Hagar Cohen: It was late on a Saturday night when kickboxer Mark Fowler was warming up for his fight. He was competing for a state title with opponent Cheyne Reese.

Cheyne Reese: It was there for the taking and I wanted it.

Hagar Cohen: It was the second time they'd fought each other. The first time, Mark came out on top, so Cheyne saw an opportunity to turn the tables.

Cheyne Reese: So I wanted to prove that he may have been the better fighter on that night, but that doesn't mean he was the better fighter.

Hagar Cohen: In his corner of the ring, minutes before the fight started, Cheyne was nervous and feeling the dreaded butterflies.

Cheyne Reese: And there's nerves, there's pretty much every emotion you could ever think of goes into that first step, when you hear your music pump you up and your name get called out to get in that ring.

Hagar Cohen: For the first four rounds, it was an even fight.

Cheyne Reese: One of us would be wearing shots, then the other one would be walking in and it would be their turn. It was just a really tough fight.

Hagar Cohen: Just before the fifth and last round, Mark's trainer Andrew Parnham told him: it's all or nothing.

Andrew Parnham: Going into the fifth round I was quite vocal in saying that there's a good chance it's coming down to the wire in this fifth round, you have to give everything you've got to be able to get the strap. That's as polite a way as I can put it, but yeah, there was a lot of pressure going to the fifth.

Hagar Cohen: With 10 seconds to go, Cheyne Reese slipped a powerful right hook punch to the side of Mark's head.

Cheyne Reese: My lead hand, my right hand just came around behind his guard and put him down. Just a little shock to the system for him, especially when we're at the fifth round and you're quite tired, and it was one of many hits that had come through. That was just the icing on the cake to make sure that that was my fight that time around.

Hagar Cohen: The punch sealed Cheyne's victory. Tragically, it also sealed Mark's fate.

Andrew Parnham: Mark started saying he was a bit nauseous, which is pretty alarming. Usually if a boxer says he's nauseous, for us as a trainer it's a sign of concussion. So we got the doctor straight away, and he got given some instructions, and he went back to the back sheds and was relaxing, and then I think it got a little bit worse. He started slurring his speech, and I think he got sick at the time as well. So then we thought, yeah, it's a heavy concussion, and the doctor was called straight away. The ambulance and doctor and everyone was doing their thing, and then I jumped into the ambulance and went to the hospital.

Hagar Cohen: At the same time on the other side of the world, Mark's long-time girlfriend Emma Salmon touched down in England on a family visit. She rang to see if Mark had won his fight.

Emma Salmon: I must have called like 30 times. Initially it's, oh, why is this phone not answering, and then after a few times you start to panic a little bit. Eventually I called and his trainer picked up his phone. He said, 'We're at the doctors with the doctor.' And I said, 'Why, what's happened?' Obviously it was for them to tell me…I don't think they knew at that point what was going on.

Andrew Parnham: When the doctors came out with the news it was horrible. His partner was overseas at the time. I called her from his phone, and it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do really.

Emma Salmon: And you just don't understand how it can go from picturing someone to be sitting there waiting to get a little stitch…I think it was just my imagination as well. You don't expect the worst. And he said, 'You're going to have to fly back, I don't think he's going to make it.' I just went, 'What are you talking about?'

Hagar Cohen: Two days later, Emma Salmon arrived in Australia with Mark's parents.

Now back at her home in England, Mark's mother Pam Fowler recalls what was the most traumatic time of her life.

Pam Fowler: He was there with all tubes, and we started talking to him. And I said to the nurse that was looking after him, 'Can he hear us?' And she said, 'No, he can't.' And then she bluntly said to us, 'You do know he's not going to make it, don't you?' We said, no, we didn't, we didn't know that at all. And that's when we found out he wasn't going to make it.

Emma Salmon: I really, really did believe that if I would walk in and speak to Mark, he would just sit up and be like, 'Hey! I'm fine now.' And that's so far from what actually happened. So we had to do these awful goodbyes to Mark lying there. The weirdest thing is he looked so normal. He didn't look like anything was wrong with him. I was, like, are you joking? Because you're looking at this person and you're going, how can this be real? You're just lying there and looking normal, and now these people are saying that you're not alive.

Hagar Cohen: Mark Fowler died in Liverpool Hospital in Sydney two days after his fight.

This is Background Briefing, I'm Hagar Cohen.

Mark Fowler's tragic death sent shockwaves through the combat sports industry. It triggered a major review of the way the sport was run in New South Wales, and a two-year police investigation.

Brett Hill: New South Wales police and the New South Wales government and the office of the coroner asked me to investigate certain things about Mark's death and about the combat sports industry.

Hagar Cohen: Detective Senior Constable Brett Hill:

Brett Hill: The promoters of these combat sports were pretty much left just to do whatever they wanted. I found that at that time it was pretty much like the wild west.

Hagar Cohen: During his investigation of the fight scene, Detective Hill came across plenty of examples of illegal activity.

Brett Hill: There were no checks and balances done. People raised concerns about amateurs fighting professional fighters, unlicensed fighters fighting, unlicensed fights occurring. One person even said that he was aware that there was a female fighting a male.

Evidence came to light that participants and trainers would go and see certain doctors that for a monetary fund would pass them on medical, without actually doing the actual medical. There was a doctor who would actually take some money and would fill out that and pass them without actually doing any medical checks.

Hagar Cohen: He became particularly concerned when he discovered bikie gangs had infiltrated the sport.

Brett Hill: Members of outlaw motorcycle groups were heavily involved in the field of Muay Thai kickboxing and other combat sports. They were patrons, they were trainers, and they were participants.

Hagar Cohen: So was that a concern to police?

Brett Hill: Of course it is. From a police point of view, if you don't know if a fight is occurring and they're aligned with some specific bikie gang and you don't put the appropriate police response to that, it leaves it open to certain things happening.

Hagar Cohen: This wasn't news to many within the industry. And there had been attempts from within the industry to get rid of the illegal elements.

Kickboxing veteran, Paul Grima says he's seen some pretty shocking things. He recalls once when fighters were switched,

Paul Grima: He goes, well, the person who jumped on the scales wasn't the person who jumped in the ring. I found that pretty bad, but it happens. There was a fight some time ago where there was no doctor present, it was someone dressed up in a suit.

Hagar Cohen: Pretending to be a doctor?

Paul Grima: Yeah. And it wasn't until the fighter was KOed that it was brought to their attention. I had a guy that I trained, I sent him back to New Guinea because he had Hep B, and I believe he fought on a show somewhere in Sydney not long after that. Hep B can be cured, but if it was Hep C or HIV there's a bit of a problem I think. Not only are you endangering the two fighters, or the other fighter and the corner crew and the officials and someone that could be walking past and be splattered with blood...it happens.

Hagar Cohen: Paul Grima says he never understood why those kinds of fights were allowed to go ahead. But things started to change after the death of Mark Fowler.

The New South Wales Minister for Sport and Recreation was forced into action.

David Hunt: It was shortly following the death of Mark Fowler in a Muay Thai contest. The Minister for Sport and Recreation at the time Graham Annesley asked the Office of Communities to conduct a review of the manner in which that legislation had been administered, and the Office of Communities asked me to conduct that review on their behalf as I was independent.

Hagar Cohen: David Hunt's review was completed in late 2011. It was kept confidential. Two years later, a Coronial inquest into the death of Mark Fowler was held. And for the first time, David Hunt's findings were made public. They were damming.

David Hunt: I think it would be fair to say that the legislation was relatively poorly administered, under-resourced, and there was limited ability to affectively regulate combat sport contests in New South Wales, and it concerned me because there were both health and safety and integrity issues in play.

Hagar Cohen: You were called up to do this thorough investigation so quickly, it was to do with the death of Mark Fowler, the kickboxer. Would you say that it took a death for something to happen, to shake the administration of the Department?

David Hunt: Yes.

Hagar Cohen: As part of his review, David Hunt looked at the way the industry had been regulated. It was a bureaucratic nightmare.

Combat sports are divided into amateur and professional. The government agency, called the Combat Sports Authority, was in charge of professional bouts, and the Department of Sport and Recreation looked after the amateurs.

Professional bouts had rules and regulations, and inspectors were sent out to supervise fight nights. The amateur bouts also had rules, but no one was monitoring them, so the rules were never enforced.

Promoters knew that if they ran fight nights with professional fighters but obtained amateur permits they'd avoid scrutiny and maximise profits because no one from the government was watching. In most cases these fight nights were illegal.

In his review paper, David Hunt described these fights as 'shamateur', that's sham amateur fights.

David Hunt: In some ways there was perverse incentive there for people who wished to avoid independent scrutiny or regulation to categorise professional contests as amateur contests, and this notion of shamateurism, I think that was occurring with some frequency in the industry.

There was a split system in New South Wales where Sport and Recreation was responsible for issuing permits for amateur contests, and the Combat Sports Authority was responsible for regulating professional contests. That was a system that I think creates the potential for matters to fall between the cracks, where somebody can say, well, this is an amateur contest, and then the professional body loses interest and the amateur body wasn't out there on the ground enforcing it.

Hagar Cohen: The body that controls the amateur side of the fight industry is the Department of Sport and Recreation. There, the director of participation and partnerships is John Egan. He says he did not know the rules were being flouted, and David Hunt's findings about shamateurism were a nasty surprise.

John Egan: Mr Hunt's observations was very alarming to us in Sport and Recreation. We believed that the people who were promoting amateur combat sport contests were complying with the conditions of their permit. Mr Hunt's very thorough and comprehensive report certainly brought information to my attention that I was not previously aware of.

Hagar Cohen: But according to internal government documents seen by Background Briefing, senior managers in the department were told about the illegal fights and the extent of shamateurism and they didn't stop it. The documents show that one long-time staff member was particularly concerned about the safety risks. For over a decade, he sent warning emails to his supervisors.

In January 2011, only months before Mark Fowler died from a brain haemorrhage, the employee sent an email to his supervisors complaining about how widespread shamateur fights had become in the last 15 years. He explained that fighters' safety had been seriously compromised by unscrupulous promoters who were motivated by money.

His email ended by saying:

Reading: Due to 15 years of inaction by the New South Wales government, the industry believes this behaviour is condoned from the highest levels.

Hagar Cohen: The email went unanswered. A few months later, after Mark Fowler died following a shamateur event, the departmental employee sent another email:

Reading: I was laughed at by authority members and departmental staff who said I was wrong, despite me saying that a death was inevitable and that we would all be before the Coroner having to explain our inaction. That is until the death of Mark Fowler, a registered professional fighter fighting on an amateur promotion. Apparently I went from being completely wrong to being 100% right in the space of one weekend.

Hagar Cohen: This staff member was not alone. Robert Hunter was a member of the Boxing Authority from 2000 until 2008. That's the sport's governing body that preceded the Combat Sports Authority. He was also concerned about the way professional fighters fought on amateur shows.

Robert Hunter: I was informed by another member of the Department of Sport who was attending amateur kickboxing events that there were professionals fighting on the amateur show.

Hagar Cohen: And what did you do with this information?

Robert Hunter: Well, I brought it up at the Boxing Authority, and it was brought to the attention of the Department of Sport. If you're a professional boxer or a professional kickboxer you've got to get authorised to fight, you can't just go and fight on an amateur program.

Hagar Cohen: After Robert Hunter resigned, another member of the authority again brought up those same issues in meetings and correspondence. That member didn't want to be named or to be interviewed by Background Briefing. But in an email to fellow authority members, which Background Briefing has seen, the member wrote about an amateur kickboxing show where the fighting rules and the rules about protective gear were flouted.

Reading: The fighters had no visible protection on them such as head guards, shin and instep pads or elbow pads, and they were fighting full Muay Thai rules; kicking, elbows and knees.

Hagar Cohen: In another email the member urged the authority to take action. He wrote that they should identify what rules had been broken on the night, and take the promoter to task. Otherwise, he wrote, a precedent would be set whereby promoters would do whatever they wanted.

Reading: In this case it would require a complete investigation of not only the promoter but all participants, including match makers, managers, trainers et cetera, to see who was registered and who wasn't.

I would also suggest the promoter should be involved, as the question of it being a legal event, especially a World Title, without registered judges, referee, timekeepers being used and no regulatory inspector involved or present, would raise the question of the legitimacy of the fight and the final decision.

Hagar Cohen: In response, a supervisor at the Department of Sport and Recreation wrote an email telling the concerned member to leave these issues alone. The email said that it wasn't the role of the Combat Sports Authority to worry about amateur events. But the member didn't give up. A few months later he sent this email to the president of the Combat Sports Authority:

Reading: As I have indicated several times at Combat Sports Authority meetings, our failure to ensure amateur MMA and kickboxing are at the safety standard is a constant worry, despite being told that it is the Department who is responsible.

Remember that the Australian Medical Association will raise hell if an amateur fighter gets injured because of inaction. To watch both professional MMA/ kickboxing and amateur MMA/ kickboxing and see no difference in the rules is a morale-sapping experience.

Hagar Cohen: This member's concerns were not investigated further.

Shamateurism, whereby professionals fight in amateur events to avoid scrutiny, became a central line of inquiry during the inquest into the death of Mark Fowler.

Mark's partner Emma Salmon attended the inquest. She says she was shocked when she heard at the inquest that the promoter of Mark's last fight, Tony Favuzzi, was charged and pleaded guilty to holding a shamateur event.

Emma Salmon: When I got to the inquest and I started hearing people talk, that's the first time that I even heard that Tony Favuzzi had gone on trial as well. So I'd been very, very much kept in the dark about a lot of things.

Hagar Cohen: Like Emma, Mark's trainer Andrew Parnham was completely unaware that the fight in which his best mate was fatally injured was illegal.

Andrew Parnham: When you get asked to put a fighter on a show, you put them on in good faith knowing that everything is signed, sealed and delivered, and that everybody is doing the right thing. Not only as a trainer, but as a fighter manager you put in your trust in the people that are looking after you, and that's the promoters, that's the sanctioning body, and on top of that it's the government and the Combat Sports Authority and the police.

Hagar Cohen: The investigating police officer, Brett Hill, says Tony Favuzzi had misled the regulator by pretending the event was amateur. Tony Favuzzi declined Background Briefing's request for an interview. But he's not the only one who flouted the rules ahead of Mark Fowler's last fight. There were also problems with the way the department issued the amateur permit to Tony Favuzzi.

David Hunt: There were certainly irregularities in this particular permit and the issue of permits more generally.

Hagar Cohen: Author of the Hunt Review, David Hunt:

David Hunt: There was an issue with the enforceability of it because if was issued to I think the World Muay Thai Council, which was an organisation that didn't actually have any legal personality. It wasn't a body to whom a permit should have been issued. One of my findings was that permits had been issued to bodies that couldn't be sued, you couldn't enforce legal obligations on them. That's something that the department tidied up and responded to very quickly.

Hagar Cohen: David Hunt discovered several problems with the way professional combat sports were being controlled. He found that the compulsory fit and proper checks of industry participants had never been done. Many fighters' applications for registrations were being accepted on fight nights, which meant that their medical information wasn't considered before their fights. As well, many fought without proof of identity, and casual inspectors approved fighters fighting, despite having no authority to do so.

David Hunt's investigation also found that there was a perception that members on the Combat Sports Authority were too close to the industry.

David Hunt: Certainly in my discussions with some people involved in the Combat Sports Authority and Sport and Recreation there was a perception that the role of the authority was to support the combat sports industry rather than regulate it. Structurally from a fundamental governance perspective there is a tension between having people who are involved and passionate about promoting their particular sport being the people responsible for policing it.

Hagar Cohen: Another questionable practice that David Hunt raised was the practice of government inspectors accepting cash payments from promoters and fighters during fight nights. This, according to his review, posed an 'unacceptable corruption risk'. The practice was so alarming that the department stopped it even before David Hunt concluded his review. But Background Briefing can reveal that the cash habit during fight nights had been denounced almost a decade ago in a confidential audit of the Department of Sport. The 2005 audit recommended that:

Reading: The Department of Sports, Tourism and Recreation develop appropriate cash handling procedures for receipting, securing and banking of all cash collected to minimise the risk exposure and/or perception of corruption.

Hagar Cohen: It recommended changes should be implemented by June 2005. They weren't. Then in 2007 a member of the Boxing Authority started complaining about it. Robert Hunter noticed that there were no receipt books to account for the cash.

Robert Hunter: I didn't know where that money was really going. There was often disputes with ring officials how much they should be getting paid and how much they shouldn't be getting paid. I made some inquiries about whether there were receipts being issued for this cash that was received, and I found that there were no receipts being issued.

Hagar Cohen: So what did you do about it?

Robert Hunter: I brought it up at the meeting there that receipts should be issued for the cash. In the beginning there I thought everything was fair and above board, but the longer I was in there the more I realised how many things were not being conducted properly.

Hagar Cohen: Why did you leave the Boxing Authority?

Robert Hunter: I found that I was in a never-ending battle. Every month when the Boxing Authority met, a lot of the stuff that I did get through eventually was just thrown by the wayside, and I'd had enough of it. I'd made complaints regularly to the Department of Sport, and at the finish-up I went to the Sports Minister with my complaints. I could see that the Sports Minister wasn't going to be doing anything about it, so I hung up my cue.

Hagar Cohen: Robert Hunter.

The corruption risks that had been identified in the 2005 departmental audit were reiterated in 2010 when another audit of the Department of Sport was conducted by the consultancy Deloitte. That audit again found that on numerous occasions cash had been taken by departmental staff, but it hadn't been properly accounted for and no receipts were issued. It also found irregularities in the way casual inspectors had been appointed.

When David Hunt investigated the regulators in 2011, he found the cash payments still happening. Again, he recommended it be stopped immediately.

David Hunt: It just is fairly self-evident that it's not appropriate if you are involved in regulating a particular body to be going out in the evening and taking cash from people involved in the industry. It creates a perception of the potential of a conflict of interest, and it also…if you have a number of people paying these sorts of fees on the night you may have people wandering around with significant amounts of cash in their pockets which creates safety and other issues as well. So that's certainly something that Sport and Recreation moved to address.

Hagar Cohen: Why, in your view, did the department act so quickly to address your concerns?

David Hunt: I think they were their concerns too. I think Sport and Recreation and the Office of Communities, of which it was a part, wanted to do the right thing.

Hagar Cohen: So they simply weren't aware of any of this?

David Hunt: I'd say that at a senior management level, no, they weren't.

Hagar Cohen: The director of participation and partnerships with the Department of Sport and Recreation is John Egan. He also sits in meetings of the Combat Sports Authority.

John Egan: The opportunity for the misappropriation of funds or even the perception that there is inappropriate behaviour taking place is very concerning.

Hagar Cohen: When did you first know about that practice happening?

John Egan: In Mr Hunt's report.

Hagar Cohen: So you weren't aware of the Deloitte report in 2010?

John Egan: The Deloitte report and also Mr Hunt's report.

Hagar Cohen: So after the Deloitte report identified that as high risk, what was actually done to address those concerns?

John Egan: I can't recall.

Hagar Cohen: As well as David Hunt's review, and the Deloitte audit, Background Briefing has learned there was another report done on behalf of the minister which was also highly critical of the way combat sports were being run. The Loxton Report in 2010 about the Combat Sports Authority was alarming. It found a breakdown in communications and trust between authority members, and that the environment at the authority was emotionally charged and divisive, to the point of no return. It warned that the authority's main objectives—the health and safety of industry participants, and public safety—were being neglected. It found that the authority appeared to be dysfunctional, and couldn't fulfil its role.

But John Egan from the Department of Sport and Recreation disagrees with the findings. He says a dysfunctional authority would not have any adverse impact on safety issues.

John Egan: There was a perception that the Combat Sports Authority at that time was dysfunctional. It may not have meant that there was a diminishment of the safety of combatants, because combat sports inspectors would have been attending professional contests and they would have been undertaking their duties, and part of their duty was safety of combatants. If a combat sports inspector believes that a fight should be stopped, a combat sport inspector has that power to do it through the referee. So the safety stuff I think isn't diminished by a dysfunctional authority.

Hagar Cohen: Right, you don't feel that the findings of the Loxton Report had any implication on fights, public safety or the safety of the fighters?

John Egan: No, not in my understanding.

Hagar Cohen: Background Briefing has obtained a letter sent to the president of the Combat Sports Authority in August 2011 saying no action had been taken to address the findings of the Loxton Report, or the Deloitte audit.

In the meantime, the popularity of combat sports continues to grow. The number of fight nights has increased to more than 160 a year in New South Wales alone.

At a fight night on a recent weekend, a fighter who was supposed to fight on the main event, pulled out because of a head injury.

Daniel Barber: My name is Daniel Barber, I'm a professional fighter, Muay Thai fighter. I was going to be main event. I made the decision about three weeks ago not to take the fight. I'd had three fights in four weeks and I had a couple of concussions, I was dizzy, I was having dizzy spells and then headaches and stuff. I went and saw the doctor and he suggested to get scans, and he didn't clear me for the fight. Too much, too soon.

Hagar Cohen: It's basically the doctor who told you that you shouldn't be fighting?

Daniel Barber: No, the decision was mine. It would have been fight number five within five weeks. Not smart. So I learned a valuable lesson, I'm not Superman.

Hagar Cohen: So tell me about the concussions before. How did that happen?

Daniel Barber: I had a pro boxing fight, I wore some really big shots. The damage was done. And then I fought that next week down in Melbourne, but I lost on points. It was like fighting blindfolded. I was not on fresh legs. Too much, too soon.

Hagar Cohen: And then you fought again the next week?

Daniel Barber: Yes, so that was…it all just accumulated over a short period of time. It may be the case I got a bit complacent.

Hagar Cohen: Downstairs and about to step into the ring is amateur Thai kickboxer Dan Roberts.

Dan Roberts: Energetic, ready to go. You know, you put in so much hard work. People don't see that you wake up in the mornings, run, you go train in the afternoons, you really push your body. This bit, sometimes it can mess with your head a bit, but I feel great, I love it, I just enjoy it.

Hagar Cohen: Dan's trainer says they almost didn't attend the fight tonight because they were told Dan had to fight with headgear, which is compulsory in New South Wales under amateur permit conditions.

Dan's trainer is Nick Stone.

Nick Stone: We've got this very thin stuff, very thin football headgear, which is legal. Headgear is a requirement. I've said to the promoter, I don't want to wear it, okay? I'm not interested in wearing it. He said, look, just tonight, you know. I'm a promoter as well and we don't wear headgear either. But I could get in trouble with the Combat Sports Authority, but it's a risk we're willing to take. But it should be optional.

Hagar Cohen: It may seem contradictory, but in fact many in the industry feel that headgear is unsafe, and that's why they refuse to wear it.

Now, you warned me that I'm going to be scared when I see you.

Paul Grima: They all think I'm part of an outlaw motorcycle club or a drug dealer, you know, people judge you by what you look like.

Hagar Cohen: Paul Grima, a kickboxing veteran, is one of the most vocal opponents of the headgear requirement.

Paul Grima: I'm dead-set against it, it's quite dangerous. It causes more brain damage, it allows a fighter to acquire more blows to the head. It's better to be knocked out. As brutal as that sounds, if you're not from the fight industry it does sound brutal, but it's better to be knocked out than to receive an accumulation of blows to the head. It also overheats the brain, it also blocks your peripheral vision, so in a Thai boxing, kickboxing fight you may not see a kick coming. In a Thai clinch I've seen many times the headgear get dragged over a fighter's eye, that blocks their vision. Most of the fighters won't wear it.

Hagar Cohen: He says he's told the regulators about this many times.

Paul Grima: I've told them I'm not going to comply and that they should change the rules.

Hagar Cohen: And what do they say to you?

Paul Grima: I could find myself banned.

Hagar Cohen: And you don't mind being suspended over this?

Paul Grima: If I get suspended, I get suspended. I'm still involved with the industry. I love the sport with a passion, I've been involved with it for 40 years, kickboxing, Thai boxing. I've got no problem with being policed, but let the experts do their job and police the experts. I've got nothing to hide. I don't want to do nothing unsafe.

Hagar Cohen: Can you tell me about the non-compliance letters that you've received?

Paul Grima: I have received non-compliances, some have been with the issues of headgear, and I've explained my reasons for not using headgear.

Hagar Cohen: In any case, you've never been penalised for any…?

Paul Grima: At this point in time, no.

Hagar Cohen: Paul Grima may break the conditions of his amateur permits for the best of intentions, but it shows that the rules are still not being enforced.

There's a widespread view that the Combat Sports Authority is a toothless tiger. And David Hunt's review reinforced this feeling. It found that since the mid '80s no one in the industry has ever been prosecuted or financially penalised.

David Hunt: The authority in various forms had existed since 1986, first as the Boxing Authority and then I think as the Boxing and Wrestling Control Authority, before it became the Combat Sports Authority. During my review I attempted to see whether it had ever attempted to take enforcement action against promoters or others for breaches of the system, impose fines, prosecute offences, and it hadn't. I think the fact that it had never actually attempted to enforce the legislation to the degree that would require it to go to court to do so, would have left some within the industry with a perception that it was something of a toothless tiger.

Hagar Cohen: David Hunt's recommendations have led to some important changes. For example, inspectors are now sent to monitor most amateur shows. However, Background Briefing has discovered that despite assurances of tighter control, since David Hunt's report, no sanctions have been imposed on any amateur promoters.

John Egan:

John Egan: Under the Combat Sports Act 2008 there is actually no power for Sport and Recreation to take definitive action. Where there are breaches under the Combat Sports Act 2008 in relation to professional contests, there is actually very clear parts of the Act about what action the Combat Sports Authority can take, but there isn't an equivalent part of the Act in relation to amateur combat sport contests.

Hagar Cohen: So as far as amateur contests go, why issue permits at all?

John Egan: Permits contain very important conditions that promoters should adhere to. For example, a permit condition is that a medical practitioner must be in attendance at an amateur combat sport contest.

Hagar Cohen: But what happens if the doctor is not present? There's nothing that can be done? There are no consequences to the promoter?

John Egan: If we became aware that there was an amateur combat sport contest taking place or took place where there was no medical practitioner, we would very, very seriously look at not issuing a permit to that promoter again.

Hagar Cohen: And has that ever happened?

John Egan: I'm not aware of any amateur permit applications that have been refused.

Hagar Cohen: There's new legislation that will give the regulators the ability to penalise those who break the rules, through on-the-spot fines. The new Combat Sports Act will be introduced later this year. In the meantime, many in the industry believe that unless the rules are enforced, another death in the sport is inevitable.

Kickboxer Mark Fowler's death shocked his friends at his Sydney based gym. Head trainer Andrew Parnham has yet to recover from the loss.

Andrew Parnham: I went through a lot of stages trying to figure out if it was me or if it's the sport or if it's something wrong with him, or if it was something I did, and something I did, and something I did....you run through a lot of different things. But we followed all the requirements, all the medical checks. Everything that we did, we did to our best. I feel personally I've gone past the stage of blaming myself, which I'm proud of. But I just miss him. I still miss him now. It's horrible, yeah.

Hagar Cohen: Background Briefing's coordinating producer is Linda McGinness, research by Anna Whitfeld, technical production by Andrei Shabunov, the executive producer is Chris Bullock, and I'm Hagar Cohen.