麻豆社区

This September, Watson Lake was scheduled to host Quest for the Title VIII, a mixed martial arts (MMA), kickboxing and boxing championship.

Instead, Quest for the Title has been the latest combat event to fall by the wayside thanks to Section 83(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada, which defines prize fighting.

Ryan Leef, MP for the Yukon, is one of the voices supporting an amendment to the code.

Leef was in Ottawa in May where he appeared before the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs with regards to Bill S-209, an act to amend Section 83(2).

Leef appeared as an expert witness, as he's an experienced MMA fighter and chair of the MMA Caucus on Parliament Hill.

He also conducts Leaders in Life (MMA to combat bullying) clinics for youth in his riding.

Bill S-209 would rewrite Section 83(2) of the code, creating a more contemporary definition of prize fighting.

"It's very much a dated piece of legislation from back in the 1930s,鈥� said Leef.

"It hasn't been amended since. It was written at time when they weren't anticipating people hosting karate or MMA championships and that sort of thing.鈥�

The bill has gone through the senate and will be in the House of Commons in the fall.

If all goes well, Leef said the bill could be passed by mid-winter or spring.

By amending the bill it allows each province and territory to host events such as Quest for the Title without the fear of being deemed illegal.

The Northwest Territories, alongside Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Quebec currently regulate combat sports with an athletic commission.

Those commissions are able to sanction, license and regulate the events, allowing them to take place. The Yukon currently has no commission in place.

Leef said the amendment to the code could change that.

"The Yukon is a small jurisdiction that hasn't gone through this exercise,鈥� he said.

"In that regard it's understandable they wouldn't want to take the leap in sanctioning this kind of thing without the clear definition being in place in the Criminal Code. I suppose once those changes are accepted and adopted this fall then that will provide a little more certainty for the Yukon to look at these sort of events and encourage them to get a commission established.

"Some provinces are comfortable doing that and some aren't,鈥� Leef said of establishing an athletic commission.

"Some want it a little bit more clear and that's essentially what Bill S-209 is going to do, clearly define MMA as an accepted form of combat sport. It will still require the provincial bodies to establish a commission and sanction these events but I think the provincial bodies will be a little more comfortable doing so when it's clearing defined.鈥�

Quest for the Title was proposed in May by promoter Keith Varga. After town council voted unanimously in favour of hosting it, Varga established a Watson Lake Athletic Commission to sanction the one professional bout include in the event, a world title kick-boxing match.

The remaining bouts were all of an amateur classification and no commission was in place to sanction their allowance.

Quest for the Title would have been the first time that local MMA clubs, Chaos and Avalanche and the Yukon Boxing Association, had hosted a multidisciplinary event alongside each other.

"It was extremely disappointing (to learn it had been canceled),鈥� said Jess Staffen, head coach with Yukon Boxing Association.

But the decision wasn't entirely unsuspected.

"We'd known for a little while that it may be an issue because we didn't have a sports commission in place,鈥� said Staffen.

The event will now be moved to October and be hosted on Vancouver Island, where the previous seven events have been held.

Staffen said he hopes to still send "five or six鈥� boxers to that event and work alongside the local MMA clubs for the first time.

"We'd like to work together. They are all, in their own respects, very different sports and we feel they are a good match. I do some training with Avalanche every once in awhile and help their competitors with their boxing skills so they are complimentary to each other in a certain sense,鈥� he said.

Cliff Schultz, co-owner of Avalanche MMA, was equally disappointed with the decision.

"I had to break the news to the guys last week and they were pretty disappointed but I told them to keep their hopes up because were probably going to still end up fighting,鈥� he said.

Schultz added that with the date pushed back to October, the club now has more time to prepare.

"We had four guys making their debut so it gives us more time and we'll be ready to go by the time it rolls around,鈥� he said.

The main core of the Avalanche club, TJ Woodman, Miller Rogers, Stefan Brynjolfsson and Schultz will also be fighting in August, September and now October.

Leef said he believes the Yukon can successfully host events such as Quest for the Title in the future.

"There was a tremendous amount of interest and attention being paid to it in Watson Lake and you see the emergence of the Avlanche and Chaos clubs. I think if we hosted something here it would do very well,鈥� he said.

"I know Watson Lake was very much excited and supportive of the event going forward so it is a setback for them and it's certainly a disappointment but it's not something we won't be able to get over. Hopefully, we'll be able to work with the promoter in the future and we'll be able to host these sorts of events.

"It's new, it's interesting, it's athletic, it's healthy and I think the Yukon would respond very well to an event going on here.鈥�