Combat Sports Commission Stakeholder Letter

Dear Stakeholder,

On behalf of the Combat Sports Commission (commission), I would once again like to thank all the participants that have continued to be engaged with the contestant safety project. As advised in my previous correspondence, the Curtin Research Report is expected to be completed by the end of this month following which the commission shall develop a strategy to address rapid weight loss through dehydration. It is anticipated that the strategy shall be available for consideration by the commission at its September 2018 meeting.

The commission is endeavouring to ensure that optimum practices are in place to safeguard the health, safety and integrity of participants in combat sports. However, this objective can be achieved only when the industry participants and the commission work collaboratively. It has been brought to the attention of the commission that some participants are not making honest disclosures of injuries and illnesses during their pre-contest medical examinations. This is a matter of great concern for the commission as such a lack of honest disclosure, in addition to being a breach of the Contestants Code of Conduct, is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the contestants. I therefore urge the industry participants to make honest and full disclosures regarding any illnesses or injuries they may have sustained.

With a view to enhance the system functions and efficiencies,the commission has been endeavouring to create an online portal for registration applications and permit approvals. The online portal is expected to be live by September 2018. Prior to the portal becoming operational, the commission shall conduct workshops to assist the industry participants in familiarising with the functionalities of the Portal. The dates of the workshops will be communicated well in advance.

Commission Rules outline the padding requirements for contestants. To assist the industry, the commission has created a pictorial factsheet which elaborates in detail the various padding requirements. The factsheet is available on the commission’s website.

In its constant endeavour to meet the evolving expectations of the industry, the commission has reviewed its existing Code of Conduct Policy and made amendments to it to broaden its scope to capture behaviour which would be deemed to be unacceptable in current social climate. The amended Policy was adopted at its August 2018 meeting and is available on the commission’s website. I take this opportunity to request all industry participants to familiarise themselves with the new policy and ensure adherence to maintain utmost integrity in combat sports.

The commission has also reviewed its Eliminator Events Policy for muay thai and kickboxing and for the purpose of ensuring health and safety of contestants, amended the policy to exclude exhibition matches from Eliminator events. The amended policy is also available on commission’s website.

As always, please feel free to contact the staff of the commission if you require any clarification on either the updated Code of Conduct and Eliminator Events Policies or the factsheet for padding requirements.

As part of its communication plan, the commission at its August 2018 meeting was presented with branding and styling guidelines for its website, online and social media platforms. The commission is enthusiastically reviewing the proposal and I shall update you further of the progress made in my next letter.

In order to be consistent with the social media conventions required to be complied by all organisations, a new commission facebook page is being created to ensure consistency of the message being delivered to the industry. It is anticipated that the new page shall be operational from 1 October 2018 and all enquiries will be responded via the official commission facebook page. All previous facebook pages and accounts will no longer respond to enquiries after this date.

I look forward to updating you again soon with more developments from the commission.

Yours sincerely

Cassandra Wright
Chair
23 August 2018