the
fights looked like they would survive a big political battle, the state has not
banned them, but has made them practically impossible to continue due to their
new state regulations. In an article in the Dallas Morning News a story
showed how the "pro Toughman" forces rolled in some big political guns
to try to save the fights. Even Dore's home state of Michigan has
imposed tough new restrictions on Toughman.
The Saginaw News reported: "Michigan officials
had issued a cease-and-desist order to stop Toughman events unless Dore
could provide unlimited health insurance for his fighters. Facing a court battle
with the state, Dore agreed to insure each of his fighters for $2
million, and a previous ruling requires that Dore get rid of a section
of his pre-fight waivers that asks that fighters pledge never to make any
insurance claims. The agreement kept Toughman critics in the Legislature from
banning the events entirely, said state Rep. John Stewart, a Plymouth
Republican who called the fights "repulsive."
With the ruling, Illinois became the 14th state to ban Toughman
fights and will certainly not be the last. The ban on MMA/NHB will not be
isolated to Illinois either. Other states are also looking to close down not
just toughman but mixed martial arts and kickboxing unless the events
are regulated and sanctioned by a legit sanctioning body for the sport like the
IKF
(Kickboxing) or
ISCF.
(Mixed Martial Arts).
"The one to thank here is
IKF
Promoter Rob Zbilski (R) ." says IKF/ISCF President Steve Fossum. "It
was Rob who went to the state to assure IKF
events could still take place in Illinois." Zbilski's work was
followed up by IKF Promoter
Ryan Blackorby (Right) of Peoria, Illinois who also had
discussions with the state about his events. Both Zbilski and Blackorby's
efforts were followed up by IKF/ISCF Promoter
Jesse Finney (R) of St. Louis Missouri who also does some
IKF
events in Illinois. Finney has invited the state to sit ringside at his
upcoming IKF
Illinois show. "If not for the efforts of Rob and the
followed efforts of Ryan and Jesse, we all would be wondering
right now, when will kickboxing be allowed in Illinois again?"
finished Fossum.
Several states across the nation have become quite friendly
with the IKF
and ISCF
over the past several weeks. The topic has been in regards to placing the IKF
and ISCF
as the lone regulation for MMA/NHB and Kickboxing in their states. Many more
states may end up working with the ISCF because the
ISCF
is the "ONLY" Sanctioning body for mixed martial arts in the
world. Others are promotional "Companies" who have their own
rules, regulations and champions. already ISCF is exclusive in the states of Georgia,
Missouri and Kansas and close behind are Iowa, Nebraska and hopefully Illinois.
Colorado is considering a ban of toughman and also taking a
much closer look at MMA events as well while Washington state has legislation
pending to ban toughman completely. Toughman events are still being held in
Washington, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Last year, the American College
of Sports Medicine urged lawmakers to demand better safety standards for the
no-holds-barred events or ban them completely.
Chad Mason. Back In Our News!
Toughman's
Art Dore wasn't the only one causing problems in the "Fight
Arena". There have been "SEVERAL" MMA (Mixed Martial
Arts, Ultimate Fighting etc.) Promoters out there that have held events in
bars and pulled people from the crowds to fight in them. The IKF
tracked down one of these individuals last year named Chad Mason. Mason had been telling everyone his events were
sanctioned by the IKF or the ISCF to avoid problems with such laws. Just this
week the IKF/ISCF
was informed that Mason
was up to his old tricks again in Iowa where he had started hosting his new "Fight
Club" event this past January 7th, of what was to be a continuous
weekly event at a Bar called
Vieux Carre Night Club. However a call to the
Vieux Carre Night Club. and they informed us
that Mason was no longer welcomed there or allowed to do his events
there. Mason has been making claims that his events there on a Wednesday
night would bring in as many as 1000 people but according to
Vieux Carre Night Club the numbers were no where
close to that.
The
Vieux Carre Night Club stated reasons such as
Mason's
procedures of picking people (Men "AND" Women) out of the
crowd to fight. Not just fight anybody, but fight some of
Mason's
experienced fighters in which the bouts were completely one sided and
dangerous. Although Iowa law prohibits amateur fighters from being paid, its
common knowledge among the MMA/NHB crowd that Mason has paid fighters in the past which in
reality, makes them pros.
Currently Mason
is back at his old venue, Toad Holler and according to those we spoke to, "Pulling
intoxicated individuals out of the crowd and throwing them into his ring to
fight is still happening." As far as the majority of the MMA/NHB crowd
is concerned, promoters like Mason
and Art Dore are the very ones that are causing all the bans, not to
mention the recent changes in everyone's insurance rates. (See article
earlier this month) From what we discovered, Mason has not cleaned up his act at all. At the
Vieux Carre Night Club he had a young girl
fighter lie about her age and tell everyone she was 18 instead of the 15 or 16
she was. Mason
had her fight an intoxicated girl from the crowd with no fighting experience at
all (As many of the fighters coming from the crowd are).
Mason's "Ringer"
girl we discovered had extensive martial arts experience and hurt her opponent
real bad in their bout which included kicking the inexperienced girl in the head
when she was on her hands and knees.
Due to Mason's
recent actions here in January, 2004, the states of Iowa and Nebraska are
swiftly moving to now ban MMA/NHB completely. Hopefully the
ISCF
will be able to step in and assist in some way. One things for sure, Promoters
like Mason and Dore will definitely not be on the IKF or
ISCF
Promoters list!
From MMAweekly.com:
Sean Sherk could be the most talented 20-0 guy that your not very
familiar with. Sherk is also a perfect 2-0 in the UFC and is starting to
make waves in the mixed martial arts world. Some people have referred to him as
a Mini Mark Coleman, but it's his powerful frame that opponents have NOT
been able to deal with. Last year, Sherk wrote on MMAweekly.com, "I
am asking the MMA community to permanently ban Chad Mason from
promoting shows. He is taking advantage of a movement yearning to find its legs
and I cannot allow this person to continue his practice of stepping on people
for financial gain. I urge everyone to strongly reconsider any dealings with
this individual. This sport is still a grassroots community, one with a lot of
hope to succeed. It's a shame bad apples have plagued what so many have fought
for so I ask you to do the right thing and shun his unscrupulous practices."
So what was Sherk so upset about? Here's the whole story below.
I remember how proud I felt standing across Matt Hughes
at UFC 42, fighting in the main event on pay-per-view after struggling to make a
name for myself in smaller shows since 1999. I'm a very private person and have
made MMA my full time career—it's in my blood, the subject never drifts far
from my mind.
Today I'm working 15-hour days, holding down two jobs. This is
certainly not where I expected to be after recently proposing to my girlfriend.
When I choose to fight, there is nothing that is going to stop me…until
I met promoter Chad Mason.
In mid-August, Chad (Mason) contacted me about
promoting a fight in my hometown here in Minnesota. After reaching an agreement
with my manager, DeWayne Zinkin, Jr., I spent hours on the Net finding
suitable venues to help him any way possible. I really want the sport to grow,
and despite hearing things about Chad's storied past, I wanted to fight in front
of my hometown fans, friends and family.
After settling on Spikers, a local bar that I had fought at
before, I joined Chad
in meeting with them to cut the deal for November 1st. Originally, I was going
to be on two Chad
Mason cards during the same month. One on the 1st (Minnesota) and one on
the 28th (Iowa). On his word and supposed contract, I turned down other
offers and put everything I had into training and assisting
Chad with the
promotion.
Unbeknownst to anyone, including Spikers,
Chad changed
the first date to November 7th. Spikers called me and read me the riot act, but
I assured them the November 7th date was good as gold and not to worry. Though I
had nothing to do with the promotion outside of fighting, I told
Chad I could
sell tickets and sure enough, I sold over 150 in less than two weeks. My family
and friends were staying at nearby hotels and I was excited about fighting in
front of my hometown crowd.
The Monday before the show, Chad called me and said everything was great and
that he was going to finalize my deal with DeWayne, along with buying
some airtime on a local radio station for advertising. I felt good about the
situation and concentrated on my training, anticipating the inevitable. But as
the days passed, I never heard back from Chad and my manager couldn't reach him.
The day before the show I received a call from someone who said
the show had been cancelled for two weeks. Promoter Monte Cox even
called and said the same thing, as if it had been public knowledge. But how
could this be? I had just spoken with Chad days before the show. After receiving two
more calls relating to the same subject, I tried to reach him but to no avail.
Chad
finally called Thursday evening, admitting the show was canceled. If not for
that call, I would have shown up Friday night with all the people I sold tickets
to, along with my family and closest friends, expecting to see me fight. I would
have looked like an ass.
I told Chad
I needed to be paid for the 12 weeks of training and keeping me off the market
for three months with no fights and no money. He said he would personally come
to Minnesota on Sunday to remedy the money. He never did.
As soon as I got off the phone with Chad that Thursday, I spent the rest of my night
calling everyone I know, and everyone I sold tickets to, telling them the show
was canceled, assuring their money will be paid back. I called Spikers as well
and left a message with the manager telling him the show was canceled and what
happened.
I got a call from Brad Kohler on Friday morning saying
he talked with Spikers; they wanted to meet with me. He told me they were pissed
off and rightly so. Brad went to the meeting to do some damage control.
They blamed me for everything that happened. They said they were out a lot of
money for chair and table rentals and whatever else. Outside of losing money and
other opportunities, I lost face in my own town and that's something I can never
regain.
At the end of the meeting they asked if I would stay and meet
people on the night in question to explain why there was no show. Along with
Brad, I stayed at Spikers for five hours. I spent Friday, Saturday and
Sunday returning people's ticket money. Chad Mason just disappeared and
left me to clean up his mess.
He (Chad Mason) is a coward without a conscience.
Chad
did not answer any of my phone calls or my manager's calls for several days.
When we finally got a hold of him, he kept saying he would pay my show money
which he said I was entitled to for all my work and training.
Chad assured
me he would pay the next day, but tomorrow never came. Of course the November
28th date came and went without a thought. Several fighters lost out on this
opportunity as well.
The last time I talked with Chad was about a week ago. He said he was going
to Western Union to wire the money and would call back 20 minutes later after
everything was sent. He never called back.
I've called 30 times since then; he will not answer his phone.
So for the first time in nearly three years, I'm working full time and unable to
concentrate on training 100%. Every night, no matter how tired I am, I still
train with the same intensity I've always had. My name is mud in my own town,
Chad Mason
contends he is putting on a show (without me against my original opponent)
on December 12th and refuses to acknowledge the people he's hurt in the process.
To boot, the money owed to me was to pay for my wedding on January 24th,
something Chad
knew all along.
"I'm not asking for sympathy, but I am asking the
MMA community to permanently ban Chad
Mason from promoting shows. He is taking advantage of a movement
yearning to find its legs and I cannot allow this person to continue his
practice of stepping on people for financial gain. I urge everyone to strongly
reconsider any dealings with this individual. This sport is still a grassroots
community, one with a lot of hope to succeed. It's a shame bad apples have
plagued what so many have fought for so I ask you to do the right thing and shun
his unscrupulous practices."
Sean Sherk |
