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Overseeing combative sports

Published (3/21/2008)
By Brian Hogenson
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The Minnesota Boxing Commission is on the verge of receiving a makeover.

HF3913, sponsored by Rep. Bob Gunther (R-Fairmont), would change the name of the commission to the Minnesota Combative Sports Commission in order to better represent its scope, which would be expanded to include jurisdiction over mixed martial arts competitions, in addition to boxing.

The bill was approved March 19 by the House Governmental Operations, Reform, Technology and Elections Committee and sent to the House floor.

Gunther said that the state has a moral obligation to make sure that fights are fair, safe and that the combatants are healthy.

Gunther and Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Mpls) competed in a verbal sparring match when Kahn asked why General Fund resources should be used for a commission to regulate a sport where the primary purpose of the combatants is to injure the brain of another person.

Noting the importance of the commission in “protecting David from Goliath” by ensuring that fights are fair, Gunther said he did not know if injuring the brain of another person was the primary principle of boxing, but said it was an effect of the sport.

“Isn’t that what a knockout is?” Kahn responded.

The commission was created in the 2006 to protect the health and safety of professional boxers, and to ensure the fairness of boxing events. It is a re-creation of the old Boxing Board, which had its funding discontinued in 2001.

The commission received a onetime $50,000 appropriation for Fiscal Year 2007, with the intention that the commission be self-supporting by appropriating all license fees and event revenues to the commission.

Rep. Laura Brod (R-New Prague) said the bill discriminates against ultimate fighting competitions.

“The majority of the people we’ve been before think ultimate fighting is a brutal sport and they would just as well not have it in Minnesota,” Gunther said. “However, if they can fulfill all the requirements in the bill, they can have a fighting venue.”

A companion bill, SF3685, sponsored by Sen. David Tomassoni (DFL-Chisholm), awaits action by the Senate Finance Committee.

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