Amateur MMA bouts get state regulators’ attention

Pastor T.J. O’Donnell thought that by offering mixed martial arts training, he had found a sure way to lure young people away from vice and direct them toward the word of God.

He didn’t expect to encounter the long arm of the California State Athletic Commission.

O’Donnell rented out the second floor of a San Bernardino carpet store where volunteers at his 777 Ministry taught aspiring fighters jiu-jitsu, karate, wrestling and boxing. He then announced plans for the 40 members of his young flock to fight in his church’s first MMA event.

“It’s like when a church threw rock concerts to reach the young people,” said O’Donnell, 35, a former tattoo artist who praises God for helping him reform after shooting a man with a .22 revolver in 1994. “Only now, MMA’s the thing.”

But state investigators were tipped off about fliers advertising the unlicensed amateur fights -- known as “smokers” -- and issued the pastor a cease-and-desist order last month.

The commission has shut down at least two dozen similar events in the last year, saying fighters’ health was in danger because there are no rules regulating amateurs in the popular combat sport.

“It’s a huge problem,” said the commission’s executive director, Armando Garcia, whose investigative team closed down a Whittier smoker this month. “At this rate, we’re expecting to shut down 50 more shows by the end of this year.”

On Thursday, Garcia plans to propose rules calling for athletic commission staff to supervise all amateur MMA events.

“I’m asking these organizers, ‘How do you know this guy you’re putting in the fight doesn’t have hepatitis or HIV?’ ” Garcia said. “And, ‘If a guy breaks his arm or leg, where will you take him?’ ”

The commission and other state officials must approve the rules, which could take three to six months. Critics of state control say the wide popularity of MMA will result in hundreds of annual events that state officials can’t adequately staff.

Professional MMA has gained official sanction in 32 states, including California, in the last 10 years. Pay-per-view telecasts have made stars out of Ultimate Fighting Championship competitors such as Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Randy “The Natural” Couture, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz.

“It’s the new Super Bowl,” said Dawn Shanahan, 23, who has trained with O’Donnell’s ministry.

But O’Donnell and others agree that the amateur MMA scene is plagued by safety neglect, and that some state action is necessary.

Rebecca Alvarez, a retired state athletic commission staff service analyst and inspector from 1993 to 2007, said Garcia “doesn’t like MMA,” and that he avoided amateur regulation for too long.

“He’s been aware of ‘smokers’ going on on weekends,” Alvarez said. “It wasn’t talked about, other than, ‘We’ll deal with it later.’ But when I hear it’s not being regulated as closely as it is with the professionals, I worry.”

Garcia disagrees, saying he moved swiftly following his June 2005 appointment to finalize rules for professional MMA, and now supervises more than 180 shows per year.

“There’s been no foot-dragging; things have happened fast with this sport,” Garcia said. “Even before we started shutting down illegal events, I had to find out the rules, the parameters of my authority. It takes time. Now that we’ve learned more about combat sports, we’ll give the amateurs the opportunity they deserve to fight legally.”

Some states have already responded. Nevada will stage its first amateur MMA card April 12 at the Tropicana Hotel. The state charges promoters a $500 annual license fee and a 4% gate tax if the organization is a nonprofit. Matchmaking, officiating and safety equipment is handled at the promoter’s discretion in Nevada, but ringside doctors and ambulances on site are required.

Garcia said he hasn’t compiled injury statistics from amateur MMA fighting in the state, but people in the sport say abuses abound.

O’Donnell said he has witnessed mismatches set up by unscrupulous organizers who seek to boost their talented fighters’ confidence by pitting them against youngsters tasting combat for the first time. Fighters with unbalanced weights also are matched.

“Nobody knows whose background is what,” O’Donnell said.

Mike Fallon, an aspiring pro who helps train O’Donnell’s fighters, said torn ligaments and dislocated knees and shoulders are commonplace. Typically, Fallon said, the closest thing to a ringside doctor is “a guy who’s first-aid-certified and knows CPR.”

“In Irvine a few years ago, I saw a guy knocked out for about 30 minutes from an illegal kick, with no paramedics or first aid given until an ambulance arrived,” said Fallon, 28, of Redlands. “ . . . I want to be legitimate in what I do, but in order for me to get the experience, I either have to go get the underground fights and take my chances, or turn pro” and lose decisively.

Popularized mostly by the Las Vegas-based UFC, MMA features fighters trained in various disciplines, including muay thai, grappling and kick-boxing, battling inside an octagonal metal enclosure.

“This sport needs one national amateur body, like they have in boxing,” said Marc Ratner, the head of UFC’s governmental relations and former head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. “We want to support this sport at its grass-roots level, and we’re very much aware of the interest we’ve started and the fact these [amateur fighters] need a place to go.”

The closest thing to an MMA minor leagues is a reality series known as “Ultimate Fighter” on Spike TV that awards a UFC contract to a usually young pro fighter who survives a tournament.

“When they first allowed pro MMA fighting here, we asked, ‘How can you have that without an amateur program to support it?’ ” said Steve Fossum, president of the International Battle League, an amateur MMA group. “The commission has been blindsided, they didn’t expect to have so much action.”

Juanito Ibarra, a veteran MMA trainer who currently trains Irvine’s UFC light-heavyweight champion “Rampage” Jackson, said he has spent six years developing U.S. Amateur MMA, a proposed nonprofit entity similar to USA Boxing -- with an ultimate goal to make MMA an Olympic sport.

He’s submitted the proposal to the California commission but has yet to hear a response.

Ibarra contends the state “doesn’t have the manpower” to supervise what he projects will be “one to two fights in every gym in California every week.”

“Thousands of kids are already out there. If the kids find out there’s an official amateur level, it’ll go rampant in California,” Ibarra said. “But right now, I feel like we’ve been pushed away, and you’re left to hope the people running the amateur fights are following the rules.”

Tony Monk, 28, from San Bernardino, says he’s proof they are not.

Monk said he was told recently he’d be facing a 6-foot, 190-pound opponent with just two amateur fights, and who hadn’t fought in at least two years. Monk was knocked out by a right hook less than 40 seconds into the Riverside smoker, then discovered his foe was actually 205 pounds and boasted afterward that his record had improved to 20-4.

“We try to keep it safe in here, to teach technique,” O’Donnell, the pastor, said after watching Monk, without headgear, get belted in the head by a right. “This is a combat sport. The problem you get in other gyms is that they’re not thinking about keeping it safe first. Too many have a macho attitude.”

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lance.pugmire@latimes.com