California Approves Amateur MMA 
SPECIAL TO ISCF: Yesterday the The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) delegated authority of amateur MMA to the newly formed California Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Organization (CAMO). CSAC commissioner Mario Rodriguez, who co-chaired a committee with commissioner June Collision that reviewed and selected candidate organizations on August 20th, said amateur MMA could be enacted as soon as CAMO is capable to oversee it.
As required by the legislation in California, CAMO is a non-profit organization. The CSAC has given all control of amateur MMA to them to sanction events, much like USA Boxing oversees the amateur boxing circuit in California.
The only red flag that jumps up here is that CAMO has no hands on experience in regulating or sanctioning a fight sport event. This is simply because CAMO is new and has never sanctioned or regulated a fight sport event. This issue came up as a possible problem noted by commissioner Mario Rodriguez in a CSAC meeting last week when determining which organization would get the nod. Apparently, experience was not a required asset in the commissions selection process to appoint a body that will have sole control over Amateur MMA in California.
I found it odd that the Commission selected 'Anyone' at all at yesterday's meeting." said Jeff Starks, a reporter for an MMA site. "Although CAMO has all their non-profit paperwork in place, it doesn't mean they know what is involved in regulating an MMA event, I think the State is in for quite a surprise in the coming months. The real question though is, 'Do they really care?' and it appears not."
CAMO representatives, 
Jeremy Lappen (Left) and J.T. Steele (both formerly of Pro Elite), said the organization will introduce regulations and organization details in a press release in the coming weeks.
There were two other MMA Sanctioning bodies applying for this position along with CAMO. Although they were the first ever MMAsanctioning body, (created in 1999) the largest MMA sanctioning body in the world today and clearly the most experienced and qualified, the ISCF, International Sport Combat Federation, was not selected for only one reason... They are not a "Non Profit" organization.
"It's California's written law, and it's set in stone." Said ISCF President Steve Fossum. "As much as we would like to have been selected for the position, we just have no desire to be a non-profit organization. We were asked to attend last weeks meeting by CSAC Assistant Executive Officer Bill Douglas. He said the issue of the ISCF not being non-profit would not be an issue. However, we were clearly misinformed because Mario Rodriguez made it clear that the selected organization must be a "non-profit" organization. Once we realized this, the question was, 'Who do we side with?' Yes, there were issues related to experience with CAMO, and possibly the right choice may have been no choice. However amateur MMA in California needs to move forward. So, knowing the history of the other non-profit organization our decision was to side with CAMO. Once the decision was made we made it clear that if they need any help from us, we will assist if asked."
CAMO has the authority to begin sanctioning Amateur MMA in California as early as this weekend but nothing has been confirmed as of yet. 
It may take some time for them to organize their officials and event regulations. They have yet to even launch a website we could refer you to. No one has been informed of any of their sanctioning fees or procedures other than they will be charging $35 per fighter along with fees for cornermen, officials and of course, promoters.
The coming months will show everyone if CAMO was the right choice for Amateur MMA in California or an organization that could take advantage of their monopoly in California. Some have claimed their desire is to corner the market on fighter management as California Amateur MMA fighters make the transition from amateur to professional. With California MMA promoters such as Roy Englebrecht (Right) on their CAMO advisory board, this may be true, but has yet to be proven. Still, everyone just needs to sit back and relax and watch what CAMO does in the coming months. The good news is that amateur fighters can now fight as amateurs in California, and no matter what all the pros and cons are, that alone is a good thing... We hope.
