Profato proud of OAC

By Greg Gulas

sports@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

As the Executive Director of the Ohio Athletic Commission, Bernie Profato has drawn rave reviews nationally for his cutting-edge leadership.

Since assuming the commission’s top post in 2004, however, he’s seen his time and focus shift from mostly boxing and some tough man competitions to overseeing a time-consuming, predominantly mixed martial arts competition and some boxing.

Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches on Monday, Profato said that his experience of serving one group (softball) was the driving force behind the restructuring and changes within the OAC, formerly known as the Ohio Boxing Commission.

After a 30-year association with the National Umpires Softball staff, Profato retired in 2008. That included a 15-year stint as chair of their Playing Rules Committee. As chair, Profato was able to help restructure the OAC’s current guidelines.

“It’s been a great ride for me because of the many changes we were able to implement over the years,” Profato said. “Those changes were only realized when teams and officials submitted to me their many thoughts; ideas that the executive committee deemed appropriate to act upon.

The five-person commission appointed by the Ohio Governor is comprised of three members from one political party and two from the other major party.

“Mixed Martial Arts is a tremendous competition, but we really didn’t have any rules or guidelines from which to draw,” Profato said. “Drawing from my softball experience, I just felt that we needed to regulate the amateur competition. We needed to set ground rules and standards for the amateurs because there weren’t any at the time.”

Profato is proud that he and his staff have regulated the safety and well-being of the fighters.

“When I fought as an amateur we never wore any headgear,” Profato said. “We’ve since changed that. In MMA, professional rules are unified but in the amateurs there were too many loopholes.

“We’ve added a data base on every fighter that tracks their matches and identifies the correct fighter, pairing the proper fighters on their respective cards. We match them up according to their records so as not to mismatch anyone when in the ring.

“If a fighter is suspended, then his name comes up on the data base in yellow and he is off-limits as far as scheduling is concerned,” Profato said.