Paul Edelstein helped boxer Magomed Abdusalamov and his family get a $22 million settlement from the state of New York last year in a case that involved athletic commission negligence. Abdusalamov was left with brain damage after a 2013 boxing match at Madison Square Garden.

Now, Edelstein is focused on a broader goal: getting states and commissions to adopt new regulations for potential brain injures. Edelstein, a New York lawyer, wants to call it “Mago’s Law.”

His plan is simple enough: a “lower bar” for fighters getting transported to the hospital after a fight in which they sustain a significant amount of damage to the head.

Edelstein said if the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) just put Abdusalamov in an ambulance right away rather than him having to take a cab to the emergency room later, it could have made all the difference for him. Abdusalamov ended up having a blood clot on his brain and had to be put in a medically induced coma.

The boxer survived, but will likely live the rest of his life with serious neurological deficits. He cannot walk and cannot speak.

“In Mago’s case, it would have 100 percent made the difference between him walking, talking and having a normal existence compared to the way it is now — 100 percent,” Edelstein told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. “We don’t want to see that happen to anybody else. That is an attainable situation in combat sports.”

Edelstein said two things should be codified in “Mago’s Law.” An athlete who has sustained damage to the head should immediately go to the ER and be given a CT scan immediately. If a subdural hematoma is found, the fighter would have surgery right away to remove it. Another possibility is have the athlete rushed to the hospital for observation. If physical signs appear, then the doctors can respond with a CT scan and further treatment.

Ambulance trips to the hospital and exams like a CT scan can be costly. With different regulations in different commissions, there are different provisions as to who pays for that level of care. Edelstein said either commissions or promotions need to bear the brunt of that cost — because it’s better to pay it out on the front end than have to deal with a lawsuit on the back end from a financial perspective.

“It’s a little bit more expensive to pay my bill after a guy has what happened to Mago happen,” Edelstein said. “And forget about the financial consequences of what I do. How about just the personal consequences to this guy and his family?”

Brain injuries, concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have become hot-button topics in all sports. Just last week, there was a study released in the neurology journal “Brain” that linked repeated small blows to the head to CTE. In other words, the blows to the head don’t even have to cause a concussion for them to eventually add up to CTE.

In Edelstein’s mind, there is an inherent risk in combat sports, one that the athlete accepts. It would be hard to regulate the blows to the head out of MMA and boxing. However, he believes that it would be far simpler to get fighters immediate treatment for potentially immediate, life-altering brain injuries like the one Abdusalamov sustained.

“If combat sports are gonna exist and you’re gonna allow it and you’re gonna make money off of it and allow everybody to make lots of money off of it, then you should make it as least likely as possible that one of these guys has an injury that could have been prevented,” Edelstein said. “You’re not gonna prevent a guy from having broken hands and arms or broken bones in his face from getting a punch. I understand that. There’s no way to stop anyone from getting that in this situation. But you can stop a brain injury from becoming life-long devastating or death-producing if you put in place certain regulations to get these guys care faster and more efficiently than happen to Mago. Also, financially. You take away the financial road block for that.”

The goal for Edelstein now is to get the ear of legislators and the public. He said his office has been in contact with U.S. Sen. John McCain’s staff as well as the staff of New York State Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn. Edelstein envisions “Mago’s Law” as something that would be widespread, not just in New York. But with different regulatory bodies in different jurisdictions, it makes things harder.

“I don’t see why it shouldn’t be nationwide,” Edelstein said. “One of the major problems with boxing is that it is not federally regulated and it’s left to the states, so there’s no uniformity. There’s no uniformity in the rules and regulations and that again is a major problem throughout boxing’s history and it’s the same for MMA. It would seem to make perfect sense to have either a federal legislation or just a unified one rather than what we have now.”

There is no change in sight with regards to a national commission for combat sports. However, there are federal laws like the Ali Act for boxing that exist. A bill that would extend the Ali Act to MMA is currently in the U.S. House of Representatives. Edelstein said he would be interested in getting “Mago’s Law” or something like it added to federal legislation.

“We’re well aware that all the combat sports require medical personnel to be there and monitor these guys, stop fights if necessary and attend to them afterwards,” Edelstein said. “But that’s a lot different than having somebody in an emergency department setting, where they can get diagnostic tests that would conclusively rule out the type of injury that Mago had and save lives.

“That can’t happen at an arena. It didn’t happen at Madison Square Garden, the most famous arena in the world and obviously in the biggest and best city in the world. So it’s obviously not going to happen in Buffalo or Rochester or a smaller venue that has MMA fighting.”

New York State conducted an investigation on its athletic commission following the Abdusalamov incident and did find major issues. One of the after effects of that was a $1 million traumatic brain injury insurance policy requirement for promoters who run shows in New York. So, promoters would be financially culpable for issues like the one with Abdusalamov.

That’s all well and good, Edelstein said. But that has nothing to do with prevention, just taking care of liability on the back end — after a terrible injury happens.

“The regulations that got changed, in my opinion, were cosmetic,” Edelstein said. “In other words, ‘Let’s have more insurance so when a lawyer sues’ — like me — ‘there will be some coverage for him to get, so he’ll go away.’

“I’m all for that, but how does that prevent the injury itself or the real tragic injury from happening. It doesn’t do a thing. Nothing.”

“Mago’s Law,” though, would, Edelstein believes. And that’s why he’ll continue pushing for it.

“What do we get out of this?” Edelstein said. “We get the knowledge that we changed something. We made the sport safer, we prevented somebody else from having happen to them what happened to Mago. No matter how much money I get this guy — and I got him a ton of money and I’m gonna get him more — that isn’t gonna do a damn thing for his kids and his wife for him in terms of changing what happened to him.”