(“Addishunally, I put fawhth dat mouthguards should be replaced wit’ slices of gabagool.” via Chris Weidman’s instagram)
Next to mankind’s eternal battle with death, the UFC’s battle with New York legislatures might be the most one-sided and ultimately futile effort in the history of ever, and I say that with 100 percent sincerity.
It’s gotten so bad — the constant, punishing defeats at the various governmental levels — that even the legitimate MMA media outlets have stopped covering it for the most part, save a friendly annual reminder of our failure when that time of the year rolls around. This year, however, it seemed as if the UFC knew something that we didn’t. Following former New York Assemblyman Sheldon Silver’s arrest and eventual conviction on corruption charges, the world’s premiere fight organization was apparently confident enough that its lawsuit against the state would pass that it went ahead and booked an event in Madison Square Garden for April 29th.
But the best laid plans are often shut down for no logical reason, so they say, and as such, the UFC’s primary injunction request was denied by a New York court earlier this week. MMAFighting passes along the all too familiar news:
Monday, Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York denied a preliminary injunction request by Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company, to allow the UFC to host events in New York while their larger lawsuit claiming the ban on MMA in the state is too vague to stand.
Their suit against the law banning MMA continues, but must work its way through the state’s Second Circuit before any further judiciary action can be taken. Legalization efforts have historically been pushed through the legislative chambers in the state, albeit unsuccessfully to date. More recently, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo included language in his budget that would allow the UFC and other promoters to host MMA events. However, if MMA authorization is still included in the final budget, the deadline for approval isn’t until March 31.
Speaking with reporters after the hearing, UFC COO Lawrence Epstein was expectedly dour, stating “We are disappointed by the District Court’s denial of our motion for a preliminary injunction and its effort to redirect the litigation to the state courts.”
“Today’s decision, while disappointing, only underscores the importance of UFC’s pending appeal to the Second Circuit. UFC will evaluate this decision with an eye to pursuing every effective avenue to bring New Yorkers the same live events available to spectators throughout the United States.”
And for yet another year, New York remains the *only* state in the US where MMA is banned, the health crisis it is causing as a result be damned. Someone tell Alicia Keys that it’s time to amend those lyrics.
The post MMA Is Defeated By the NY Court System: Entry #453621 appeared first on Cagepotato.