The Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission on Thursday indefinitely suspended a mixed martial arts trainer and 11 amateur fighters for allegedly mocking up blood tests with phony paperwork.
Acting on a tip, the commission called Blackshear-based Altamaha Laboratories and found out it did environmental work, not medical tests.
“We do water, waste water, soil and food,” General Manager Donna Tindall said.
Commission Secretary Andy Foster said Wayne Music, a trainer and matchmaker for Southern Pride Cage Fighting, provided blood work reports for seven fighters on forms from Altamaha Laboratories before a 15-bout match on May 28 in Waycross dubbed "Swamp Heat I." Four fighters from a March 5 event, also organized by Music, were found to have submitted similar reports using the lab's name.
Tindall said an office employee, identified by Foster as Music's wife, allegedly used a computer at the lab to mock up the paperwork. The woman was not identified by the commission and Tindall said she has been fired.
Each of the forms had a doctor's signature the commission believes to have been forged. The commission requires blood tests prior to a bout to make sure fighters do not carry blood-borne diseases.
The fighters suspended Thursday are Luis Angeles, Brandon Shane Fullard, Jessie Rowell, Christopher J. Waters, Brian Hernandez, Jarrelyn Anne Chua, Jamie Lloyd, Josh D. Mixon, James Dwight Lloyd, Travis Aaron Clarke and Brent Smith.
Commission Chairman Don Geary said MMA fighters endanger everyone in the sport by sidestepping the tests.
"Have you been to MMA? Blood does not always stay in the body," he said. "You, being the other fighter, want to make sure the person you are fighting doesn't have HIV, doesn't have any other thing we are testing for."
Foster said Music had admitted to the scheme in a voice mail left at the commission's Atlanta headquarters.
"I listened to the message," said Commissioner Rick Thompson. "He said he did everything."
Music, who was not at the commission meeting, would not comment on the claims. All of the suspended fighters will be invited to the next commission meeting to defend themselves, but Foster said he found it hard to believe the fighters did not know what was going on.
"The fighters had to be complicit," he said. "If you are going to submit lab work you have to be stuck with a needle."
Richard Currie, district attorney for Ware County, said he will review the state's investigation and may consider criminal charges. Submitting false documents to a government agency and forgery are both felonies.
Foster said this is not the first time someone has attempted to falsify blood tests in Georgia, but this is the most sophisticated attempt and it may provoke some rule changes.
About the Author
