A. The Oklahoma State Athletic Commission is hereby vested with jurisdiction to issue sanctioning permits for all professional combative sports contests and exhibitions and for all amateur mixed martial arts contests and exhibitions held or given within this state and to issue licenses for participants of sanctioned contests and exhibitions.

B. 1. No person shall promote, nor shall any person participate in, a professional combative sports event or an amateur mixed martial arts event unless the event is sanctioned by the Commission.

2. Except as provided in paragraphs 1 and 2 of subsection C of this section, no person shall promote an amateur combative sports event unless the event has been sanctioned by a nationally recognized amateur sanctioning body that has been approved by the Commission.

3. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be punishable pursuant to the provisions of Section 615 of this title.

C. Specifically exempt from the provisions of the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission Act are the amateur combative sports contests or exhibitions conducted or sponsored by:

1. Any school, college, or university where the participants are students regularly enrolled in such institutions and the instructors, coaches, and trainers are employees of such institutions. The term "school, college, or university" shall not include a school or other institution whose principal purpose is to furnish instruction in combative sports or sparring;

2. Any military installation or branch of the Armed Forces where the participants are employed by the military installation or are members of the branch of the Armed Forces sponsoring the contest or exhibition; and

3. Amateur combative sports events which are sanctioned by a Commission-approved and nationally recognized amateur sanctioning body. The nationally recognized amateur sanctioning body must present itself to the Commission and provide a copy of its rules and bylaws for Commission review and approval. Upon approval, the Commission, or its designated representatives, may visit, attend, investigate and audit, as the Commission deems necessary, any match, event, sanctioning body office or event office for the purpose of determining whether the rules and bylaws of the amateur sanctioning body as submitted to the Commission are being followed. The Commission administrator shall immediately rescind approval of any nationally recognized amateur sanctioning body, pending a hearing, if said sanctioning body is found to be negligent or noncommittal in the enforcement of the rules and bylaws presented to and approved by the Commission.

D. The following persons are specifically exempt from the provisions of the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission Act:

1. Practitioners and instructors of the martial arts as defined in Section 602 of this title; and

2. Instructors of amateur combative sports practitioners if such instructors are not required to be licensed pursuant to other provisions of the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission Act.

Added by Laws 1994, c. 240, § 6, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Amended by Laws 1995, c. 202, § 4, emerg. eff. May 19, 1995; Laws 1999, c. 210, § 6, eff. July 1, 1999; Laws 2007, c. 178, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2007; Laws 2008, c. 329, § 7, eff. July 1, 2008; Laws 2009, c. 249, § 2, emerg. eff. May 22, 2009; Laws 2012, c. 359, § 6.

NOTE: Editorially renumbered from § 505 of this title to avoid duplication in numbering.