Thursday, January 27, 2011

Will Mixed Martial Arts Ever Be Legal in NY

By William Stone


Despite the success of Mixed martial arts within the last 5yrs, it still has not stated the status it rightfully warrants. While millions of fans can't barely wait until the few weeks finally end in between UFC and Strikeforce cards, there's still many cities and states in the USA that have yet to leap on the Mma wagon. Many feel it is unsafe, and even not regulated properly.

Certainly UFC President Dana White has argued this point to the end proclaiming that it's so regulated for a professional sport that it puts a number of other nationally public ones to shame. Perhaps it is simply the danger that the sport undoubtedly brings to the table as being an Mixed martial arts fighter is not any walk in the park that frightens some law makers off, but at the end of the day it's a sport and also a business no less.

For a very long time, the UFC have been dancing around the state of NYC and trying it's best to get them on the roster of terrific places to hold fights. However, thus far they've yet to get on board. Dana has offered the state of holding two Ultimate fighting championship cards there each year, which would certainly bring plenty of income in for the region, in return for sanctioning mma of Mixed martial arts in Ny. Those two cards annually could well be held in the famous Madison Square Garden then one more somewhere in upstate New York.

NYC hasn't been a fan of Mixed martial arts, that truly does seem odd considering it is a huge city for mma of Boxing, but is completely against Mixed martial arts. In 1997, the state actually completely banned MMA and is moving forward to do this once more. It really fails to add up to most fans, of which New York City has a huge market prepared to support Mixed martial arts within their home towns with the cards having the potential to bring in over twenty million dollars a year. New Jersey has jumped on board and it has confirmed how profitable Mixed martial arts could be across the east coast. The New Jersey area being so near to a lot of neighborhoods in New York, has opened up it's doors to Mixed martial arts and are making money handsomely from doing this. For the many fans that cannot have a great Mixed martial arts show in New York City, they take a short road trip to Jersey and obtain the Mixed martial arts fix they require for now.

Strikeforce will be holding a big venue in New Jersey shortly, which makes it a lot more obvious that there's in fact a market for Mixed martial arts there. Will this profit gain from holding Mixed martial arts events in NYC alter any opinions for all those responsible to alter it? The lobbyists and assemblymen that once referred to Mma as "barbaric" could always attend a few fights and then form their rules and opinions off of those experiences, but that day may never come any time soon. It appears that for now, New York City residents will just have to wait it out and hopefully sooner or later the Mma ban will come to an end there. There might be a silver lining to this cloud as Mma was illegal in a number of states for a long time, and currently has less than a handful to permit the sport.




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