Thursday night at Jillian’s next to Fenway Park a unique MMA gathering took place. Organized by Sal Carrillo, president of Action Fight (www.actionfight.com), the MMA Symposium brought together a mix of people involved in MMA regulation on both the local and national level to discuss issues involving the growth of MMA as it relates to rules and sanctioning.

Five panel members sat in front of an invite-only group of about 50 attendees, mostly made up of writers, representatives from various MMA companies, and members of the northeast MMA community including promoters and officials. Our very own Rick Caldwell was going to attend for NortheastMMA.net, but had a schedule conflict. I got the call from Rick because I live within walking distance of Jillian’s, and the rest is history.

The five panel members were:
- Marc Ratner: VP of Regulatory Affairs for the UFC
- Tom Wright: Directory of Operations, UFC Canada
- LaTeisha Adams: Chairperson, Massachusetts Athletic Commission
- Sal D’Amato: Experienced UFC, WEC, Strikeforce, K-1 judge
- Benson Henderson: WEC Lightweight champion

If you want to picture the event, keep in mind the venue. This wasn’t a formal committee room or anything. It was a cool, private back room in Jillian’s, and the first hour or so was just people hanging out, having a drink, and talking with whoever you wanted to. I walked up to Tom Wright, the head of UFC Canada, and just struck up a conversation. The guy is a pretty big deal, being one of the top officials in the UFC and running the operation for their 2nd most important country. But he was cool as hell and was happy to talk for a few minutes.

I also talked to Ben Henderson, who said he couldn’t confirm whether or not he’d be fighting Anthony Pettis for his next WEC title defense. Henderson isn’t a giant lightweight, and looked like he was walking around at maybe 170. But he looks like he’s in wicked condition.

Finally everyone sat down for the panel discussion to begin. Honestly, there was nothing earth-shattering that was discussed. Being a public forum with writers in attendance, obviously everyone on the panel was careful to stick to the playbook and be politically correct when they talked about various issues. At times it was straight-up boring, and I wondered if Ben Henderson could win a 4-on-1 fight against the other panelists. Pretty sure he could do it.

Tom Wright and Marc Ratner, being high-level UFC officials, had some interesting stuff to say, but the microphone kept being put in other people’s hands, when I really wanted to keep hearing the two of them talk. There were questions and discussion about the selection process for referees and officials, and how this takes place. This has been a hot topic within our community lately, but there wasn’t much new information that came out of the panel. Marc Ratner was very cautious in how he addressed the issue, as was LaTiesha Adams who fielded some questions from hometown referees Steve Rita and Kevin MacDonald. All in all it was mellow and drama-free.

In summary, the national spotlight is on Boston and its surrounding MMA scene, and it’s pretty cool to witness the energy and attention. The symposium itself seemed like it was successful, huge thanks go out to Sal Carrillo for making it happen, and it would be good to see another one take place.

Having guys like Marc Ratner and Tom Wright participate is incredible, but at the same time it made it hard to focus the conversation on local issues, given that they operate on a national and global level. If there were a similar symposium, only focused on regional and local issues, it would probably provide a forum for a better, deeper debate about what’s happening with regulation as it relates to the northeast MMA community. Set it up Sal!

If anyone wants to know any specifics from the discussion, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to recap what was said.