ABC Professional and Amateur MMA Rules Committee
Published by on August 21st, 2008 in Current Events

 Print |  Email |  RSS

Dear Interested Parties:

Re: Association of Boxing Commissions Professional and Amateur MMA Rules
Committee

The deadline to submit your comments to the committee is FAST
APPROACHING. Only one month is left to submit your comments for
consideration by the Committee. The deadline to submit comments for
consideration is September 17, 2008.

Items that will be discussed by the ABC Committee and sub-committees
include, but are not limited to, smothering, standing foot stomps, knees
to the head, striking to the back of the head, weight classes, downward
pointed elbows and amateurs.

We are interested in any comments from any promoters, matchmakers,
managers, seconds, trainers, fighters, officials, media, fans or other
interested parties.
All comments will be passed on to the Committee for their consideration.
Please feel free to submit your comments in writing by September 17,
2008 to:

Nicholas Lembo
State Athletic Control Board
Hughes Justice Complex
PO Box 180
Trenton, NJ 08625

The Association of Boxing Commissions, through its President, Tim
Lueckenhoff, has formed a nine member committee to conduct a thorough
study of the current rule set for professional mixed martial arts to
determine what, if any, justification may exist for amendment to the
Uniform Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. This committee will also recommend
rules for amateur mixed martial arts.

The intent of the ABC and President Lueckenhoff is to find uniformity
and unification so that the rules of MMA are the same in each
jurisdiction in which this growing sport is authorized.

President Lueckenhoff has announced a committee of:

Chairman Nick Lembo, New Jersey
Jim Erickson, North Dakota
Andy Foster, Georgia
Dale Kilparchuk, River Cree
Keith Kizer, Nevada
Armando Garcia, California
Josef Mason, Colorado
Mike Mazzulli, Mohegan Sun
Bernie Profato, Ohio

The Committee members are strongly encouraged to receive input from
their own licensed judges, referees and physicians.

I believe that it is crucial to get input from the fighters. The fighter
sub-committee can assist us in our decisions and findings.Therefore, I
am announcing a fighter committee consisting of:

Ricardo Almeida
Renzo Gracie
Steven Haigh
Jeremy Horn
Matt Hughes
Tara LaRosa
Pat Miletich
BJ Penn

I am also announcing an industry sub-committee consisting of:

Monte Cox
John McCarthy
Lou Neglia
JD Penn
Joe Silva
Marc Ratner
Jared Shaw

The medical sub-committee will be Chaired by Dr. Sherry Wulkan who will
be asked to receive input from other Committee state physicians and Drs.
Mark Belafsky and Michael Kelly of NJ. Dr. Stephen Shogun of Colorado
and Dr. Johnny Benjamin of Florida have already kindly agreed to
participate.

Several members of the mixed martial media arts media have already been
contacted, or will be contacted via this e-mail, and have been
encouraged to provide me with their thoughts and comments to present to
me to share with the Committee. Over 300 others in the industry have
been directly contacted and asked to submit comments. All committee
Commission members have been freely encouraged to get whomever they wish
involved in the process.

Many thanks to these groups for agreeing to assist us.

Upon receipt of the comments, the Committee will then see what we can
separate into areas of total agreement, majority agreement, and locate
areas of concern or strong differing opinions and attempt to form
resolutions.

Thank you for your participation and cooperation in this important task.

P.S. invitations to comment have been sent to:

Dr. Domenic Colletta, NJ
Miguel Iturrate, matchmaker, PA
Cam McHargue, referee, Georgia
Kipp Kollar, promoter-referee, CT
Karo Pariysan, fighter, California
Mike Reilly, cornerman,Minnesota
Nelson Hamilton, official, California
Mike Constantino, trainer, New Jersey
Donnie Carolei, referee, NY
Kirik Jenness, mma.tv
Melvina Lathan, commissioner,New York
Tom Molloy, commissioner, Florida
Chad Kurle, North Dakota
David Isaacs, promoter, New York
Bob Meyrowitz, promoter, New York
Jeff Meszsaros, media, California
Carmine Zocchi, trainer, New York
David Ross, trainer, New York
Joel Gold, FCF
Tom DeFazio, FCF
Ivan Trembow, mmaweekly
Jordan Breen, sherdog
Josh Gross, sports illustrated
TJ DeSanctis, sherdog
Travis Lutter, fighter, Texas
Kim Winslow, referee, Nevada
Carlos Arias, OC Register, California
Carl Mascarenhas, promoter, NJ
Scott Morgan, promoter, NJ
Chris McCabe, promoter, Virginia
Kevin Garvey, media, NY
Mike Lynch, WAMMA, Florida
Ron Kruck, HDNET
Ryan Ciotoli, trainer, New York
Mike Varner, fighter-promoter, Massachusetts
Chad Dubin, trainer, Pennsylvania
Conan Silveira, trainer, ATT, Florida
Candy Schacter, Calgary commission
Kerry Schall, fighter, Iowa
mma junkie
Danny ligouri, trainer, NJ
Randy Gordon, former cmsr, New York
Joe Cuff, matchmaker, Connecticut
Joe Diamond, trainer, NJ
Dr. Robert Cantu, Massachusetts
Kurt Pellegrino, fighter, NJ
Chris Onzuka, media,Hawaii
Franklin McNeil, media
Chad Edward, media
Dave Weinberg, media
Keith Idec, media
Bernard Fernandez, media
Jatinder Dhoot, media, Canada
Dr. Smick, NJ
Brendan Barrett, fighter, NJ
Mark Negron, NY
Steve Katz, trainer, NY
Jerry Spiegel, fighter, Connecticut
Brian Wright, trainer, NJ
Tom DeBlass, trainer, NJ
Joe Lauzon, fighter, Massachusetts
Brian Crenshaw, WKA Representative, MMA,Richmond, VA
Clint Heylinger,USTMA President,New York City
Paul Rosner,USKBA President,New Jersey
Mike Popp,Fight manager,California
John Rallo,Trainer and former fighter,Maryland
Eddie Goldman, NHB news
Jim Genia, Full Contact Fighter
Keith Mills, ADCC News
Dave Meltzer, Yahoo
Loretta Hunt, Sherdog
Pramit Mohapatra, Fightticker
Sam Caplan, FiveOuncesofPain
Luke Thomas, Bloody Elbow
Zach Arnold, Fight Opinion
Danny Schulman, Tiger Schulman, New York
Gary Marino, matchmaker, Florida
Paul Domenech, matchmaker, Florida
Shu Hirata, media, New York
Andrew Correa, referee, Virginia
Kevin Mulhall, referee, New Jersey
Dan Miragliotta, referee, NJ
Doug Crosby, judge, NY
Phil Dunlap, trainer, NJ
Dan Fischer, trainer, NJ
Ray Martin, judge, NJ
Fred Fitzgerald, judge, NJ
Yves Lavigne, referee, Quebec
Jerry Mendez, matchmaker, NY
Alex Marvaez, media, Florida
Eugene Bellida, fan
Joe Cunliffe, PA
Charles Jay, media, Florida
David T. Mayeda, PhD
Dr. Vincent Guida, NJ
Dr. Robert Cantu, MA
Herb Dean, referee