Sunset Combative Sports Office & Commission

Plain English Breakdown

The official metadata lists an effective date field as empty; the law is enacted but a specific start date was not provided in the source text.

Renaming and Updating Colorado Combative Sports Rules

This law renames the state's boxing safety act to include all combative sports, extends its existence until 2037, gives voting rights to physician members on the commission with specific medical training requirements, requires new safety data collection for rule-making, adds rules about responding to complaints, and sets limits on financial conflicts of interest.

What This Bill Does

• Changes the name from 'Colorado Professional Boxing Safety Act' to 'Colorado Combative Sports Safety Act'.
• Extends the life of the act, the office, and the commission for 11 years until 2037.
• Allows two physician members on the commission to vote and requires them to have experience or training in emergency, sports, or combative sports medicine.
• Requires the office director to gather safety data related to combative sports to provide to the commission.
• Directs the commission to consider this safety data when making rules and to identify which specific fighting styles are covered by the act through those rules.
• Allows officials to discipline license holders who do not reply to complaint letters within a specified time frame.
• Removes the requirement that warning letters sent to licensees must be mailed via certified mail.
• Prohibits promoters and matchmakers from having financial interests in managing athletes.

Who It Names or Affects

• The Colorado Combative Sports Commission
• Promoters, matchmakers, managers, and other licensed participants in combative sports events
• Athletes participating in regulated combative sports
• Physicians serving on the commission

Terms To Know

Sunset review

A process where a government agency checks if an existing law or office should continue to exist.

Combative sports

Sports that involve fighting, such as boxing and mixed martial arts, which will be specifically identified by the commission's rules.

Commission member

A person appointed to make rules and decisions for the state's combative sports office.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not list specific dates when new safety data must be collected.
• The text states that the commission will identify which fighting styles count as 'combative sports' through future rules, rather than listing them in this law.

Official Summary Text

The act implements the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies in its 2025 sunset review and report.
Section 1 of the act changes the name of the 'Colorado Professional Boxing Safety Act' to the 'Colorado Combative Sports Safety Act'. Sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, and 13 update terms that reference boxing to better align with the new title.
Sections 2 and 3 continue the 'Colorado Combative Sports Safety Act' and the office of combative sports (office), including the Colorado combative sports commission (commission), for 11 years, until 2037.
Section 6 grants the 2 physician members of the commission the power to vote with the other members and clarifies that the physician members must have experience or training in emergency, sports, or combative sports medicine.
Section 9 directs the office director to gather safety data related to combative sports to provide to the commission.
Section 7 directs the commission to consider the safety data collected by the office director during the commission's rule-making and requires the commission to identify, by rule, the combative sports to which the 'Colorado Combative Sports Safety Act' applies.
Section 10 adds, to the combative sports statutes pertaining to grounds for discipline, that the director of the division of professions and occupations (division) may discipline a licensee or an applicant for a license for failing to respond to a letter from the division regarding a complaint against the licensee or applicant within the length of time for response specified in the letter. Section 10 also removes the requirement that a letter of admonition sent to a licensee or applicant be sent by certified mail.
Section 11 prohibits a promoter or matchmaker from having a financial interest in the management of a combative sports participant (participant) and prohibits a manager from:
Having a financial interest in the promotion of a participant;
Being employed by a promoter or matchmaker; or
Receiving compensation or other benefits from a promoter or matchmaker beyond the amount received as consideration pursuant to the manager's contract with the participant.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)