• All ISCF Sanctioned Promoter's are liable for any medical costs of any injury sustained by any Fighter who is Fighting on the Promoters ISCF Sanctioned Event.
  • To cover any such fighter medical expenses, the ISCF Sanctioned Promoter must have a minimum of $2,500.00 coverage in fighter medical Insurance for his ISCF Sanctioned event.
    • The ISCF STRONGLY Recommends Promoters carry a higher amount of "Fighter Medical Insurance", however, the ISCF offers this as an option to the event Promoter.

THE WAIVER: Most all Promoters have fighters sign the available ISCF Release Of Liability Waiver Form found HERE. The question is, "If a fighter waives his/her rights to any medical liability of the event promoter, what grounds do they have if they get injured in an event?"

Here is how this works. If a fighters signs such a form, they are admitting with a legal document that THEY have Medical Insurance that would cover them for any injury sustained. However, when an injury occurs, the Promoters Fighter Medical Insurance is the first to be addressed. That insurance must cover it's full covered amount of either the medical bill itself or the deductible of the fighters medical insurance. However again, IF the deductible is greater than the covered amount, the waiver still requires the fighter to use his/her medical insurance for the injury, but the deductible must be covered by the Promoter.

Here is another issue to consider in regards to waivers. If the State the event occurs in is what is called an "At Will State" and the fighter signs a medical injury waiver, the waiver is Upheld 100% and the medical liability of the fighter is 100% the responsibility of the fighter. The decision of responsibility is still left with YOU, the Event Promoter, and still goes back to the gamble of rolling your money dice of "Do I pay now or pay later?"

• The ISCF Event Promoter must provide proof of their fighter medical Insurance by faxing a cover page of their insurance to the ISCF Headquarters (916-663-4510) prior to their event.
• The ISCF Event Promoter must also have the entire insurance coverages, origional paperwork available to show the ISCF Event Representative.
  • If Promoter has not faxed to the ISCF Headquarters a copy of "Proof of Fighter Medical Insurance" and or cannot show any proof of such insurance to the official ISCF Event Representative prior to the event, the event will be cancelled immediatly by the ISCF Event Representative.

Francis L. Dean & Associates, Inc.


"The Nation's Leader In Sports Insurance"
AND
"The Official Insurance Provider Of ISCF MMA Sanctioned Events!

See Special Rates Below or Call (Inside USA) (800) 745-2409 or e-mail to info@fdean.com
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FAX (630) 665-7294

FRIDAY, September 5th, 2008, AT 11:45 AM, PT

PROMOTERS
Do You Have Enough Insurance?

As all fight promoters are aware, there is a liability potential of each and every bout. Promoters who choose not to sanction their events have yet another choice... to NOT insure the fighters on their event for any medical needs.

however, ALL Sanctioned Promoters, or we should say, promoters using any LEGIT Sanctioning body, are required to cover Fighter Medical coverage. When this became a requirement many years ago, Promoters have always noted the high costs of such insurance. This of course is a legit issue since insurance rates for anything can be sky high.

A few years back, Insurance Companies across the Nation put a stop to insuring Mixed Martial Arts. When this happened, it put a stop to MMA Action quicker than the ban of MMA on PPV that a well known politician did years back. When both happened, the sport went underground and unsanctioned and uninsured events were all that were taking place which risked not only the fairness of MMA competition, it also risked the medical safety of the fighters who were often part of events that not only had no fighter medical insurance but also had no doctor, no ambulance and questionable officials. This is still happening today in both unsanctioned events as well as MMA events that are sanctioned by non legit sanctioning bodies.

The state of Idaho knows this issue too well where fighters fight in bouts with massive weight spreads in events that don't always have weigh-ins let alone legit doctors or better yet, fighter medical insurance. This is because several events in Idaho are sanctioned by one of those sanctioning bodies that only take your money and offer a rubber stamp of sanctioning to appease the state in return. Few need to be reminded who this sanctioning body is, but for those who do not, you can read about the WCSF by clicking here.

Thankfully for fighters there are events across the nation that are sanctioned by real and legit sanctioning bodies such as the ISCF. On these events, promoters are clearly informed that Fighter Medical insurance is a MANDATORY Requirement, NOT an option. The only option is how much insurance to carry above the required ISCF minimum of $2,500.00.

One sanctioning body isn't really a sanctioning body at all. Kick International is actually an insurance company, or better said, those who run it are in the insurance business. So what they do is say they are giving this great sanctioning deal that includes Fighter Medical Insurance for a fee of $1,075.00 with a $1,000 deductible. If within 30 days from their event, this fee goes up $200.00 and to register each fighter, the fee is $30 per fighter per year. The reality here is actually a play of words. They tell promoters that they make nothing from sanctioning because they are a "Non profit' company...lol... and the fee is only for insurance. However look a little deeper and their profit for that $1,075. - $1,275 is far more than the ISCF charges any promoter. How? Well, as we said, those who run KICK also own an insurance company and the profit margin for them on that $1,075.00 is substantial.

If a promoter were to look at what the ISCF does for promoters, (Rankings, News page, Events page, Champions page etc. etc.) that KICK deal becomes even less attractive since KICK offers NONE of these things for their promoters. Heck, if a promoter wants a title from them, the fighters don't even have to qualify or be a top ranked contender because they have no rankings to determine top contenders. If called on it, they would not even be able to tell you who holds a certain KICK title because they don't know and worse yet, they just don't care. In the end, the bottom line fact is "Credibility". This is where an ISCF Title holds far greater prestige that ANY other MMA Sanctioning body because ISCF title contenders have to actual be top contenders in the ISCF Rankings before even being considered for a title shot. NONE of the other so called MMA Sanctioning Bodies have rankings at all. However, many have "Coming Soon" or "Under Construction" on their ranking pages... Which has been the same message on them for YEARS!

Wait... we are getting off track here... Back to the base of this article.

With the ISCF, it is the responsibility of the event Promoter to cover any and all medical expenses of any fighter who sustains any injury while competing on an ISCF Sanctioned fight event. All promoters know that it is a mandatory requirement that all ISCF Sanctioned events and their promoters have "Fighter Medical Insurance." It is the decision of the promoter as to which company to use to attain this insurance. The ISCF recommends but does not demand or make mandatory that our promoters use FL Dean Insurance Company. The ISCF and IKF have worked closely with this company since 2001. they are the company highlighted on the ISCF Insurance page located HERE.

ISCF Promoters are given many choices as to how much insurance coverage they want to have for their events. However, if their selected coverage is not sufficient enough to cover any occurred medical costs of any injured fighter on their event, they have the sole responsibility of covering any and all additional fees. This is where the gamble comes in. How much insurance is required VS how much should you have?

The ISCF has a minimum fighter medical insurance requirement of $2,500.00. However, many of our larger Pro/Am Promoters choose to attain upwards of $50,000 of coverage. Insurance is not cheap, but what it must be weighed out just as any other insurance needs are, "What is the value of the policy vs the risk and will it be a pay now or pay later issue?"

For example, if a promoter only has a $2,500.00 (Costing promoters between $450 to $770 depending upon the deductible) Fighter Medical insurance policy and a fighter on his/her event sustains $5,000 in medical bills, the promoter is required to cover the additional $2,500.00. If the bills are higher, you can see where this would go. However, there is a back up plan.

THE WAIVER: There is a fine line within all of this. Most all Promoters have fighters sign the available ISCF Release Of Liability Waiver Form found HERE. The question is, "If a fighter waives his/her rights to any medical liability of the event promoter, what grounds do they have if they get injured in an event?"

Here is how this works. If a fighters signs such a form, they are admitting with a legal document that THEY have Medical Insurance that would cover them for any injury sustained. However, when an injury occurs, the Promoters Fighter Medical Insurance is the first to be addressed. That insurance must cover it's full covered amount of either the medical bill itself or the deductible of the fighters medical insurance. However again, IF the deductible is greater than the covered amount, the waiver still requires the fighter to use his/her medical insurance for the injury, but the deductible must be covered by the Promoter.

Here is another issue to consider in regards to waivers. If the State the event occurs in is what is called an "At Will State" (Such as California) and the fighter signs a medical injury waiver, the waiver is Upheld 100% and the medical liability of the fighter is 100% the responsibility of the fighter. However, in California, the California State Athletic Commission oversees all fight sports and their "Minimum Requirement" for Fighter Medical Insurance is $50,000.00. Even so, if a fighters injuries are greater than $50,000, the question to a California promoter is, "Who is liable or responsible to pay the additional amount?" According to Dean Lohuis of the California State Athletic Commission, the Fighter is required to cover any additional expenses above and beyond the State requirement of $50,000.00 regardless of any waiver form signed. Surly due to the large amount of $50,000. Like many other State Commissions California has many requirements for the pro fighters such as MRI, EKG, Nuero Exam, 4 or more blood tests, Opthomology and other requirements.

However, can having such a high requirement hurt a sport? In the entire State of California, there have only been 9 kickboxing events (Pro & Amateur) since January 2008. This sounds pretty sad since the state use to have more like 30-40 Kickboxing events a year when the minimum insurance coverage requirement was $20,000. However, insurance may not be the issue. In 2008, the State of California sanctioned 63 MMA events and since January of this year the State has already sanctioned 50 Pro Mixed Martial arts events (Amateur MMA is still not legal in California).

Maybe what the ISCF and other sanctioning bodies need to do is raise the "Minimum Fighter Medical Insurance Coverage of $2,500" so that promoters are covered with a higher amount. However, at this time, that decision of responsibility is still left with the event Promoter and still goes back to the gamble of rolling their money dice of "Do I pay now or pay later?"