Editorial: Looking for a fight

One of the best-known businesses in Las Vegas is in for a fight, courtesy of an Oklahoma lawmaker.

Rep. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, wants federal bureaucrats to get involved in mixed-martial arts, potentially choking the Ultimate Fighting Championship with unnecessary red tape. He has proposed that Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, passed in 2000 to clean up boxing, now be expanded to cover the thriving world of MMA.

The legislation, pushed along by trial attorneys and union leaders, could harm the UFC’s product and growth without doing anything to benefit MMA fighters or improve the sport for fans.

In fact, MMA is already tightly regulated by state athletic commissions in addition to international federations. Because of those rules, as well as the UFC’s internal business structure and the market, the organization isn’t hampered by the promoter con men the Ali Act was intended to protect against.

Rep. Mullin, a former MMA fighter, believes the current relationship between promoters and fighters is unfair to those who compete in the ring. He seeks to change that equation through federal intervention, which could potentially have wide-ranging ramifications for the sport, touching everything from octagon matchups to ranking systems to TV contracts.

It’s unclear how this would benefit UFC fighters, however. Not only do they already receive health insurance and accident insurance, they are currently subjected to what may be the most stringent anti-doping and concussion policies in all of professional sports.

Arizona Sen. John McCain recently indicated that for safety reasons he would support Rep. Mullin’s plan to burden the MMA community with the Ali Act. That’s not surprising, given that Sen. McCain was a vocal advocate for federal oversight of boxing.

But the UFC has been out front virtually every step of the way when it comes to participant safety. And MMA is in no way falling victim to the cesspool of exploitation and corruption that crippled the once-proud sport of boxing.

Federal regulation of MMA promotions or events represents a solution in search of a problem. While several of UFC’s smaller competitors would no doubt love to see the organization wounded by government intervention, that’s hardly reason to disrupt a healthy, vibrant enterprise with a growing and loyal fan base.

The country has real issues that cry out for congressional attention. Mixed martial arts isn’t one of them.