Harrisburg, PA – Greg Sirb, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission (SAC) and the longest-tenured director of any state athletic commission in the nation, will retire Friday, Sept. 29.
"Greg has been instrumental in shaping the landscape not just of Pennsylvania's state athletic commission but also of athletic commissions across the country," said Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt. "During his 33 years here, Greg has left an indelible mark on innumerable athletes through the sports and events he's overseen."
Since becoming SAC's executive director in January 1990, Sirb has overseen and sanctioned wrestling and boxing matches and mixed martial arts (MMA) events, as well as athlete agent registration. Over the last three decades, he has served seven governors and 14 Secretaries of the Commonwealth.
Sirb has regulated an estimated 2,000+ boxing events and 1,100 MMA events in Pennsylvania, and he supervised boxing events in 21 other state and tribal jurisdictions. He brought many high‐profile national and international boxing matches to Pennsylvania, including Olympic boxing trial qualifiers and the historic boxing event in 2016 known as "Duelo del Siglo" (Duel of the Century), during which American and Cuban amateur boxers sparred on the Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh.
Sirb has also conducted numerous judging and referee seminars throughout the United States, and his institutional knowledge of both boxing and MMA has been a valuable resource for many state and tribal commissions. He testified on numerous occasions before U.S. House and Senate committees in Washington, D.C., concerning the activities of professional boxing and MMA.
One of the founding members of the Association of Boxing Commissions, Sirb also served as its president from 1996 through 2001. He was a 2001 inductee to the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves Hall of Fame and is a member of the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
In 2022 alone, the SAC regulated 40 professional boxing events, the fourth most of any state in the nation, and 30 MMA events. The commission also sanctioned 71 amateur boxing events, nine kickboxing/Muay‐Tai events, and 353 professional wrestling events.
A native of Sharon, Pennsylvania, Sirb received a bachelor's degree in communications from Edinboro University, where he wrestled in the early 1980s and was named a two‐time all-American. He also earned a master's degree in public administration from Penn State University.