In these days of recent acceptance for MMA in such states as NJ, GA, and hopefully even NV there is still opposition in many of the states in-between. On July 11th new rules went into effect in the state of West Virginia that effectively ban mixed martial arts in that state. West Virginia is host to several traditional martial arts promoters from sport jiu-jitsu to kickboxing and toughman but the only professional mixed martial arts promotion has been Jamie Levine's WEF and Reality Super Fighting. The former Boxing commission has had rules prohibiting many of the techniques involved in mixed martial arts for ten years but the vague wording gave Levine an opportunity to test the waters and put on a show. The northern pan handle of West Virginia where Levine has been holding events is just a few miles from Pittsburgh and is relatively close to major cities in Ohio.

Round 1

In June of 1999 what was at the time the Boxing Commission got wind of WEF holding an event in West Virginia and sued to stop it. Commissioner Rick Modesitt has been on the State Boxing Commission/Athletic Commission for five years and is currently the Chairman. He was also a member of the State Legislature during the 1999-2000 year. He explains: "The Commission never expressed any desire or interest to have it. We did not sanction June of '99, (Mr. Levine) basically just told us 'I'm going to do what I want to do'. We went to court in Ohio County where Wheeling is and because the judge thought since they didn't wear boxing gloves that the Commission didn't have any jurisdiction over it. That event went on."

Back To Your Corners

In response the Commission requested and legislature was enacted amending their statutory authority and granting them authority to regulate virtually all fighting events in West Virginia. Rather easy considering Mr. Modesitt was on the Athletic Commission and a member of the State Legislature at the same time. This legislation reads in part: "The state boxing commission heretofore created is hereby continued and renamed the State Athletic Commission" and continues "Section III: The commission has sole direction, management, and control of the jurisdiction over all amateur, professional, and semi-professional boxing sparring matches and exhibitions. As used in this article the term boxing includes any fighting event that involves striking an opponent with a closed fist even if wrestling moves, elements of martial arts, or striking with the feet are also permitted".

At the same time last year the Commission ran new legislative rules through which carry the full force and effect of law until the appropriate committee makes recommendations on the rules and both houses vote on it. In the rules the Commission banned "ultimate fights" but failed to define what "ultimate fights" were. Assistant Attorney Robert Williams explains: "They promulgated legislation that banned ultimate fights. Same legislative session but it was a legislative rule, not in code. The ban exists, it's not allowed in WV. The problem the court had was what is ultimate fight. This is the first regulatory effort undertaken pursuant to the ban."

Round 2

Monday April 16th saw Mr. Levine and Mr. Modesitt back in court but this time in Kanawha County-home turf of the Athletic Commission. Jamie Levine: "They've approved other events in this state and they're damn near similar to this. We presented them with our rules but then again they don't want knees, they don't want elbows, they want it to be sissy fighting. They have a bill to make 'ultimate fighting' prohibited. Well, what the hell is 'ultimate fighting'? They have no definition. I just heard on a commercial here "the ultimate driving experience", the ultimate tennis shoe of it's time. Well, they don't have a definition of that."

The judge pointed out that there was no clear definition of what an "extreme fighting" was.

Jamie: "The state of West Virginia and the tax payers of West Virginia probably just wasted close to $20,000 to try to stop this event when the (Asst) Attorney General admitted in court he has no idea of what he's actually talking about or even seen one of these events and here these guys are trying to stop this event. They said we don't have any rules written, we didn't do this we didn't do that. The judge says 'do you have all that stuff?' We provided it to him in advance and at the hearing and they still refused to sanction the event. So therefore the judge said 'go ahead and have the event' and the athletic commission left us alone.

Assistant Attorney General Robert Williams has a different recollection: "The judge acknowledged the concerns of the Commission and he certainly didn't question the Commission's authority to regulate now as the judge in Ohio County did. The Commission, Instead of finding itself in a situation where the court could have ordered it to sanction the fight or ordered the fight to be allowed to proceed, made a tactical decision to withdraw the complaint. We were worried about setting a precedent.

Commissioner Modesitt sums up his perspective: "We've never given the authorization to do them, ever. As far as we're concerned it still stands that we don't want them."

So what rules does the Commission object to? Commissioner Modesitt: "Glaring problems were knees and elbow strikes were allowed to the head while the opponent was down. A person could be down and dazed and not be able to do anything and still being struck. We have a problem with that".

Byron Read of WOMP was given another angle: "The way that Rick Modesitt explained it to me was they were concerned over safety. They were concerned these gentlemen that would be participating in this event were not professionals, there was a chance that they could be hurt and they questioned whether there would be proper emergency care in case someone was seriously injured."

Commissioner Modesitt goes on: "I personally don't believe this is a good thing that we should be sanctioning it and allowing kids to see or think that it's a proper sport."

On April 21st Reality Super Fighting took place in Wheeling, WV. WOMP radio had been doing promotion before the event. "I think the event was fair in terms of the way we would judge success in terms of turnout but I think that a lot of that has to do with everybody was waiting until the last minute to find out if the event was going to take place. That actually hurt the number of people that attended the event. I've heard reports that Wheeling's participation showing up for the Toughman events is one of the best in the country, so for them not to invest the money had a lot to do with maybe they thought the event wasn't going to take place."

Ding Ding Ding

This setback for the state set the stage for the next round of legislative action. Assistant State Attorney Williams: "The Commission is working toward promulgating some emergency legislative rules. Any board or Commission with rule making authority can promulgate rules as emergency if they can make a showing that there is an emergency. To make a showing of emergency you have to show that the safety, health, welfare, or economic well being of the state is implicated. It would be the Secretary of State that actually reviews the statement of emergency."

Commissioner Modesitt: "We are going to be relying on legal council this time and we're going to tighten the loopholes. It'll be done right this time. This time we're tired of it. We're not playing games anymore. If there is legitimacy to the sport, and I tend to think not, then he's giving all the other promoters a bad name and the sport a bad rap. It's basically 'screw you guys I'm going to do whatever I want to do. End of story. No Athletic Commissioner in any state will be doing that."

"We're doing the research right now. We have three different divisions that are working on it: Governor's Office, Attorney General's office, and Tax Department (Author's note: Athletic Commission is under Tax Department). It's not in the next two weeks or anything but it's certainly very close. As soon as all the research is done then we'll be prepared to take action. Our intent was to ban it and that's our intent: we're not changing it. We have individual legislators that are prepared to do battle."

Part of the problem for the former Boxing Commission is trying to make sense out of styles they aren't familiar with. Commissioner Modesitt: "You have ten different forms of sport and they're coming to the Commission now that we have jurisdiction over all of them they come and say 'here are our rules'. For example there is a Jiu-Jitsu tournament that occurs in the southern part of the state that does use kicks and does use fist strikes in gloves but they do not permit kicking or striking while on the ground. That's completely different . We would not want to interfere in a legitimate sport like a Judo tournament or a Jiu-Jitsu tournament or Kick Boxing tournament or whatever as long as the safety issues are met. It's on a case by case basis at the moment."

Jamie Levine: "It's a vindictive act from Rick Modesitt to me personally because we beat his ass in court once and he doesn't like to lose. He doesn't even like fighting at all, which he testified to in court. Rick Modesette is heading the campaign to outlaw fighting in West Virginia. He promotes "toughman" contests because he's a best friend with Jerry Thomas who is the Toughman promoter. He doesn't like fighting but he likes Toughman where a bunch of amateurs go in there and go toe to toe no training all. That's much more dangerous."

Mr. Williams: "They tried to make a lot of the fact that this was a personal vendetta by Mr. Modesitt against Mr. Levine. It's not. Four of the Five Commissioners came from various parts of state to this hearing all of whom were ready able and willing to testify that they unanimously objected to Mr. Levine's promotion. It's not Mr. Levine, it's what he's promoting. He's the only one coming here trying to promote this super extreme stuff. It's not a personal vendetta."

Round Three

On June 21st 2001 Jamie again brought Reality Super Fighting to West Virginia. This time the Athletic Commission didn't try to stop his show but instead all five commissioners unanimously voted to pass what are called legislative rules. Asst State Attorney General Williams explains: "If you file a rule as an emergency rule it can go into effect as early as 15 days after it's filed. Unless you can state that an emergency exists you won't get it approved. If the Secretary of State takes no action then by default it's deemed to be an emergency and goes into effect 42 days after it's filed. They will get run through the normal rule making process next year but in the meantime they're in effect. Emergency rules only last for 15 months. If the legislature decides they don't want to act on it then it dies after 15 months. If the legislature approves it then it's good forever but if the legislature does not approve it then it's still in effect the full 15 months."

After these 15 months the Commission will try to do the exact same thing for permanent rules. Modesitt: "If passed the ultimate/extreme as Jamie (Levine) has been promoting it will not be allowed. It's just further spelling out the prohibitions and it's very detailed. We had two attorneys assigned to it: one from the Attorney General's office and one from the Tax Dept. and they think they've crafted them correctly this time. It's our opinion Reality Super Fighting was the last MMA show in West Virginia. I don't see anything changing. It was a unanimous vote of the five commissioners to do what we did. It tightened the loopholes of something that's been in effect for 10 years. The current commission comprised of the 5 that are there now have no interest in sanctioning them. Unless three of the five change their mind or new ones are appointed I don't see the state welcoming that type of event here."

The legislative rules are on file with the Secretary Of State's office and are said to contain limitations like an event can't take place in a cage, fighters can't strike an opponent at all while they are down, can't elbow, certain choke holds are prohibited, footpads are required, and 8 oz gloves are required. The process for these legislative rules is that they're introduced and then there's a thirty-day comment period, which ended on July 11th.

The main issue in this conflict is whether MMA is a sport. Warren Owsley manages two of the fighters that participated in June's event and remarks "Mixed Martial Arts is a sport in itself. (The commission) try to ban or come across a structured set of rules they feel is safe for a sport that they have no idea how to govern" while Commissioner Modesitt states "It's never been our intent to interfere with any legitimate recognized sport." Some of the key people admit that there is a difference in the approach in the way a MMA is conducted relative to a boxing match. Warren Owsley explains: "The Commission is trying to step in and intervene with the sport but the sport is safe in itself. There have been leaps and bounds with New Jersey Athletic (Control Board) and Larry Hazzard. The West Virginia athletic commission has nobody in place that understands martial arts period. If they have no one that can judge it and say that's safe, that's not safe, they have no way to govern it."

So what does this mean to the fighters that participated in Jamie's events? Jerry Hackney trains and fights in West Virginia: "I got it through word of mouth if I fought in (RSF) in April that I could forget about having a boxing license. If I have to choose I'll take this . There are so many more variables and I think it's more exciting. There's a lot more you can do here. If I had to I'd relocate. I hope I wouldn't have to." Modesitt replies: "Licenses have been discussed. There's been no action taken. Quite frankly we were waiting to see who decided to participate and their licenses all come due July 1st. It'll be handled at our next meeting but we don't even have a next meeting scheduled at the moment."

The Governor appoints the commissioners for four years. It would be 2 more years before the next commission appointment comes up. It would take three commissioners to vote to accept MMA and reverse this ban.

The current Governor's press office stated the Governor supports the Athletic Commission on this issue.

The Secretary Of State's offoce couldn't be reached for comment.

The legislative session that would take the issue up would be the 2003 session.