Legal policy changes at the California State Athletic Commission ignite an internal uproar
By Zach Arnold | October 4, 2012
Facing enormous in-state travel costs & time-and-a-half salary issues, the Department of Consumer Affairs announced that they would immediately change protocol regarding the way they will pay athletic inspectors. In an internal memo sent out on Tuesday, the Department of Consumer Affairs issued a ‘legal opinion’ that claims DCA has the right to no longer pay full-time state workers time-and-a-half when they work as an athletic inspector for the California State Athletic Commission. Furthermore, the memo’s legal opinion claims that DCA no longer has to give compensation to athletic inspectors for travel.
The legal opinion ignores California labor laws and instead relies on an interpretation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act law as the only law that matters. Later in this article, we’ll cite an opinion letter from an important state agency in California that says that FLSA can only be used as a floor and not a ceiling when it comes to the amount of rights an employee has. If the state’s labor laws are of a higher standard than FLSA standards, then state law supersedes FLSA in terms of enforcement.
By state law in California, athletic inspectors are considered intermittent state employees. This can be found in section 3513, section 3527, and section 19815 of the state’s Government code.
The memo claims that the legal opinion will change CSAC’s legal policy effective immediately and that inspectors have until October 15th to sign new duty agreements. The move comes two months after an attempt by DCA to have athletic inspectors sign Voluntary Service Agreements, which are coercive contracts of adhesion.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
When CSAC’s word isn’t their ($50k) bond: Department of Consumer Affairs leaves fighters vulnerable to predatory promoters
By Zach Arnold | October 2, 2012
When Pat Healy saw his opportunity of fighting Gilbert Melendez slip away due to Melendez getting injured, he like many other fighters on the 9/29 Arco Arena card in Sacramento were in the red as far as training expenses were concerned. Given that the fight was canceled about a week before it was scheduled to take place, Healy claimed that he had training expenses in the $4,000-to-$5,000 range.
When a promoter runs a show in California, the California State Athletic Commission requires a $50,000 bond. Amongst the reasons the commission requires a licensed promoter to have a bond is to use the bond to cover fighters who are not paid when a show gets canceled or postponed. The process is relatively simple. A fighter contacts the commission, asks for the bondholder information (bond number, address, etc), and then contacts the company that issued the promoter the bond. In this case, Zuffa is the licensed promoter. All Pat Healy had to do was get the bond info from CSAC, contact the bond company, and ‘hit the bond’ in order to freeze it. The bond then pays out, on a first-come first-serve basis, requests to cover the purse for fighters who didn’t get paid because the show was canceled. The one downside to this request is that once you hit a bond, it means the price of getting a $50k bond for other California fight promoters can increase. These types of bonds generally are a year in length. The bigger fight promoters can get these bonds at a lower cost than small or mid-sized event promoters.
Of course, the key component here if Pat Healy wanted to hit the bond is having the cooperation of the California State Athletic Commission. It’s their job and responsibility to provide the bond information. However, what if the commission decides that they don’t want to help out fighters who lost money due to a show getting canceled? What if the commission decides not to give out the bond information to any fighter that asks for it?
Incredibly, this is the situation that fighters are now facing in the state of California.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Peter Dabbene (guest op-ed): Jon Jones and the Troubles of “Adversity”
By Zach Arnold | September 29, 2012
Peter Dabbene is a writer of short stories, novels, graphic novels, and plays; he is a reviewer and a columnist, and yes, a poet (but a tough one). His website is http://www.peterdabbene.com.
I once liked Jon Jones. Really. Back during his first fights, it was exciting to project how far the UFC’s next rising star might go. But of course, I felt the same way about Brandon Vera early in his career, so I tried to temper my expectations. As we all know, Jones continued to win, eventually earning the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
There were flashes of trouble along the way, though—what often seemed like false and ingratiating humbleness, combined with behind the scenes issues, notably the supposed promise not to fight Rashad Evans. Whether the blame for that fiasco ultimately lay with Jones, or MMA puppeteer Greg Jackson, it didn’t look good. Then there was the simple fact that Jones’s raw physical advantages made him difficult for any fighter in his category. Yes, he trained hard, but when your reach is longer than anyone else in your division, you should be an effective striker.
At this point, Jones simply became a fighter I rooted against.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Deciphering Nick Diaz’s Nevada court petition
By Zach Arnold | September 28, 2012
You know the gist of the story regarding Nick Diaz’s predicament in Nevada. Keith Kizer, one of the most detestable human beings in combat sports, doesn’t mind having his non-endocrinologist doctor Timothy Trainor giving out hall passes to fighters for testosterone… but use marijuana outside of a fight and have it show up on a urine test? That’s when the sledgehammer comes down. Way to promote an anti-doping agenda in combat sports.
We also know that Kizer comes from the Nevada AG’s office, meaning the hack is politically & legally connected. So, the question is — can Nick Diaz, even with Ross Goodman as his attorney, find a judge willing to hear his court petition to review/overturn the NSAC’s suspension of Diaz (12 months, $79,000 fine) or will the request be tossed aside?
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
California State Athletic Commission backs shady promoters & watches a scandal brew in Oxnard
By Zach Arnold | September 24, 2012
And here I thought my weekend was going to be a relaxed one with the UFC 152 PPV on the television schedule. I should have known better.
On Saturday night, I received numerous phone calls about CSAC-related problems with two shows – the Friday ShoBox event at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California and a Saturday boxing show at Pacifica High School in Oxnard, California. These aren’t exactly major events on the fighting calendar, but each show demonstrated regulatory problems caused by decisions made from Chief Athletic Inspector Che Guevara and others in the Sacramento office. When I hammer home the fact that Guevara’s leadership has been terrible, I can point to any number of examples demonstrating why this guy is in way over his head. Like the fact that many inspectors don’t know how to properly calculate a box office, costing the state of California up to 7-figures in cash. Instead, the front office is worried about nickle & dime BS like money from $50 fighter licenses instead of hundereds of thousands of dollars at the box office. We know there is a major problem with certain inspectors who can’t figure out how to detect illegal hand-wraps or skinned gloves, which of course is a natural result given that Che Guevara got a promotion at CSAC after he missed Antonio Margarito’s illegal hand wraps… right in front of his face. So, that kind of cheating is rampant throughout the state of California and can result in significant head trauma. Of course, the front office is more concerned about manipulating fighter paperwork that they’ve lost in order to cover their asses. Backdating paperwork. Great situational ethics there.
Oh, did I fail to mention that there hasn’t been any sort of training sessions for inspectors in over a year? You might want to teach the new inspectors how to do drug testing correctly. Way to do your job, CSAC.
I bring up all of this not because you should care about a bunch of faceless Sacramento hacks who take no responsibility for their actions. I bring up these developments because there are real life consequences for fighters who are now on the receiving end of some of the worst combat sports regulatory practices in the entire country. And not only that, but the inspectors who are doing their best to be professional at California shows are short-staffed & railroaded by horrible political decisions made from Denise Brown, Awet Kidane, and the legal department at the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Two examples of live events from this past weekend’s slate of shows in California bear out the fruit of Sacramento’s horrible decision making that is costing fighters their safety & their shows purses.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White: “Spuke TV” is leaking negativity about TUF
By Zach Arnold | September 24, 2012
“The biggest, you know, Achilles heel we have right now are injuries. (If) we don’t have these injuries, man, the fights that we’re making kill it and we have, you know, events are off the charts but when you… when an event falls off and you have to scramble and fix another one you get… the main and the co-main fall off… the fact that we’re still even having a show, the fact that the greatest fighter of all time (Anderson Silva in Rio) steps up and takes the main event spot, you know? It’s… it’s just… it’s the thing that makes me continue to love this sport.
“Even The Ultimate Fighter, uh, the The Ultimate Fighter and everybody’s negative about it. Dude, FX… FX has one of the biggest rosters of programming, you know? You know who keeps leaking all this stuff and all the negativity is Spuke TV, OK? These guys don’t have a fucking program on that [channel] to save their life.
(I guess he hasn’t watched Bar Rescue. I think he and Jon Taffer would get along well swimmingly.)
“The worst channel in the history of the world, OK, nothing they do on that channel works… whereas FX has such a powerful network, they want us on Fridays… TUF was the #1 in its time period for men 18-to-34, passing all cable and broadcast channels. That’s a home run for FX! Is it a home run for us because we’re not doing, you know, the number that I wish we could do if we were on Tuesday or Wednesday? No. But it’s an absolute home run for FX.
On releasing fighters and if UFC uses the same ‘matching’ offer tactics as Bellator
“Yeah, listen, I don’t talk much about Bellator but what they do is one of the dirtiest things you can do in the business. It’s dirty, it’s grimy, and it’s just despicable. Of course, I have the right to match. But once I cut a guy and let him go and somebody else tries to sign him, I don’t come back and say, ‘Oh, you’re breaking the contract, I have matching…’ You know what I mean? When you made the decision to cut [Roger Hollett], you cut him. That’s one of the scummiest, dirtiest things you can do in the fight business.
“The problem is the dirty scumbag moves that these guys are pulling hurts the fighter, you know? It’s just, it’s one of the dirtiest, low-down, despicable things you can do in the fight business.
“I guess that’s the way those guys do business. We don’t do business like that, you know? I have no beef with those guys, they’re doing their own thing, I could care less. But that’s dirty. That’s dirty and it’s, uh… it’s borderline criminal.”
Thoughts about boxing & Bob Arum running on same 12/8 date as UFC in Seattle
“I love the sport of boxing and I watched, I bought the Chavez fight. Umm… so, yeah, I mean, I’m happy for them. Listen, whenever boxing does good things and they pull killer PPV, I’m always watching to see what they do on PPV and I’m not, ‘Those fuckers! Ah, they did this much!’ I’m happy for them. I want to see combat sports do better. I want to see boxing pull bigger numbers. I’m not Bob Arum, that crusty dick. You know what I mean? I’m not out there smashing everything that we do and saying negative stuff about boxing. Boxing’s fucking great, it’s an incredible sport. I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if it wasn’t for the sport of boxing, you know? I’m not going to play Bob Arum’s little pussy game. Fuck him.”
“That’s what they do, they went head-to-head the same night on TV. They’re crazy. Remember when Don King, Bob Arum used to go PPV the same night? I know! I know, I get it. They took the same night we’re on. Bob’s a dick. The guy is a dick. Seriously. He’s just a… he’s a fucking, you know, it’s like the guy can’t, uh… for some reason he hates the fact that this sport is doing well. Other guys are able to make money. Other athletes are able to perform and fucking do great things. For some reason, that bothers that old bastard. You know what I mean? Fuck him.”
Wonder how he’s feeling after the Strikeforce 9/29 Arco Arena show in Sacramento with Gilbert Melendez got canceled?
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
“I’m hoping that people are grateful for me being here & being able to entertain them”
By Zach Arnold | September 20, 2012
Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com w/ Bones Knows Beards
Jon Jones wants to meet up with Dana White. So, what will they say to each other?
ARIEL HELWANI: “What are you going to say to him?”
JON JONES: “I’m going to say, Dana… you know, I’m just going to tell him that I forgive him, pretty much. I have a general intention of what I want to happen and basically it’s going to based on forgiveness. I’m not expecting him to apologize but I’m moving forward, you know, I’m moving forward and Dana… spoke his mind and, you know, ultimately he can’t take back what happened, I can’t take back what happened. I don’t think he wants to and I don’t want to, so, we’re just going to be men and keep this great journey that we have going. You know, we’re both ambassadors for the UFC and as for not being on the same page, as I said (Tuesday) on Sportscenter it makes no sense for us MMA fans, MMA nation so, uh, you know, I want to do great things and I think having them on my side or working with them and not being known as like, you know, a troublemaker with him will be beneficial for both of us.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “How do you forgive someone who hasn’t apologized?”
JON JONES: “You know, I don’t know. I don’t know how that works but I want to try it.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “How do you think the fans here in Toronto will react to you? Because obviously you’ve become this kind of polarizing figure but if it wasn’t for your decision, they wouldn’t have the chance to see a UFC Light Heavyweight title fight. So, do you think they actually greet you with cheers as opposed to boos here in Toronto?”
JON JONES: “Um, you know, I’m hoping that people are grateful for me being here and being able to entertain them, ultimately. But, uh, I’m predicting that I’ll probably get booed more than cheered. But I’m OK with it. I’ve come to terms with it and I’ll still compete at (my) best.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I’ve noticed a different Jon Jones. I said last week after the conference call, that was the most real Jon Jones we’ve ever seen because it seemed like you were finally just saying what was on your mind and not worrying about what people would think about what you say. You said some strong things about Dana, the fans and whatnot. Has something happened? Has someone told you to act a little more like yourself? What’s going on here? Because it seems like finally we’re getting The Real Deal Holyfield.”
JON JONES: “Well, I think I’ve always tried to be real, you know, I think Rashad (Evans) called me “fake” at one point, really made this illusion of me being totally fake. But, you know, I think I’ve always been pretty legit with the things that I say. I think that’s why a lot of people maybe don’t like me. You know, they find some of my statements to be a little arrogant or not but that’s just me being, you know, truthful in a lot of cases but, you know, I’m just becoming more and more comfortable in my own skin. As things happen I realize more and more each scenario, each fight that you know I can’t make people like me or not so I’m just being myself, being comfortable in my own skin and let people be the judge and ultimately it’s really not my business what people think about me anyways.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Vitor (Belfort) keeps saying, ‘I”m not a diva, I’m not a diva, I step up with the UFC wants me to step up.’ He doesn’t call YOU a diva but it seems like he’s sort of insinuating that. What do you make of that?”
JON JONES: “It’s all right. You know, I could keep saying, ‘I don’t do steroids or anything like that,’ you know what I mean? I’m not saying he does, but say what you want. But it’s like, we’re here to fight and, uh, you know, camp is over. The hard part is over and, uh… ultimately we’re going to see who’s the better martial artist and I’m not going to let any words between me and him, you know, become a factor now this close to the fight. I’m days away from my goal.”
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Exodus: Kathi Burns, Sarah Waklee out at CSAC office
By Zach Arnold | September 19, 2012
The situation at the California State Athletic Commission continues to disintegrate in an alarming fashion. The state, which regulates twice as many shows as the second most active state in the U.S., is dealing with a commission that has become the most toxic political bureau under the umbrella of the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Two players in the ongoing mess at CSAC are now out. Sarah Waklee, the UFC-friendly front office worker at CSAC and inspector for Northern California shows, is gone (after the end of this week). She has been reportedly transferred to another state agency, the Department of Justice. Needless to say, her CSAC front office antics will not fly at DOJ. This essentially ends her dream of becoming the next CSAC Executive Officer. Waklee filed numerous complaints against workers at Consumer Affairs, resulting in a polarized & politically-charged office environment.
Kathi Burns, who took over in mid-July as Executive Officer as a replacement for the departed George Dodd, is also on the outs. Burns was never a combat sports fan nor had any knowledge of the industry. And it certainly showed during her tenure. When we highlighted the follies of both Burns & Waklee in our Strikeforce San Diego drug testing article, needless to say the writing was on the wall for both individuals. Plus, when internal CSAC memos were revealed regarding the complete incompetence of the front office, that pretty much wrapped everything up.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Jon Jones: “It surprised me, the whole UFC 151 backlash.”
By Zach Arnold | September 18, 2012
“I still stand by the decision that I made. My job is mainly just to be strong and to be a man and stand by the decisions that I make.”
So, the storylines heading into this weekend’s no-momentum UFC 152 show are…
a) Jon Jones/Dana White on-again, off-again back-and-forth over whether or not Jones ‘murdered the sport’ of MMA by not fighting Chael Sonnen on 9/1 in Las Vegas on short notice.
b) Chael Sonnen ramping up training in West Linn because Vitor Belfort is a flake and not to be fully trusted to make the fight booking against Jon Jones. Plus, Sonnen potentially working a show where the UFC is reportedly running the drug testing because Ken Hayashi’s Ontario commission isn’t going to drug test the fighters this time around. I guess this means Jones, who didn’t want to fight Sonnen on short notice for the 9/1 Las Vegas show, could end up fighting Sonnen on the 9/22 Toronto show… on short notice.
c) Jones started out as a 13-to-1 favorite (91%) against Belfort but now has dropped to an 8-to-1 favorite (88%), therefore somehow signifying just how much more competitive this fight has become.
d) Brian Stann vs. Michael Bisping, a fight on paper that looked to have some appeal to the masses, just not captivating many folks
e) Dana saying: “Fight week! Jones vs. Belfort! This if for u the REAL fans. We love u guys!!!” As our friend MMA Supremacy replied, “In other words… it’s not trending so hot right now, so we need you guys to buy this and help us out!!!” Do it for Dana White, because UFC 100 was a great show.
Other than that, everything is coming up roses for Saturday’s show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the Air Canada Centre.
Undercard
- Welterweights: Charlie Brenneman vs. Kyle Noke
- Bantamweights: Walel Watson vs. Mitch Gagnon
- Welterweights: Seth Baczynski vs. Simeon Thoresen
- Featherweights: Jimy Hettes vs. Marcus Brimage
- Welterweights: Lance Benoist vs. Sean Pierson
- Lightweights: Evan Dunham vs. TJ Grant
- Light Heavyweights: Igor Pokrajac vs. Vinny Magalhaes
Main card
- Featherweights: Cub Swanson vs. Charles Oliveira
- Light Heavyweights: Matt Hamill vs. Roger Hollett
- Middleweights: Brian Stann (+150) vs. Michael Bisping (-180, 9 to 5 favorite)
- UFC Flyweight title match: Joe Benavidez (-300, 3 to 1 favorite) vs. Demetrious Johnson (+220)
- UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones (-800, 8 to 1 favorite) vs. Vitor Belfort (+500)
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 48 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
California State Athletic Commission gets served with $1.9M legal notice
By Zach Arnold | September 17, 2012
On June 22nd, CSAC athletic inspector Dwayne Woodard filed an age discrimination & retaliation lawsuit against the California State Athletic Commission and the agency that controls CSAC, the Department of Consumer Affairs. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and Woodard’s attorney, Farzad Tabatabai, made sure to serve the state Attorney General’s office with papers notifying them of the civil lawsuit. As our June 25th report displayed, we saw a stamped copy of the court filing and everyone at CSAC & DCA knew about the court case at hand. In other words, ignorance is not an excuse in this matter.
The AG’s office in Los Angeles had 30 days to respond to the matter. For whatever mysterious reason(s), the state decided not to respond to the court complaint.
60 days after the lawsuit was filed, the state AG’s office bizarrely didn’t respond to the filing.
Over 80 days after the case was filed, the AG’s office still hasn’t responded to the lawsuit. Because of the ineptness of the AG’s office & the bureaucrats in Sacramento, they just got whacked in court last Friday with an entry of default notice.
To make a long story short, a lawyer from the Attorney General’s office will have to respond to the entry of default notice and explain why they have been dragging their feet on responding to Dwayne Woodard’s lawsuit. Whomever is sent from the AG’s office to explain to the court why they didn’t do their job is going to be walking into their courtroom with their tail between their legs.
With the entry of default notice comes a statement of damages — and in the case of Dwayne Woodard’s lawsuit, it’s a really, really big price tag.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: CSAC, Media, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Internal memos from Sacramento CSAC office reveal utter chaos & rules violations
By Zach Arnold | September 12, 2012
Since the events that transpired this past weekend at the Tachi Palace show (streamed online by Sherdog) in Lemoore, California, we’ve had a flood of tips from insiders about some of the chaos on the ground at shows regulated by the California State Athletic Commission. Referee Marcos Rosales found himself suffering the brunt of online fury for bad officiating of fights at the Tachi event, but he has not been the only one under the microscope this past weekend for being involved in what can only be described as utter chaos in Sacramento.
Before we tell you about what transpired at the K-1 event this past Saturday night at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, there is something you should know that is going down behind the scenes that provides a perfect illustration of how the Department of Consumer Affairs is destroying any sense of competency with CSAC.
We have gotten our hands on some internal memos sent out by the Sacramento office to CSAC workers that reveal just how reckless, careless, and law-breaking the attitude is right now towards fighters and promoters. If you think the inspectors have a thankless job right now regulating shows under the ‘3 inspector policy,’ wait until you read some of the marching orders being dished out by Consumer Affairs.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White: If MMA used instant replay, Jon Jones would be undefeated
By Zach Arnold | September 11, 2012
On a day where the UFC 10/13 Brazil show card got shredded due to Rampage Jackson pulling out of his fight with Glover Teixeira and Jose Aldo having to pull out of his fight against Frankie Edgar, Dana finds himself on an island of turmoil right now as far as matchmaking goes.
Which is why I’m amused to see him backtrack as fast as he can from comments he made about Greg Jackson and Jon Jones ‘murdering the sport’ of MMA because Jones wouldn’t fight Chael Sonnen on September 1st in Las Vegas.
Part of that backtracking, as we so often see from Dana after a blow-up, is trying to softening his public stance on Jones despite not talking to him (yet). In his infinite wisdom, Dana decided to try to put over Jones while talking about his favorite subject, which is bad officiating & judging in MMA. Another favorite Dana conversation point is his disdain for referee Steve Mazzagatti. Throw in all three subjects and you get what you get here during this interview on Inside MMA.
Yes, according to Dana, instant replay would have prevented Steve Mazzagatti from disqualifying Jon Jones for using 12-to-6 elbows on Matt Hamill. Except, there’s one problem with this claim…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
About that Strikeforce CSAC drug testing fiasco…
By Zach Arnold | September 9, 2012
Of all the displays of incompetence and corruption happening right now with the California State Athletic Commission, you would be hard pressed to find a more curious example of stupidity than the way CSAC handled drug testing affairs at the Strikeforce event that took place last month in San Diego. The show was headlined by Ronda Rousey vs. Sarah Kaufman.
Kathi Burns, the Department of Consumer Affairs lifer who is filling in as interim Executive Office, revealed this past week that only Kaufman and Rousey were drug tested for steroids/PEDs while no one else was tested due to ‘random’ selection. Uhuh.
So, what exactly happened with the drug testing protocols in San Diego and why did the situation get so out of control for CSAC in the press?
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: CSAC, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |