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Critical review · Combat Sports Regulation and Science · 2026

Who Stops the Fight?
A Critical Review of Neidecker, John, and Wheelock (2025) on Ringside Physician Stoppage Authority in United States Combat Sports Commissions

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Casey C. Sears · ORCID iD 0009-0000-6344-1143 · Commissioner, Alabama Athletic Commission; Chair, Rules and Procedures Committee.

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Bibliographic record

DOI
https://doi.org/10.67999/csx.001
Author
Casey C. Sears · ORCID 0009-0000-6344-1143
Affiliation
Alabama Athletic Commission, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Correspondence
editor@searspublishing.net
Type
Critical review; Crossref 5.5 report-paper record
Published
September 22, 2026
Distribution letter
September 24, 2026
Publisher
Sears Publishing Company, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
Series
Combat Sports Regulation and Science
Report number
CSX-001
Extent
55 pages; 153 references
Language
English
Rights
Copyright © 2026 Sears Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Free to read.
Supplement
Supplement S1 · DOI 10.67999/csx.001.s1
Permanent URL
https://combatsports.searspublishing.net/articles/csx-001/
Keywords
ringside physician, referee, sole arbiter, combat sports regulation, boxing, mixed martial arts, policy surveillance, measurement error, misclassification, athlete disclosure, Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, correction and retraction

Abstract

Background. Neidecker, John, and Wheelock surveyed United States combat sports commissions by telephone and electronic mail and reported 23 jurisdictions with independent physician authority to stop a bout, 21 with the referee as sole arbiter, and 3 sport-dependent; they characterized this as a significant shift and recommended an Association of Ringside Physicians position statement advocating physician authority in all jurisdictions.

Objective. To evaluate the article’s validity; audit its classification of every jurisdiction against primary legal sources; and examine the fighter-safety premise of the allocation it advocates.

Methods. Reconstruction of the reported proportions; primary-source coding of current statutes and regulations for the jurisdictions in the article’s population and the two excluded states with regulatory text; application of a written three-tier taxonomy (direct, binding, advisory); a verification review with reported agreement statistics; and review of the literature on athlete disclosure, examiner-gatekeeper effects, and diffusion of responsibility.

Results. The article uses inconsistent denominators and mislabels proportions of jurisdictions as proportions of states. Alabama is misclassified; correcting Alabama alone ties the modal categories at 22. On the full census with statute controlling, physician authority in both sports exists in 20 jurisdictions, the referee alone in 20, a sport-dependent allocation in 6, and the text is indeterminate in 1. Direct authority in both sports, claimed for 23 jurisdictions, is supportable in 11. Between 13 and 19 of the 47 cells are misclassified against current text. The primary classification and verification review agreed on 46 of 48 jurisdictions (kappa 0.93).

Conclusion. The article’s principal finding does not survive verification against primary legal sources. Its dataset, map, and claimed shift are unreliable as a basis for policy. The fighter-safety analysis also challenges the assumption that independent physician stoppage authority improves protection, because making the cageside examination dispositive increases the incentive to conceal or manipulate information on which the examination depends.

Complete review

The complete 55-page critical review, including the legal-source audit, tables, technical appendices, and all 153 references, is available in the PDF. The audit protocol, coding record, source transcriptions, and journal correspondence are published as Supplement S1.

How to cite

Sears CC. Who Stops the Fight? A Critical Review of Neidecker, John, and Wheelock (2025) on Ringside Physician Stoppage Authority in United States Combat Sports Commissions. Sears Publishing Company; 2026. Report No. CSX-001. doi:10.67999/csx.001.

BibTeX · RIS · EndNote · CSL-JSON

References

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