10/17/2019
Ronda Russell will be given time to talk to the Alabama Athletic Commision at the AAC meeting in Montgomery Alabama today at 1:30pm. She will be representing ALL of those in Alabama who wish to see Semi-Contact Kickboxing, Continous Sparring and even Point Sparring be allowed without AAC licenses and regulations.
As the AAC RULES state now an Amateur Kickboxing match is defined as "unarmed combat involving the use of any combination of techniques, including without limitation, striking or kicking with the hands, feet or knees". This Vague wording could potentially result in NOT allowing any form of striking competition, Including even Point Karate sparring in our state without the AAC licenses and regulations.
This matter was brought to light in August when the ACSL was asked by the AAC to cease and desist semi-contact kickboxing in Alabama. Semi-Contact Kickboxing, is a Controlled CONTACT sparring that does NOT allow full contact or excessive contact that one would assume to see in a AAC Sanctioned "Full Contact" Amateur Kickboxing event.
We feel the Semi-contact Tournament was wrongfully targeted based solely due to the wording in the AAC Kickboxing Rules that does NOT differentiate FULL CONTACT Kickboxing from Controled or "Semi-contact Kickboxing". If this wording is NOT changed the MANY open Martial arts tournaments held in Alabama throughout the year that have "Continous Sparring" or "Point Sparring" which uses gloves, uses kicks and punches to gain points over their opponents and does so in an open ring format with Referee controlled contact, JUST as the ACSL does in our Semi-contact Kickboxing tournaments, will ALSO be held to the SAME result of being asked to cease OR be held to the same licenses and regulations as MMA events in Alabama which would result in TENS of $1000's of dollars (bloodwork for fighters, AAC approved Referrees, Judges and Medical Staff, Coaching and Competitor Licensing fees, etc)
Let us Hope that the AAC will see that the AAC Kickboxing RULES need to be CHANGED to add "Full Contact" and to EXCLUDE Semi-contact Kickboxing, Continous Sparring and Point Sparring from their licenses and regulations.
