What goes on behind the scenes.

[humble]

As a continuation from Hammers recent thread regarding honour and showing respect to those that got you where you were or are, I was reminded of a recent event that Sydney was privelidged with.

I no doubt believe that there are those busting their guts out to make things happen in the fight game whilst certain others lap up the credit. Some do it because they simply love to help, and others do it for thier own peice of notoriority.

What ever the reason, there are many things we don't know or hear about behind the scenes.

What I was refering to above is the recent Xplosion show in Sydney. Not many of you will know that this great event almost never took place because of a few halfwits, and ill informed people out there. People should know there are those with bad intentions that only want to see the sport grow if their name is attached to it...... in this case to name one out of many examples, the boxing authority.

They didn't want the show to go on and used their supposed, albeit bogus, powers to try and persuade authorities and venue management that this was an illegal show because of Muay Thai and MMA show.

To cut a long story short, none other than John Ioannou aka JNI was sent to the rescue. He singlehandedly convinced authorities and all present that the show was perfectly legitimate and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had every right to put it on.

Basically Sydney was given a treat in the fights that took place especially the main event.

This sort of thing happens all the time. Little do people know what takes place behind the scenes, usually because they are too caught up to pay attention.

I am sure that there are many other examples, so share some little secrets that you don't think others know about.

"Everyone has a plan until they get smacked in the face."

-Mike Tyson

[Zviggy]

Geez, the NSW Boxing Authority...suprise suprise.

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infinitemma.com - Australia's leading MMA website.

[Voice]

correct Humble. There are those like JNI who stage legitimate Muay Thai shows (and have been for years) with real doctors, judges and sanctioning bodies present. The fighters' safety is paramount. The self regulatory aspect of Muay Thai, if handled correctly, is both legal and as safe as this sport can be.

There are those like Pitbull Paul Grima who stage kickboxing and work with the Boxing Authority (and their sometimes pedantic requirements) also with safety and responsibility in mind.

Then there are others who slap a bogus Muay Thai label on what they are doing (and these 'fights' are often without knees or elbows), do not provide adequate medical safety and pre-fight screening, put on fighters who have been recently ko'd and sometimes have ridiculous weight mismatches which is dangerous.

Why? Because they are tight and want to avoid forking out the $$$ to do something properly and safely.

These people are hanging off the coattails of others' hard work.
Thankfully the latter is not a mainstream problem and seems to exist more on the smaller amateur shows.

Personally, IMO although the Boxing Authority is viewed with much disdain from all, the fact that renegades have existed for years legitimises their concern. On the matter of Xplosion, perhaps things were not done correctly initially, and luckily JNI was at hand to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's. Annoying, but necessary.

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The greatest literary invention is without doubt the spellchecker. Yet by far the biggest users are the literate. Go figure.


Edited by - voice on 02 Sep 2006 08:50:50

[Ghodrat]

"To cut a long story short, none other than John Ioannou aka JNI was sent to the rescue. He singlehandedly convinced authorities and all present that the show was perfectly legitimate and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had every right to put it on."

Just curious, but how did he prove the show to be legitimate against the boxing commission's claims?

[Voice]

to paraphrase the explanation it went something like this...

'the Boxing Authority regulates the production and sale of bananas in NSW. Many producers sell bananas (kickboxing) so they must observe BA regulations.
Muay Thai and MMA are forms of apples (MT are red, MMA are green) and although they are sweet and just as satisfying as bananas, are nevertheless a different species.

The BA does not regulate apple production.'

JNI simply had to visit the greengrocer on the way and, specimens in hand, explain the difference which at the end of the day was accepted without too much debate.

btw, believe it or not JNI did actually use a fruit analogy similar to the above.

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The greatest literary invention is without doubt the spellchecker. Yet by far the biggest users are the literate. Go figure.


Edited by - voice on 02 Sep 2006 09:48:23

[humble]

LMAO at voice's analogy.

Ghodrat, theres this bogus belief that the Boxing Authority is the be all and end all of combat sport rules and regulations in NSW.

Not true and all it requires is a little intelligence to see that. In the end the BA looked silly, it's lawyer looked silly and the cops were on our side.

We would hope others will simply muster up the courage and ethical attitudes to go through the proper channels and put on safe and legal but entertaining and "what the public wants" shows of Muay Thai and MMA.



"Everyone has a plan until they get smacked in the face."

-Mike Tyson

[wild_west]

At the Sydney Xplosion event after Tony Bonello's fight he was handed the mic & proceeded to give a massive wrap to a guy whose name eludes me, but I believe is the head honcho of Penrith Panthers.

Tony explained that this man "had the courage" to conduct MMA (King of The Cage), Boxing & Kickboxing shows on his premises.

There have been shows by various promoters, albeit quite succesful ones at Panthers and from what ive heard he was willing to overcome alot of opposition from relevant (or irrelevant as the case may be) authorities such as boxing authorities etc to make these happen.

I couldnt say for sure that there was any fruit or vegetables involved throughout negotiations.

I think its great that there are people out there who are willing to stick their neck out to make these events possible even though they might not be as passionate about these types of sports as some of us may be. And even better that there are people out there who are respectful enough to recognise and appreciate their contributions.





Edited by - wild_west on 04 Sep 2006 13:37:08

[sityodtong]

Not to steal your thread Humble, but a similar thing happened to us on Friday. As most are aware, our first show was held on Saturday evening. An "anonymous" caller raised enough rubbish with the local council and our venue manager that they tried calling off the show. For a period of time, (6-7pm Friday evening) we were thinking that the we had no venue. In between the weigh in and normal show preparations, we had to convince the local police, council and venue that we were not of shady pasts and would deliver the event without harm to the community. To say this was stressful is an understatement!!!

It constantly amazes me that lies and efforts some people go to in order to sabotage this sport. Their little fun added a whole element of costs to the show BUT, this was negated around 9pm when our "FULL HOUSE" sign was erected.

All I can say is that I am a firm beleiver in Khama and I hope our little informant enjoyed his/her moment of glory and now understands that him/her/they will not stop the progression of Muay Thai in Victoria.

[Ghodrat]

Thanks for the explanations, guys.

In the US there have mainly been problems with MMA shows, but that seems to have gone away.

Although there are similar problems in Australia, I think the American & Canadian commissions are a larger pain in the ass. Concerning America & Canada, there have been shows where, regardless of what documentation or argument the promoter had, they shut down the show, even though they should not have had the authority to.

The most recent situation in Canada that comes to mind was some show in Calgary Mike Miles was promoting. It looked like it would be a good show, but they shut it down, even though Miles had run MANY shows previously without problems.