MMA Remains Illegal In New York After Bill Fails For Another Year

The UFC had high hopes that this year they would finally get a bill passed to legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York, but for the seventh time in as many years it failed to get through the New York State Assembly.

Key figures within the UFC had believed this was the year they’d New York to follow in the footsteps of every other state by finally legalize the sport after the long time Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver was removed from his post due to Federal corruption charges.

With new Speaker Carl Heastie believed to be more supportive of the UFC’s cause the promotion had been talking up the possibility of a blockbuster event at Madison Square Garden in December, but now those plans will have to be scrapped and it’s expected that Calgary in Canada will now be hosting an event on the same date instead.

This year it’s being claimed that MMA’s bill failed because the legislative session dragged on for an extra week which saw the bill being pushed back in the schedule, and by the time it could have been brought to the floor there were not enough Democratic Members left to push it through.

It’s believed that had there been a full contingent of Democrats in the room there would have been enough supporters of the bill to comfortably push it past the 76 vote mark required for it to become legal, and that’s not suprising as a UFC study had presented an independant study that concluded that doing so would result in a $135 million a year boost to New York’s economy.

Needless to say UFC officials are equal parts frustrated and disappointed with the news that once again their bill has fallen at the final hurdle.

“The corruption in NY politics is disgusting!!!!” Dana White angrily stated on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Mark Ratner, the UFC’s Vice President of Regularity Affairs admitted he was, “very disappointed” and, “thought that this would be our year”, but defiantely vowed that, “it’s not a matter of if but when in New York State.”

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.