The way Casey Oxendine tells it, he was at the Association of Boxing Commissions’ annual conference in San Diego last month, getting ready to explain to the directors of various state athletic commissions why they should sanction a 2-on-2 fighting event known as Arena Combat, when he ran into veteran MMA referee John McCarthy. They got to talking, and “Big” John, who was just getting ready to leave, asked what Oxendine’s presentation was about. “I kind of explained it,” Oxendine told MMAjunkie, “and he looked at me sort of funny. He said, ‘You’re about to get torn to shreds trying to get this thing passed.’ I just smiled and told him, ‘Well, that’s the kind of thing I live for.’” Oxendine did not, as it turns out, get torn to shreds. Which is kind of amazing, when you consider that what he was proposing was a brand of 2-on-2 fighting in a giant, obstacle-strewn arena, an event that at times resembles a small gang fight spanning some sort of demented playground. Somehow, according to Oxendine, when he explained this to the people responsible for keeping the world of combat sports safe and sane, “It actually went over extremely well.” That claim is backed up by Andy Foster, the executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, who was in attendance when Oxendine made his sales pitch