You have to hand it to the UFC: They refuse to give up on New York.
After yet another recent setback scuttled a planned UFC event in April, company officials have now established November as the newest date for the UFC’s entrance into the Empire State.
To turn their dreams of seeing the Octagon in Madison Square Garden into reality, UFC leaders will need to solve a heretofore unsolvable obstacle: lifting the ban on professional MMA competition in New York, the only state where the sport remains illegal.
“We feel pretty confident that 2016 is the year. …The next date we’re targeting is November,” said UFC public relations head Dave Sholler at a Saturday news conference following UFC on Fox 18, which happened across the river from Manhattan in Newark, New Jersey (h/t Dave Doyle of MMA Fighting). “We’re committed to bringing the UFC to New York.”
Madison Square Garden was the intended venue for the April event, but it ultimately failed to come to fruition when a federal judge recently denied the UFC’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would have essentially granted the UFC an exception to the state’s MMA ban.
All is not lost for the cause, however, as the injunction request was just one front in the UFC’s increasingly complex effort to overcome deep-seated resistance in the New York House of Representatives and overturn the MMA ban.
In fact, although the effort has failed for years. There is reason for optimism, as new political allies, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, add new weight to the legalization push.
That may be why Sholler sounded an upbeat note for November when he spoke to reporters Saturday night.
“We’re going to still work hard and get here in New York and Madison Square Garden, the Barclays Center [in Brooklyn], to the entire state,” Sholler said. “It’s absolutely, 100 percent a top priority for us.”
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