New York Tells UFC to Go F*ck Themselves, Basically

Despite a high-profile appearance at Madison Square Garden last month in which the UFC announced its intentions to bring MMA to New York State — as well as a reported $75,000 in palm-grease to Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign — MMA Payout broke the news last night that Governor Cuomo neglected to include a provision in the state’s 2011-2012 budget that would sanction MMA in New York. In fact, Cuomo’s Executive Budget actually proposes eliminating the chairperson of the state athletic commission altogether. So not only is the Governor not backing MMA as Zuffa had hoped, he doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of combat sports in general.

At this point, the MMA ban in New York can still be lifted through the more traditional route of a legislative bill — of which there are currently two in the assembly and one in the senate, all awaiting review — but we saw how well that worked last time. Making MMA part of the state budget was supposed to be the easy way in, and it just ain’t happening. If I were Dana White, I’d be furious right now. Money has been donated. Big press conferences have been held. And now, the current timetable of MMA regulation in New York is: Who freakin’ knows?

Dana was pretty confident this was going to get pushed through. Looks like all his donations and money didn't work...Oh well...

 

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BTW getting rid of the chairperson of the state athletic commission =/= getting rid of the commission or not sanctioning combat sports at all.

These recent events aren't surprising at all. MMA is being kept out of NY because the unions that are fighting with the Fertittas have major pull with the state government. It's ridiculous, but it's not going to get resolved any time soon. Honestly, as a soon to be former resident of New York, I don't even give a **** at this point. I'm moving to Toronto next year, and it looks like the UFC is making it a priority to hold multiple events there every year, so everything is going to work out fine from my perspective.

 

http://www.cagepotato.com/new-york-tells-ufc-go-fck-themselves-basically/

It's an old article but naturally this went quietly under the radar as soon as it became evident Dana wasn't going to get his way. Frankly id completely forgotten about it.

 

I'd like MMA to be legal in NY. Very much, in fact. With that being said, it's nice to know that it's at least tricky to for an industry to buy votes with campaign contributions.*


* Not impossible, but tricky.

 

Except its not happening because another organisation (the unions) got there first.

 

At least the unions are theoretically an interest group working for their voting members. Emphasis on "theoretically".

 

NEW YORK NEW YORK!!!!

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