AB 438

Under current law, the Department of Regulation and Licensing (department)

regulates boxing contests conducted in the state. No club may conduct a professional

boxing contest without a license from the department. Currently, only clubs that are

incorporated under the laws of this state and whose members have been residents

of this state for at least one year are eligible for licensure. An applicant for licensure

must pay an annual fee from $25 to $300, depending on the size of the city, village,

or town in which the contest is held and the price of admission.

Current law also authorizes the department to license matchmakers,

managers, referees, examining physicians, and boxers in professional boxing

contests. A department-appointed inspector must be present at all professional

boxing contests to see that the rules are strictly observed. A licensee authorized to

conduct a professional boxing contest must insure each contestant for hospital,

nursing, and medication expenses and physician's services according to an equitable

fee schedule. The department is required to ban a contestant who participates in a

sham or fake professional boxing contest or violates any department rule, and is

authorized to require the contestant to forfeit the purse for the contest.

Also under current law, an amateur boxing contest (defined as a contest in

which none of the contestants are compensated for participating) may be conducted

in this state only if the contest is sanctioned by, and conducted under the rules of, the

national governing body for amateur boxing.

This bill generally authorizes the department to regulate amateur and

professional mixed martial arts fighting contests on the same terms as professional

boxing contests, and to license promoters of boxing and mixed martial arts fighting

contests on the same terms as clubs. The bill deletes the requirements that

applicants for licensure be incorporated under the laws of this state and comprise

only members who are residents of this state. The bill changes the license

application fee to $200, or $500 in a city of more than 150,000 inhabitants, and

changes the penalty for sham or fake contests to a forfeiture not to exceed $500. Fifty

percent of forfeitures collected by the department are appropriated to the

department for enforcement.

The bill also imposes a number of requirements on mixed martial arts fighting

contests, including the following: A contestant in an amateur mixed martial arts

fighting contest must be able to provide evidence that he or she is covered by

adequate health insurance. No mixed martial arts fighting contest may be conducted

without at least one licensed referee and at least four licensed judges. Contestants

must be examined by a physician immediately before and after each match, and a

physician and ambulance must be present during each match. The bill requires the

department to promulgate rules for mixed martial arts fighting contests

establishing: 1) qualifications for licensure of referees and judges; 2) requirements

for regular health examinations for contestants; and 3) policies prohibiting the use