So I’ve been watching a bit of The Ultimate Fighter recently, courtesy of my roommate, and I noticed that it’s common for both of them to be bleeding, and often times grappling each other getting their blood mixed together. I imagine it’s similar in other pro fighting sports like boxing, martial arts, etc…
So do the fighters get tested for blood borne pathogens? Is there a federal or state-by-state requirement for them?
I don’t know about the Federal laws but generally each state athletic commission has licensing requirements for professional fighters (including boxers and MMA).
Here in California the CSAC does indeed test for (amongst many other things) HIV and other blood-borne pathogens. Here’s a link to the CSAC rules booklet:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/csac/statutes_regulations/booklet.pdf
Rule 18712 on page 17 states:
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any
person applying for a license or the renewal of a license
as a professional boxer or a professional martial arts
fighter shall present documentary evidence satisfactory
to the commission that the applicant has been administered
a test, by a laboratory in the United States that
possesses a certificate under the Clinical Laboratory
Improvement Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 263a), to detect the
presence of antibodies to the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) and to detect the presence of the antigen of
virus hepatitis type B (HBV) within 30 days prior to
the date of the application and that the results of both
tests are negative.”
I haven’t looked up the rules for other states such as NV and NJ but my understanding is that blood tests are standard there as well for obvious reasons.
There is no federal oversight of boxing or MMA. For better or worse, it’s all managed at the state level.