http://mmajunkie.com/news/23324/ohio-athletic-commission-suspends-four-after-submitting-falsified-bloodwork.mmaThe Ohio Athletic Commission has issued indefinite suspensions to four individuals who admitted to submitting falsified bloodwork for a recent Ohio Fight Conference MMA event in Zanesville, Ohio.
MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed with OAC executive director Bernie Profato that Maison Evans, Matt Evans, Richard Nash and D.J. Priest each were given indefinite suspensions after forging medical records for three amateur fighters.
The indefinite suspensions, which began April 13, are eligible for an annual review, but Profato said the severity of the infraction likely will leave the OAC unwilling to lift the ban anytime soon.
Maison Evans served as the Ohio Fight Conference's promoter while his father, Matt Evans, was the organization's matchmaker of record. Nash was a partner in the promotion, and Priest was a former matchmaker for the group.
Once alerted to the potential infractions, Profato resubmitted the bloodwork for every fighter on the March 19 event, and three results were not located in the named lab's database.
Profato immediately contacted the fighters involved, who each said his trainer had assured him all necessary paperwork had been completed. Text-message records acquired by the commission confirmed that the trainer had conspired with the organization to file falsified documents, according to Profato.
Profato said the OAC's investigation revealed some important information that he plans on reviewing with the Association of Boxing Commissions at this summer's annual convention.
"They took one of the LabCorp forms and altered it by putting these guys' names on it and marking that they had passed the tests," Profato said. "One of the things we found out in this investigation is that there are a number of confidential identifying numbers on each test. It's much like the serial numbers of a car, which have certain numbers that identify (it) if a car is a two-door or is a Cadillac.
"It's the same thing with a LabCorp form. There are certain numbers that may send up a red flag to commissions, who can then pursue the investigation further."
Profato said HIPAA laws often make medical-record requests tricky, but in the future, the commission may require fighters to consent to the release of their records from the lab directly to the commission rather than allowing them to be submitted by a third party, including managers, trainers or the fighters themselves.
As it stands now, labs are not required to even confirm whether or not they tested a fighter (much less the results of said test) should that athlete submit paperwork on his own.
"It certainly was a learning experience," Profato said.
Profato said the commission considered criminal charges but ultimately felt the accused had revealed the full extent of their transgressions and effectively assisted the commission in its investigation.
"My biggest concern when investigating this issue was to make sure there wasn't one more person out there," Profato said. "I was most concerned with making sure there weren't any fighters out there competing that had not been properly tested."
Profato hopes the stern decision of the OAC in this case will send a clear message to promotions throughout the sport and prevent future infractions.
"The two things you simply can't do in this sport are touch an official and submit false medicals – and false medicals is probably the most important thing," Profato said. "These fighters were retested, and their bloodwork came back clean, but that's not the point. You simply can't risk fighter safety or the reputation of the sport."
The three amateur fighters implicated, each of whom Profato deemed as more victim than willing participant, received suspensions ranging from six months to one year. The fighters involved will not have to reappear before the commission to return to action at the close of their suspensions.
"Hopefully fighters will see what happened here and make sure it doesn't happen again," Profato said. "Hopefully if fighters have seen issues like this, they'll come forward. The commission is not out there to ruin careers. They're out there to help your career by making sure you're clean and you're opponent is clean.
"If you know anybody out there that's participated in this, please come forward. The commission is looking out for fighter safety."
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