Last week, the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association adopted a motion to urge the Provincial Government to create a province wide commission to regulate and sanction combative sports.

The motion comes after the death of Tim Hague, a 34 year old fighter and school teacher from Beaumont who suffered a brain hemorrhage after being knocked out in a Boxing match in June. Tim passed away the day after the fight leaving behind a nine year old son.

"I knew Tim, he had a lot of heart and he would have fought anybody, anytime, anywhere, which is a fighter's mentality," says Luis Cofre, Instructor at the Airdrie Martial Arts Centre, "That being said, we have to have these regulatory rules to protect the fighters. Sometimes fighters will oversee their own health and safety to get into the ring, to prove themselves and make money."

Following Tim's death, many questioned why his fight was not stopped earlier and whether he was even fit to enter the ring in the first place.

Cofre is in support of a province wide commission, as the sport grows in popularity in Airdrie, Calgary, Edmonton and beyond.

He hopes that whoever is responsible for creating such a board will do more than consider the fighters.

"It's not the commissions, it's the doctors, it's the coaches, the family members and all the support systems involved when it comes to combative sports that come together to protect the fighters."

Cody Thompson, Head Coach at White Collar Boxing in Airdrie agrees that an Alberta Commission on the sport is necessary but that the government shouldn't be hasty to put it in place.

"I think it is a step in the right direction and I just really hope that the politicians that are involved in this take a step back, call in the promoters, call in the coaches, call in the athletes and really get a sense of what we want and then how to make this as safe as possible."

Thompson fears that the board might ultimately be run by a group of people unfamiliar with the sport, making it more about politics than athlete's safety.

Cofre and Thompson agree that having one board regulating the sport for all of Alberta is crucial because as it stands, each city or town has their own rules for martial arts and boxing events. This means, when it comes to athlete safety, there's different standards in different places, including rules regarding knockouts and when to stop a fight.

For Thompson, tougher sanctions on safety in the sport is something he hoped to see much earlier.

"Sports like Hockey, the NCAA, even NASCAR have head injury rules and protocols that athletes have to follow, coaches have to follow and they have to meet the protocols before they're allowed to compete and combative sports are unfortunately behind on that in every level."

This isn't the first time that the AUMA have voted on this motion, having pushed the previous Progressive Conservative Government to do the same thing. No changes though were made.

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