MMA fans that reside in New York had their hopes of seeing live professional MMA in the Empire State dashed on Monday when it was announced that the bill to legalize the sport in the state would not make it to a vote.
According to the New York Daily News, Speaker Sheldon Silver said, “It will not come to the floor this year.” Silver then offered some encouraging words, “I think it’s evolving. I don’t think two years ago it was a 50-50 proposition.”
Much to the chagrin of Marc Ratner, vice president of the UFC, there was not an up and down vote on the bill. Instead, according to the Daily News’ source, the vote was taken by a raise of hands. Ratner told the Daily News, “I feel 150% if we had a vote on the floor of the Assembly we would win. Not to get a vote is un-American.”
There was a great deal of hope that the bill to legalize the sport would pass this year. One of the people that was confident that the bill would pass was UFC president Dana White, who told MMAFightCorner in January, “It’s going to happen and I guarantee it’s going to happen this year.”
For now it seems that MMA fans from New York will have to be satisfied crossing the Hudson River to get their fill of MMA action. The UFC recently traveled to East Rutherford, NJ for UFC on FOX 3 and will head to Atlantic City when they present a UFC on FX card on June 22. That card, which will take place at the Revel Casino, will be headlined by a bout between Gray Maynard and Clay Guida.
It is very unlikely that this setback will discourage the UFC and fans of MMA from pushing for the legalization of the sport in New York in 2013.
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