The Savage Truth: Association of Boxing Commissions’ High Drama

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.*** Tuesday’s session at the Association of Boxing Commissions’ annual convention was surreal at best and chaotic at worst. A committee of regulators, fighters and referees put in hours and hours of work to come up with a list of modifications to the Unified Rules of MMA and those proposals were whittled down to a smaller set of changes by the medical advisory committee, comprised of some of the top ringside physicians in the country. These changes were set to be voted on Tuesday in Las Vegas. It seemed like a simple task but if I’ve learned anything over the last seven years I’ve been attending the ABC’s annual conference, it’s that whenever you get a bunch of regulators in one room, be prepared for the unexpected. When the voting members were asked if they were ready to call for a motion, California’s Executive Officer Andy Foster asked for a 10-minute recess. Apparently, there was some confusion about the language in the scoring criteria and some members believed including the word “damage” in scoring criteria was politically divisive. New Jersey State Athletic Control Board counsel Nick Lembo, who was not in attendance, had issued a statement by email earlier in the day, opposing several particular proposed rule changes, notably the allowance of heel kicks to the kidneys and the changes to the definition of a grounded fighter. Lembo also raised the same concerns about using “damage” in the updated scoring criteria that was packaged with the rule changes. Lembo’s absence, along with other longtime ABC stalwarts Tim Lueckenhoff of Missouri and Bernie Profato of Ohio, was stunning to me. I’ve been attending this meeting since 2009 and they were the most vocal leaders of this group over that period of time. Crazier and more shocking than that is the fact that they both seem to be integral parts of a new organization, formed in direct competition to the ABC. Just a little background here before we move on: Lueckenhoff was the president of the Association of Boxing Commissions for 14 years before being forced out due to a new bylaw that mandated term limits for ABC officers. …

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