More than a year after the Alberta government announced a formal review of combat sports safety, triggered by a deadly mixed martial arts match west of Edmonton, little is known about its progress.
In December 2024, following the death of a 33-year-old Edmonton man in an amateur charity match, Alberta’s then minister of sport, Joseph Schow, announced a review would be launched to improve fighter safety and explore the viability of centralized regulation.
Erik Magraken, a combat sports regulatory lawyer in B.C. and a licensed MMA judge, expressed frustration over the lack of progress.
“They’ve done nothing,” he said. “They’ve offered some empty words, but there’s been no action.”
Alberta is the only jurisdiction in Canada without centralized provincial regulation of combat sports. Instead, the province relies on a patchwork of municipal commissions to maintain the safety of fighters in all combat sports, including boxing and MMA.
Alberta’s regulatory framework remains unchanged, despite a decade of calls for a provincial commissioning authority and a fatality inquiry into the 2017 death of fighter Tim Hague, which intensified pressure on the government to step up as sole regulator for the sport.
The announcement of a review committee followed the November 2024 death of Trokon Dousuah, a 33-year-old man who suffered injuries in an amateur MMA charity match at the community centre in Enoch, on Edmonton’s western outskirts.
Dousah, who entered the ring as a novice, won his three-round bout, but had to be helped from the ring and later died in hospital.
‘Change will take time’
When the review committee was announced, Schow said he would meet with municipal combative sport commissions to better understand gaps in regulation and examine what would be needed to establish a provincial combative sport commission in Alberta.
Details on its progress to date, however, are scant.
Former Edmonton Elks CEO Victor Cui, appointed to lead the review, has not responded to multiple requests for comment and has made no formal announcements about the committee’s progress.
Andrew Boitchenko, who has served as Alberta’s sport minister since May, declined repeated CBC interview requests. He instead issued a brief statement to CBC by email, reiterating the government’s commitment to fighters’ safety.
“We are committed to ensuring the safety of our athletes,” Boitchenko said. “While meaningful change will take time, we take this matter seriously and are approaching it with care.”
Boitchenko’s press secretary said the minister has held regular meetings with Alberta’s combative sport partners, including existing sport commissions and other experts, to discuss governance models, athlete safety and event protocols.
‘Empty words’
Magraken, the B.C. lawyer and MMA judge, emphasized the need for consistent, provincewide standards, and said the Alberta government’s inaction has already had fatal consequences.
Legislative change is necessary to create a provincial commission, he said, and the decision to act, or not, is purely political. He said there was no need for additional review.
“Alberta is the only province that has the city-by-city model. And it’s easy to have weak links in the chain if you water down regulation to the municipal level,” he said.
“Waiting. It makes no sense.”
Dousuah’s death renewed calls for more strict regulatory oversight, but members of the fighting community and local governments had already been calling for such changes for years, said Dr. Randolph Knipping, a professional ringside physician and medical support specialist in Ontario.
Combat sports require a single regulatory authority to mitigate the inherent risk of serious injuries and death to competitors, especially for amateur athletes who are more vulnerable in the ring, he said.
Knipping said the Alberta government needs to be more transparent about the work of the review and commit to clear timelines. With existing provincial commissions across the country, Alberta could easily “cut and paste” those policies into legislation here, he said.
“You cannot expect a promoter, or a municipality, or a city to have all of the regulatory requirements and training requirements in a patchwork quilt.”
The current delays are “excessively long and harmful,” he said. “Meanwhile, there are still events occurring and there are a lot of young men and women who are joining the sport. They need to be protected.”
The Edmonton Combative Sports Commission and City of Edmonton continue to support the move toward a provincial regulating body, said commission executive director Forrest Gavins, noting it would create much-needed uniformity among different municipalities.
“If we can create consistency across the province, there are some benefits there — and that may be done in a number of different ways,” Gavins said. “Ultimately, that’s something that the government can best do with their review.”
The commission meets regularly, sometimes monthly, with the provincial government, Gavins said, but he has not heard from Cui in months.
Changes in Edmonton
The Edmonton commission, meanwhile, has implemented several “above and beyond” measures to improve athlete screening and recovery, Gavins said.
The regulatory changes focus heavily on head trauma safety, medical accountability and standardized recovery periods.
All fighters are now automatically prevented from competing for at least 14 days after a bout, regardless of the match’s outcome. Any fighter suffering a knockout or head-strike technical knockout (TKO) is subject to a 90-day medical suspension and must be cleared by a neurologist before returning. Contestants displaying signs of incomplete concussion recovery are prohibited from competing.
The changes to Edmonton’s combative sports regulations, most of which were enacted in December, were adopted in response to the public fatality inquiry into the 2017 death of Tim Hague.
Hague, 34, suffered a brain hemorrhage on June 16, 2017, after a left uppercut knocked him out in the second round of a boxing match licensed by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission. He took the fight on short notice, his most recent medical suspension having expired days before the match.
Hague, who had a history of knockouts and concussions, lapsed into a coma, suffering a brain bleed and subdural hematoma. His brain also showed signs of traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease caused by repetitive head trauma.
In October 2024, a public fatality inquiry into his death urged Alberta to adopt centralized regulation of the combat sports industry.
Of the inquiry’s 14 recommendations for the province, eight were accepted only in principle. Ministry officials indicated more time was required for consultations.
With those possible reforms on hold, Jelena Mrdjenovich, a professional boxer and eight-time world champion from Edmonton, is skeptical about the benefits of centralized oversight.
“You’re doing this for the athletes, but you didn’t care to ask the athletes.– Jelena Mrdjenovich
An Alberta commission would have more resources to handle events, but Mrdjenovich worries the same bureaucratic issues will persist, she said.
She’s also frustrated that she has never been consulted by a commission nor government officials about what’s needed to keep the sport safe and thriving, Mrdjenovich said, adding that she feels the current review is leaving fighters out of the conversation.
“Nobody’s asking the show ponies what we want to ensure our safety,” she said.
“You’re doing this for the athletes, but you didn’t care to ask the athletes.”
For combat sport competitors, Mrdjenovich said, safety isn’t just about rules; it’s about educating fighters about how to protect themselves, because no amount of regulation will eliminate the inherent risk of getting in the ring.
“You don’t play our sport. It is a dangerous sport,” she said. “If you don’t take care of yourself, bad things can happen.”
Sandy Bowman, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, was instrumental in developing the municipal bylaw and commission to regulate combative sports in that northeastern Alberta region.
Bowman, who chaired the RMWB Combative Sports Commission from 2013 to 2019, is a trainer, coach and former fighter who knew Hague well. Years ago, he was in Hague’s corner for his first UFC match.
He has met with the provincial government during its combat safety review and supports the move toward an Alberta commission, he said.
If the province does step in as the sanctioning authority, Bowman hopes there will be a chance to collaborate and it uses the “best parts” of existing commissions in the new framework.
But he said some municipal commissions are reticent about the prospect of a provincial sanctioning body.
“I wouldn’t say that there’s a resistance,” Bowman said. “I would just say, for the people in the communities, having a sanctioning body coming in, sometimes it’s hard to hand over that safety to somebody else.”
He said many commissions are careful with athlete safety and have diligently tightened their bylaws to keep athletes safe, but the lack of consistency is a problem.
“The biggest thing is not so much who’s [sanctioning] it … It’s the people who are there and the quality of training they have,” he said.
“The biggest thing is the safety of your athletes over anything else. And maybe, with all the lights and the glamour and the music, sometimes that may be missed.”