The Canadian Medical Association will seek an outright ban of the professional sport of mixed martial arts in Canada.
The Associated Press reports that delegates for the CMA voted Wednesday at the organization's annual meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to have a doctors group push for the Canadian government to ban the prizefighting aspect of the sport.
This news comes just 10 days after Ontario, Canada's largest province, passed legislation that will allow for events starting in 2011. Seven of Canada's 10 provinces currently sanction MMA. In May, the UFC, the world's largest MMA promotion, opened up a branch office in Toronto and has said it hopes to put on at least three major events in Canada annually.
According to the AP's report, the contingent – among roughly 250 doctors in the group – calling for an MMA ban says the sport puts its competitors in jeopardy for "severe head trauma and other injuries that could have lifelong effects."
The CMA first began campaigning against boxing in 2001, and apparently its stance against MMA will be built similarly. According to the policy listed at the CMA's official website, "The CMA recommends to the appropriate government authorities that all boxing be banned in Canada." The CMA cites the same risks for injuries as it points out for MMA, noting that in boxing (and MMA) the intent of the fighter "is to harm and incapacitate his or her opponent."
Dr. Gordon Mackie MD, a British Columbia-based physician credited with authoring the idea to seek the ban, told The Province newspaper, based in Vancouver, the vote passing at the CMA's meeting is a good thing.
"I'm very happy with it passing," Mackie told The Province. "The right issues were raised and the consensus was strong."
Tom Wright, the UFC's director of Canadian operations, told MMA Fighting the CMA's role, as an advocacy group, is to make such suggestions to governmental bodies. But he said the CMA could have benefited from speaking to the UFC and doing more research before its recommendation and vote.
"It is discouraging inasmuch as this association really hasn't done a lot of due diligence in terms of looking at the facts, examining the studies that have been done, talking to athletes that are in the sport, talking to people like ourselves in the UFC or others that are stakeholders in the sport before they made their determination," Wright said. "And that's probably the most troubling thing to me because the UFC is as diligent about athlete safety as any professional sport on the planet. We go to great lengths, and I guess I'm discouraged that the CMA didn't reach out to ask for our input."
Wright gave credit to the Ontario government, saying it did the background work before passing its MMA legislation earlier this month, and he wishes the CMA took a similar path.
"As an advocacy group, they have a position and they will lobby the government on these things," Wright said. "But I also found the timing interesting – it happened right after Ontario made the decision to sanction the sport. And I give a lot of credit to the province of Ontario – they did their homework. ... They spent a lot of time. We've been working with the Ontario government for two years. I haven't spent five minutes with (the CMA)."
Joe Doerksen, a veteran of 58 professional MMA fights and a native of Manitoba, Canada, told MMA Fighting on Wednesday the CMA's stance was "ridiculous."
"It's a joke," Doerksen said. "If safety was their concern, they'd have called for a ban on football and hockey years ago. How about a ban on motor vehicles, then? That way no one will ever die in a car crash."
Doerksen who has fought for more than two dozen different promotions, is on his latest stint in the UFC and will next fight C.B. Dolloway at UFC 119 in Indianapolis next month.
But Doerksen said he isn't worried about the vote putting the sport he's competed in professionally for 11 years in a negative light, and said he wouldn't get in the cage if he didn't feel safe.
"I think it sheds a bad light on the doctors who voted for the ban," Doerksen said. "I don't feel safe on skates or dirt bikes. (I'm) not trying to get those sports banned; I just don't play hockey or race dirt bikes."
Wright said he didn't believe the CMA's stance would negatively impact the sport in Canada – and said he has offered the group a chance to hear MMA's side of things.
"We don't expect everybody to be fans," Wright said. "We just want to make sure people make intelligent and objective decisions based on the facts. And we'll continue to push forward."
An MMA Fighting request for comment from the CMA was not answered on Wednesday.
The Associated Press reports that delegates for the CMA voted Wednesday at the organization's annual meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to have a doctors group push for the Canadian government to ban the prizefighting aspect of the sport.
This news comes just 10 days after Ontario, Canada's largest province, passed legislation that will allow for events starting in 2011. Seven of Canada's 10 provinces currently sanction MMA. In May, the UFC, the world's largest MMA promotion, opened up a branch office in Toronto and has said it hopes to put on at least three major events in Canada annually.
According to the AP's report, the contingent – among roughly 250 doctors in the group – calling for an MMA ban says the sport puts its competitors in jeopardy for "severe head trauma and other injuries that could have lifelong effects."
The CMA first began campaigning against boxing in 2001, and apparently its stance against MMA will be built similarly. According to the policy listed at the CMA's official website, "The CMA recommends to the appropriate government authorities that all boxing be banned in Canada." The CMA cites the same risks for injuries as it points out for MMA, noting that in boxing (and MMA) the intent of the fighter "is to harm and incapacitate his or her opponent."
Dr. Gordon Mackie MD, a British Columbia-based physician credited with authoring the idea to seek the ban, told The Province newspaper, based in Vancouver, the vote passing at the CMA's meeting is a good thing.
"I'm very happy with it passing," Mackie told The Province. "The right issues were raised and the consensus was strong."
Tom Wright, the UFC's director of Canadian operations, told MMA Fighting the CMA's role, as an advocacy group, is to make such suggestions to governmental bodies. But he said the CMA could have benefited from speaking to the UFC and doing more research before its recommendation and vote.
"It is discouraging inasmuch as this association really hasn't done a lot of due diligence in terms of looking at the facts, examining the studies that have been done, talking to athletes that are in the sport, talking to people like ourselves in the UFC or others that are stakeholders in the sport before they made their determination," Wright said. "And that's probably the most troubling thing to me because the UFC is as diligent about athlete safety as any professional sport on the planet. We go to great lengths, and I guess I'm discouraged that the CMA didn't reach out to ask for our input."
Wright gave credit to the Ontario government, saying it did the background work before passing its MMA legislation earlier this month, and he wishes the CMA took a similar path.
"As an advocacy group, they have a position and they will lobby the government on these things," Wright said. "But I also found the timing interesting – it happened right after Ontario made the decision to sanction the sport. And I give a lot of credit to the province of Ontario – they did their homework. ... They spent a lot of time. We've been working with the Ontario government for two years. I haven't spent five minutes with (the CMA)."
Joe Doerksen, a veteran of 58 professional MMA fights and a native of Manitoba, Canada, told MMA Fighting on Wednesday the CMA's stance was "ridiculous."
"It's a joke," Doerksen said. "If safety was their concern, they'd have called for a ban on football and hockey years ago. How about a ban on motor vehicles, then? That way no one will ever die in a car crash."
Doerksen who has fought for more than two dozen different promotions, is on his latest stint in the UFC and will next fight C.B. Dolloway at UFC 119 in Indianapolis next month.
But Doerksen said he isn't worried about the vote putting the sport he's competed in professionally for 11 years in a negative light, and said he wouldn't get in the cage if he didn't feel safe.
"I think it sheds a bad light on the doctors who voted for the ban," Doerksen said. "I don't feel safe on skates or dirt bikes. (I'm) not trying to get those sports banned; I just don't play hockey or race dirt bikes."
Wright said he didn't believe the CMA's stance would negatively impact the sport in Canada – and said he has offered the group a chance to hear MMA's side of things.
"We don't expect everybody to be fans," Wright said. "We just want to make sure people make intelligent and objective decisions based on the facts. And we'll continue to push forward."
An MMA Fighting request for comment from the CMA was not answered on Wednesday.