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matches now are often conducted without proper rules, referees, testing, medical personnel and other measures to protect the fighters.
• "It's a very safe sport. It just needs to be regulated," said David Martin, a Sioux Falls lawyer who represents two dozen mixed martial arts fighters.
• Martin said the bill would get rid of nearly all those currently putting on so-called mixed martial arts fights in South Dakota. The measure's supporters said fights held in recent years have been unregulated and unsafe.
• Supporters also said creating a commission would allow nationally recognized boxing and mixed martial arts matches to be held in South Dakota.
• Paul Hunhoff of Yankton, who recently started fighting in mixed martial arts events in nearby states, urged lawmakers to pass the bill, saying regulations would allow more South Dakotans to take part in the sport. He said regulations would ensure fighters are tested, examined by doctors, covered by insurance and paid as promised.
• "When proper precautions are taken, it's no more dangerous than any other sport," said Hunhoff, the son of state Sen. Jean Hunhoff, R-Yankton.
• The senator, a nurse, said South Dakota needs to regulate mixed martial arts to encourage safe fights.
• "Let's give them, our youth, an opportunity to participate in their sport and achieve their dream," Sen. Hunhoff said.
• Rep. Steve Hickey, R-Sioux Falls, and Rep. Scott Craig, R-Rapid City -- both pastors -- proposed scrapping the bill and replacing it with language banning mixed martial arts, but the committee rejected that idea.
• Hickey said a half dozen other states ban mixed martial arts fights. He said those fights are an indication of society's increasing acceptance of violence, which sends the wrong message to children.
• "The line needs to be drawn somewhere... I hope you'll agree mixed martial arts is over the line of what is acceptable," Hickey said.
•

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Neighbors say they're heartbroken over the fiery weekend wreck that killed a Sioux Falls couple and two of their children.
• James and Julie Vollmer and two of their children, Alyssa, 16, and Caleb, 13, died Saturday in a one-vehicle crash west of the city on Interstate 90. Authorities say James Vollmer was driving a 2005 Ford Explorer that entered the median, crossed over a dry creek bed and struck an embankment.
• The family leaves behind a daughter, who was away at college.

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