Trouble With the CSAC, It's Not Just Sean Sherk

The majority of those in attendance seemed to be local MMA promoters and owners of MMA gyms. Only two boxing promoters were in attendance, Ed Holmes and Roy Englebrecht. As the floor was opened up by Garcia, Englebrecht, who is perhaps the states most prolific and respected club promoter, inquired about the, "staffing of the office," in Sacramento. Englebrecht, like many other promoters, had grown increasingly frustrated at the process in which paperwork - which green lights the fighters to appear on a show - is handled by the CSAC.

He spoke of dialing up fax machines that had no transmissions and he wondered why each fighter's medical paperwork needed to be 20 pages long. Garcia would respond by telling the small audience that they had just, "hired another body in the office," and would be hiring an additional person soon. He also explained that in the process of moving, their fax machines were out of service. But Garcia would point out that, while they did admittedly, "kill a lot of trees," by law, every single one of those papers needed to be there for the weigh-ins and at the fights for the ringside physician and paramedic in case of an emergency.

As a show is planned, each promoter must send in what is called a 'Who's, who,' which means on a six-fight card, 12 Fight Fax records of the boxers involved for approval, in addition to the battery of medical examinations that a fighter must be cleared on. Englebrecht wondered if there was a more streamlined process in which to do this in the computer age.

As these papers are sent to Sacramento - and they must receive all the pages - if something is missing, 'Need' is put down. But what irks many of the promoters is that when this occurs, or when a red-flag is raised about a particular fighter, that original paperwork, which is usually turned in weeks ahead of time by most responsible promoters, is then returned in many instances so late that a suitable replacement for that fighter or bout cannot be found.