Lift the Ban Watch: Florida Amateurs Edition

Din Thomas can rest peacefully now:

Molloy, whose Florida Athletic Commission governs boxing and mixed martial arts, said Friday that amateur mixed martial arts will become fully sanctioned on Tuesday. Molloy spearheaded the effort to add the amendment to the Pugilist law that Gov. Charlie Crist signed off on recently. This opens the door for amateur shows such as Fort Lauderdale-based Left Hook Productions Warriors Collide series to add ground-and-pound to its striking shows. The amateur division will be headed by Gainesville-based Cory Schafer of ISKA, one of the state's few sanctioned amateur organizations

It's absolutely moronic for a state to legalize professional MMA and not amateur MMA as well. Fighters need safe and appropriate levels of competition before entering the professional ranks (Kim Couture anyone?). The argument that fighters can leave the state to fight amateur somewhere else is pretty awful considering amateurs don't actually get paid to compete, not to mention issues of licensing in other states and travel. It's important for their home state to regulate both for the aforementioned reasons and to give the state athletic commissions more familiarity with local products. That will give them a better sense of who is who and what they are capable of. The more consistent reliable information athletic commissions can get, the better.