Last month the UFC held a rally to tout their economic impact study results, claiming that two UFC events in the state of New York would generate $23 million in state revenue. Today we still don’t seem any closer to seeing mixed martial arts in the biggest media market in the world. MMA Junkie with the report:
Hopes that recently elected governor Andrew Cuomo could speed the process of getting MMA to New York were dashed by the recent release of his 2011-2012 budget proposal.
Conspicuously absent from a host of measures that aim to close the state’s $10 billion budget deficit is language to legalize the sport.
The news drew frustration today from UFC president Dana White, who said he is “done with predictions in New York.”
The Fight Lawyer talked about their recent efforts with Frank Shamrock to meet with various New York assemblymen. The push has been on from all sides in mixed martial arts to get the sport regulated in N.Y. but some of the loudest voices in the debate continue to be held by men like Bob Reilly.
Fight Opinion transcribed some of the recent Pro MMA interview with Mr. Ryan. The following comes from the F.O. transcription:
LARRY PEPE: “(What) is your opposition to (MMA) exactly?”
ASSEMBLYMAN REILLY: “Well, first off, there’s many, you know, Larry as you can I think understand I’ve heard all the pros and cons of Mixed Martial Arts, including you know ‘I just don’t understand.’ I do understand, I just disagree with the advocates on many points and one I hear many times, ‘well, the rules have changed.’ Well, the rules have changed or rules have been instituted, but the rules are not sufficient for the protection of the fighters or for the, um, welfare of our society as far as its violence in the sport and I would only point out how Michael Kirkham was killed recently in South Carolina on the old ground ‘n pound move where he was knocked to the ground, lay on his back, the other fighter came and proceeded to pound him in the head. That is not safer than boxing, another irrational, I believe, um… advocation for Mixed Martial Arts, but that is obviously a very dangerous move. But when a man or woman can take another man or woman, grab them by the head, and knee them in the head, when you can jump on somebody from a standing position as they lie on the ground and pound them in the head when their head is against the floor or the mat, um… this is brutality and danger beyond what’s acceptable. So I don’t find, in some way, I don’t find the rules acceptable today.”
…
ASSEMBLYMAN REILLY: “But step back and look at the rationale. To say, ‘well, 10 people a year are killed in boxing and not that many are killed in Mixed Martial Arts, therefore we should sanction Mixed Martial Arts.’ It’s just a horrible, irrational argument. Now, on looking at this sport for the last three years and having the idea of boxing come up, come up many times as ‘it’s less dangerous than boxing’ which I don’t agree with and I have studies that show that, um… the fact is, I grew up being a boxing fan, all right? Muhammad Ali, in fact I go back to Rocky Marciano, but all of our great fighters and I enjoyed it and thought it was a great sport, but today I don’t think professional boxing, as opposed to amateur boxing, professional boxing I don’t think would be legalized in many states today because of the danger to the fighters. So, I just dismiss that argument of ’safer than boxing.’ One, I don’t, you know, boxing has a much longer history, there are many more boxing matches than there are MMA matches. And it’s something, as I say and this is not entirely facetious, more people are killed fishing than in boxing, so let’s eliminate fishing. Well, no. What we do is we put in safety measures. For example, in New York state, we have rules where in certain boats you have to wear a life preserver.”
Reilly is reducing himself to the status of goof the more he talks. Claiming that things like “striking force of the blows” is somehow a part of the unified rules of MMA while ignoring that “effective striking” exists in boxing and then dismissing that because amateur boxing has a point system is fairly incredible. This is different from the long-term safety argument (which I hate leaning too hard on since MMA is not honestly “safe” in the very definition of the word) in that it is simply an unwillingness to admit that the “damage your opponent” idea is not unique to mixed martial arts.
I don’t want to pick on grumpy Uncle Bob too much here. So let’s leave it on a slightly more positive note, again from the MMA Junkie piece:
“If we were able to get it to the floor, we’d probably pass it with Republican votes,” said Steve Englebright, who chairs the assembly’s Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development Committee, in an interview with MMAjunkie.com this past June. “But there is a desire, I think, on the part of many of the members of our Democratic majority to resolve this matter satisfactorily within our own [party] before submitting it to the uncertainties of a debate.”
With Cuomo’s snub of MMA, the fate of legalization rests on three MMA-related bills currently on the docket for this year’s legislative session: two bills in the assembly and one in the senate. The state assembly bills are awaiting review in the Tourism, Arts and Sports Development committee, while the senate bill has been refereed to the Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation committee.