UFC 204 was a show designed for one fighter (Michael Bisping) and one city (Manchester, England). UFC 205 on Saturday, Nov. 12 is so much more.
Twenty years ago, mixed martial arts was the Wild West of sports. It had few rules, little regulation and no equipment. It was labeled as “human cockfighting” by politicians and actively embraced the idea that it was an underground blood sport.
Unsurprisingly, that led to its banning in many states in 1997, just a short time before UFC 12 was to return to New York. Worse yet, that was followed by a number of pay-per-view carriers refusing to broadcast the sport, leaving the UFC with few places to set up events and few ways for fans to see them.
Obviously, things changed with time. The UFC cleaned itself up and improved its image. It returned to television, made the push to network television and, eventually, became a normal part of the sports world.
There was, however, one black mark that lingered from MMA‘s dark ages: The sport remained banned in New York.
Sure, it was easy to forget given the UFC’s gains at the box office and international expansion. And sure, it was easy to shrug it off as silly politics, given the fact that the lingering prohibition was largely rooted in a struggle between the UFC’s ownership group and the culinary workers union it viciously fought to keep out of its casinos.
Still, that blemish lasted for years on end. The UFC sank millions upon millions into lobbyists and lawsuits to push into the Empire State, which led to disappointment after disappointment…
Until March 2016. In a surprising turnaround, the New York State Assembly voted in favor of legalizing MMA, and the UFC is celebrating this turn with one of the biggest, best events in its history.
This is the UFC’s coming-out party, and because of that, it’s worth being excited and worth taking a good look at the entire event.