Combat Sports Law

Last year the Colorado Office of Combative Sports made headlines by amending their rules to clear the way for alternate MMA rulesets including the loved by many “Pride Rules” that promotions like ONE Championship use overseas. Colorado also became the first US State to hand out a Therapeutic Use Exemption for in competition cannabis use … More Colorado Proposes Removing Cannabis From Banned List, Adding Up to 5 Judges and Other Combat Sports Reforms

The dangers of rapid extreme weight cutting in combat sports are well documented. Kidney failure, heart attacks and even deaths are attributed to the practices. Regulatory responses to date have been inconsistent and have failed to meaningfully weed out the well entrenched practices. This week a regulator used their power to suspend a fighter who … More Fighter Suspended For Extreme Rapid Weight Cutting

Dr. Nitkin Sethi, a respected ringside physician and neurologist in New York, wrote an interesting letter to the Journal Neurology discussing MRI findings that are often minimized by radiologists but could be concerning for combat sports athletes. When your physician orders an MRI they often don’t see the raw data generated. Instead this is reviewed … More Brain Injury Slipping Through The Cracks For Fighters?

Transparency in pay is a fundamental feature empowering fighters to better understand their value and have informed negotiations with promoters. Knowledge is power. A troubling trend, however, is an increasing number of jurisdictions cloaking prizefighting pay in secrecy keeping fighters in the dark as to what others are earning. Arizona appears to be the latest … More Arizona Latest State To Go Dark On Fighter Pay

While Jake Paul talking trash about Dana White and the UFC pay structure brings a lot of entertainment (and headlines) in the background the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association have been fighting legal and political battles for improvement for over a decade. These battles have quietly but surely yielded positive results. The MMAFA is the … More MMAFA Highlight Hard Fought Successes For Fighters

A paper was published in the latest edition of the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine discussing recommended blood pressure thresholds for clearing combat sports athletes for competition. The full article, titled Pre-bout hypertension in the combat sports athlete: clearance recommendations, can be found here. After discussing the risks of athletes competing with elevated blood pressure … More Ringside Physicians Discuss Safe Pre Bout Blood Pressure Metrics for Fighters

The marathon Covid-19 pandemic has seen no shortage of government orders intruding on the liberties of normal life. The vast majority of these are lawful and within the power of government. That said governments can go too far and recent arbitrary rules for which athletes can and cannot go to the gym in Ontario may … More “Arbitrary” Ontario Gym Closures Vulnerable to Legal Challenge?