Global Fighters' Association opens crowdfunder for combat sports inquiry led by KC Jonathan Caplan

A fighters' union is asking the public to pay for its own investigation into combat sports. The Global Fighters' Association (GFA) has opened a crowdfunder that it calls one of the most important campaigns for many years, aimed at fans and fighters alike.

The centrepiece is the choice of Jonathan Caplan. The GFA describes the King's Counsel as the UK's leading KC on health and safety and regulatory inquiries. He will run a process that blends a standard public inquiry with the closer question-and-answer format of a House of Commons Select Committee.

The union says each final report will rest on testimony from people at every level of the sport: fighters, coaches, physios, doctors, surgeons, referees, judges, promoters, boards of control and governing bodies, media commentators, venues, managers, and fighters' friends and families. That breadth is the pitch, since it covers the gyms, weigh-ins and contracts where problems often start, not just the ring.

The GFA is not new. It formed in October 2022 and has been open to MMA fighters as well as boxers for the last four years. Its founders are Paul Smith, Martin O'Shea, Stephen Smith, Phil McCauley and Paul Maloney, along with former world champions Amir Khan and Bernard Dunne. Khan, a 39-year-old British former unified boxing world champion, is the best-known face of the group.

He framed the aim in terms of accountability. "There has to be an organisation that's above everything, that we can all report to when something goes wrong," he said, naming training, weigh-ins, contracts and retirement as the areas it should cover.

What to watch next: how much the crowdfunder raises, when hearings begin, and whether promoters and governing bodies agree to give evidence. No target amount or start date has been announced.