The Cobra Martial Arts Association (C.M.A.A.)
(Est. 2002)
"A National Supporting Body for all Styles"
NEWS REPORT
(click the C.M.A.A. logo to go to the main website)
Insurance for MMA and other similar Combat Sports
Updated June 2010

The following was written and published in 2005:

There seems to be some confusion about Insurance Cover for MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) or Cage Fighting as it is otherwise known.

Some Groups have been selling Licences to Clubs and Practitioners under the miss understanding that these carry Insurance Cover via the normal Policies. However they DO NOT and carry Membership only to whichever Group issued them.

The C.M.A.A. has been in touch with several Insurance Companies, including our own, and discussed MMA in great detail.

We can confirm that this style of fighting is in fact NOT INSURABLE via the normal Policies and infact none of the Companies that we spoke with are prepared to offer cover due to the high risk of serious injury.

MMA has been placed in to the “Dangerous Sports” band and as such all practitioners are un-insured via the conventional means. If your club belongs to a Martial Arts Group, such as the C.M.A.A, then there is a very high probability that you are not insured for MMA.

The same also applies to:

Vale Tudo , Wrestling , Shoot Fighting , Kick Jutsu or infact any style of fighting that involves striking on the ground.

Submission Grappling (as defined by the C.M.A.A.) is however acceptable and fully insured.

The use of Waiver and Risk Forms

These forms generally do not hold up in the case of accidents because no one can sign their rights away not to sue in case of serious injury. To help address this problem use an “assumption of the risk” form. For further details contact the C.M.A.A. Office.

In January 2009 received news that another Martial Arts Body was again offering membership with cover for Amatuer MMA. As a result we published this 2nd article:

We contacted Perkins Slade and asked them to check this for us as if the situation had changed we would alter our own insurance cover to suit.

However we have today been informed, by Perkins Slade, that while all styles are covered for training, MMA - at what ever level - is not covered for SPARRING / COMPETING for the reasons mentioned in the 2005 article quoted above.
Training / drilling / practicing techniques from these styles is covered due to the lack of 'competitiveness' involved which greatly reduces the risk of injury.

We have also traced and spoken to the insurance provider for the body currently claiming to provide cover with their membership. This insurance company have also confirmed that cover for competing / sparring in MMA is not viable for the above stated reasons.

Once more in January 2010 one of our members contacted us saying that he had been informed that another well known and very large Martial Arts group were stating that their membership now included insurance for sparring / competting in MMA.

We contacted this group direct and after a long telephone conversation found that this is not the case as they had developed their own version of MMA! They had written their own set of rules which included no strikes to the head or back when on the gound and the use of more protective equipment.

This is NOT MMA as most know and practice it. Instead this is Sport Ju-Jitsu, or Knock Down Budo as it is also known, which has always been covered.

So once again we can report that MMA is not covered by standard Martial Arts Group block policies within the UK.

Fighters can of course take out their own personal injury policies which can cost between £150 and £200 each per year.

In May 2010 we learned that yet another group was claiming to offer full cover via Lloyds. While we are not going to name this group, here is a direct quote in response to an email we sent them:

‘In closing and for the avoidance of doubt, yes, ****** provides full insurance covers for MMA.’

We contacted Perkins Slade and asked them to look into adding the cover to our policy and in order to avoid any confusion over what we wanted we also sent them a video of a MMA fight showing a fighter being knocked out by a knee to the face.

On 21st June 2010 we received this response:

‘Royal and Sun Alliance have confirmed they are willing to continue to provide cover for the non contact training aspect of Mixed Martial Arts but are not prepared to cover full contact competing. 

As you are aware we have approached alternative markets for you in order to obtain cover for Mixed Martial Arts that some of your members practice in. As advised previously they were not prepared to offer cover for the Mixed Martial Arts side of things due to concerns relating to the heightened risk of injury. They were also concerned that an official could fail to stop a fight in time prior to serious injury.

We have approached the Lloyds market for you and due to the nature of the activity of cage fighting our contact within Lloyds has also had difficulty in finding a market for the risk.‘

NOTE: If anybody reading this article is a member of a Martial Arts Body who claim that you are covered, i would advise you to contact your insurance provider direct, tell them exactly what you are doing (or even better send them a video link as we did) and see what they say. By this i mean the Broker not the Martial Arts group you have got your licences / membership from. Do this now rather than have a claim and then be told you are not covered when it's too late.

For further details contact the C.M.A.A. Office.

Andrew Morrell
25.06.10

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