The past week has been a somewhat tumultuous one for European MMA. Cage Warriors, now undisputedly the leading promotion in Europe, had to cancel their planned debut in Sweden. After making a successful debut in Denmark this year the arrival of Cage Warriors in one of Europe’s best emerging MMA nations was hotly anticipated, but sadly due to the actions of the Swedish MMA Federation (SMMAF) the show has now been cancelled and moved to Jordan. The SMMAF regulations meant that Cage Warriors were forced to accept limited rules for their undercard fights and had to reduce their title fight to just three rounds, but had hoped that the five main card fights would go ahead under unified rules.
The SMMAF had other plans. All but one of the five bouts were rejected for being mismatched, or for the fighters not having enough experience. For reference the fights rejected were:
Pannie Kianzad (5-0) vs Alexandra Buch (8-3)
Jack Mason (28-13) vs Jonatan Westin (6-2)
Liam James (8-6) vs Frantz Slloa (4-0)
Jack Hermansson (8-2) vs Cheick Kone (11-3) for the middleweight title
Cage Warriors’ CEO Graham Boylan has been on a public offensive against these decisions, quite rightly pointing out that fights like Gegard Mousasi (33-3-2) and Ilir Latifi (6-2) were approved for the UFC – though that is unsurprising considering that Latifi’s agent is on the committee that approves match-ups. The UFC were also allowed to have Adam Cella fight under full unified rules despite his 4-0 record. The SMMAF have since dissolved this committee and will be looking again at their regulatory framework, but sadly the damage has already been done. The SMMAF have also been accused of asking for exorbitant fees in exchange for unnecessary large commission staff contingents at events.
To Canadian readers, this sort of story is all too familiar from Ontario – prohibitively expensive commission fees, and lack of promotional independence on matchmaking. However where this is different is thatEuropean MMA is still, in many ways, in a fledgling stage. Certainly there is no European-wide regulation, and many countries have no regulatory board. The SMMAF is one of a number of relatively new organisations under the IMMAF banner. The way these organisations are established and the way they conduct themselves is absolutely crucial to the development of European MMA.
The SMMAF not only has a responsibility to the regulations it upholds, it also has a responsibility to the Swedish fighters and gyms that it represents to the world. The loss of Cage Warriors is a big blow to the development of Swedish MMA and to the careers of those Swedish fighters scheduled to fight on the biggest platform they have ever fought on. Not only is the SMMAF guilty of gross hypocrisy, it has failed Swedish MMA.
Hopefully if countries like the UK come to establish a regulatory board, or for those countries where a regulatory board does now exist, this serves as a cautionary tale. First and foremost commissions exist to facilitate the safe development of the sport within their country, not suffocate promotions under unworkable regulation and questionable fees.
