More oversight urge for amateur ultimate fighting in Iowa

DES MOINES - Iowa's boxing commissioner is asking the Legislature to authorize him to regulate amateur ultimate fighting matches that one lawmaker said are akin to the “wild West.”

David Neil, who doubles as Iowa's commissioner for both boxing and labor issues, said recent situations in Shenandoah and Waterloo where mixed martial arts combatants were injured have convinced him that state oversight is needed for amateur bouts.

Iowa licenses and regulates professional boxing and professional MMA events held in the state, but it allows a well-established association to oversee amateur boxing, Neil said. However, there is no such organized Iowa group to provide the same structure for mixed martial arts matches.

“There is no regulation of amateur at all,” he said, which means some fighters are underage or have not been tested for hepatitis or HIV/AIDS, and they compete in bouts where the officiating and medical personnel may not be up to standards the state would prefer to see.

“Right now, the way this is, the amateur stuff is more wild West out there than anything. There's no regulation at all,” said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, chairman of a Senate subcommittee working on Senate Study Bill 3192.

Neil said his office now requires a $5,000 surety bond for professional MMA events that seek a state license, along with medical records and the names of fighters under contract, the supervising doctor and the sanctioned referee. Neil or one of his deputies attends the event, and promoters pay the state 5 percent of the gate to cover costs.

The commissioner proposes a similar structure for amateur MMA matches and events.

Iowa law sets an age requirement of 18 for boxers, but the proposed legislation would require that MMA contestants be at least 21 years of age and provide proof.

“You're not as willing to waste your brain cells at 21 as you are at 18,” said Sen. Dick Dearden, D-Des Moines, who called the proposed changes “just common sense.”