Tag: MMA in NY

MMA Bill Fails in NY Yet Ag-HOLY SH*T MMA FINALLY LEGALIZED IN NEW YORK

(“Everybody in the car, we’re going out for some celebratory gabagool!!” via Chris Weidman’s Instagram)

The struggle to bring MMA to New York has been a long, frustrating, and well-documented one. It’s a battle that has largely been fueled by a general ignorance of what the sport actually is, a corrupt union, and a group of even more corrupt politicians. First it was Bob Reilly comparing it to dogfighting, then it was that literal fraud Sheldon Silver shooting the MMA bill down at every turn. It’s been nothing short of a Sisyphean struggle since day 1.

As the years passed, so did the hope that our beloved sport would ever be legalized in one of the country’s biggest markets. And for the majority of yesterday’s absolutely bonkers Assembly meeting, it seemed like the bill was destined to fail once again.

But somehow, someway, it did the opposite of that.

Full story after the jump. 

The post MMA Bill Fails in NY Yet Ag-HOLY SH*T MMA FINALLY LEGALIZED IN NEW YORK appeared first on Cagepotato.


(“Everybody in the car, we’re going out for some celebratory gabagool!!” via Chris Weidman’s Instagram)

The struggle to bring MMA to New York has been a long, frustrating, and well-documented one. It’s a battle that has largely been fueled by a general ignorance of what the sport actually is, a corrupt union, and a group of even more corrupt politicians. First it was Bob Reilly comparing it to dogfighting, then it was that literal fraud Sheldon Silver shooting the MMA bill down at every turn. It’s been nothing short of a Sisyphean struggle since day 1.

As the years passed, so did the hope that our beloved sport would ever be legalized in one of the country’s biggest markets. And for the majority of yesterday’s absolutely bonkers Assembly meeting, it seemed like the bill was destined to fail once again.

But somehow, someway, it did the opposite of that.

Full story after the jump. 

The first person to speak up in this kangaroo court was Daniel O’Donnell, who began his argument against MMA in New York by comparing the sport to gay porn, stating “Two naked hot men rolling around on top of each other trying to dominate each other. …that’s gay porn with a different ending.”

We kid you not. Those are literally the words O’Donnell — who it’s worth mentioning is an open homosexual — used to *begin* his argument against MMA.

 

This fucking sport, you guys…it really brings out the weirdest in people.

Next on the floor was Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, who attempted to scale things back a bit by displaying the more common ignorance of the sport that we have become used to. After comparing MMA to “fight clubs” as part of a point that I still haven’t been able to determine and breaking out the classic “WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!!” argument, Glick then put her ignorance on full display with the following statement.

“No headgear. No gloves. Bare knuckles on the side of your head. That seems like a pretty serious situation.”

Glick then took to Twitter and verbally argued with an Edmund Tarverdyan parody account because this sport and everything it touches is pure lunacy.

Next up was Charles Barron, who likened mixed martial arts to slavery-OH COME ON NOW!!

But when the dust had settled, the bill to legalize MMA in New York had passed 113-25, lifting a 19-year ban on the sport. The UFC sent out a press release on the unbelievable news shortly thereafter, stating their intentions hold four annual events in New York for the next three consecutive years.

Speaking with reporters afterward, Lorenzo Fertitta was the closes thing to ecstatic as we’ve ever seen from him. (via MMAFighting):

“I think it’s gonna be an epic moment for the sport and for our company,” Fertitta said. “Obviously, right now all of our focus is on trying to put together the matches for UFC 200, but when we go to New York and we eventually debut at Madison Square Garden, me and Dana [White] and the rest of the team are gonna be very focused on delivering for the fans. We’re gonna put together the best available matches that we can. You’ll have the biggest names that we can possibly put on, the biggest names that are available at the time. Believe me, we want to knock it out of the park and we want to deliver for New York in a big way.”

“We are hopeful that we will be holding one, possibly two events [in New York] before the end of the year here in 2016,” Fertitta said. … “We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to get in at least two in before the end of the year.”

While the MMA bill has made it through the State Senate many times before, yesterday marked the first time that it ever passed on the Assembly floor. Now, we wait for NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign the bill into law, which he is expected to do.

It’s finally happening, you guys. It’s finally happening.

The post MMA Bill Fails in NY Yet Ag-HOLY SH*T MMA FINALLY LEGALIZED IN NEW YORK appeared first on Cagepotato.

MMA Is Defeated By the NY Court System: Entry #453621


(“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.

The post MMA Is Defeated By the NY Court System: Entry #453621 appeared first on Cagepotato.


(“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.

MMA Bill Fails in New York. Sky Is Blue. Water Wet.


(Wait, you brought Koscheck? NO WONDER NO ONE LIKES YOU. via Getty.)

Should I even bother dressing this article up with fancy words and intro paragraphs? It would just be reiterating that same sh*t New York-born/based MMA fans have been dealing with for as long as I can remember, with the lone exception being the arrest of Sheldon Silver — one of the biggest opponents of the MMA in NY bill — being arrested on corruption charges in January. Nah, I think I’ll just cut to the chase.

The bill to legalize professional MMA in NY has died once again before it reached the legislature. In other news: The sky is blue. Water is wet. Arrested Development was cancelled way too soon.

The post MMA Bill Fails in New York. Sky Is Blue. Water Wet. appeared first on Cagepotato.


(Wait, you brought Koscheck? NO WONDER NO ONE LIKES YOU. via Getty.)

Should I even bother dressing this article up with fancy words and intro paragraphs? It would just be reiterating that same sh*t New York-born/based MMA fans have been dealing with for as long as I can remember, with the lone exception being the arrest of Sheldon Silver — one of the biggest opponents of the MMA in NY bill — being arrested on corruption charges in January. Nah, I think I’ll just cut to the chase.

The bill to legalize professional MMA in NY has died once again before it reached the legislature. In other news: The sky is blue. Water is wet. Arrested Development was cancelled way too soon.

Here’s some politician saying political words about why the bill failed.

My big challenge today is that a number of members who are counted as supporters were just unavailable today because of the scheduling, that we weren’t expected to be here this long,” Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit, Monroe County, the bill’s sponsor, told Gannett’s Albany Bureau.

“And it’s really complicated efforts to get to 76. I think it’s looking less likely as the day wears on.”

I really don’t feel like wasting any more mental energy on this, so I’ll just chalk up the fact that professional, sanctioned MMA has failed in New York for the billionth time to “the ebb and flow of life.” At least everyone is now free to love who they want to, which is a slightly bigger deal than some dumb state being dumb. Ebb and flow. Ebb and flow.

The post MMA Bill Fails in New York. Sky Is Blue. Water Wet. appeared first on Cagepotato.

BTW, NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Was Arrested on Corruption Charges Last Week


(“And for my next impression, I give you a fish taking a shit.” via The New York Post.)

While we here at Castle CagePotato have been in full blown crisis mode these past few days, there has actually been a lot going on in the MMA world worth talking about. Go figure, right? Most notably, perhaps, is that NY State Assembly and supervillian of MMA, Sheldon Silver, was arrested on corruption charges related to accepting millions of dollars in undisclosed income from an NYC lawfirm. And because I gave you my word that I’d start publishing you Taters if you wrote in, after the jump is one such hot taek on Silver’s arrest, via CP reader Mike Reilly. Enjoy!


(“And for my next impression, I give you a fish taking a shit.” via The New York Post.)

While we here at Castle CagePotato have been in full blown crisis mode these past few days, there has actually been a lot going on in the MMA world worth talking about. Go figure, right? Most notably, perhaps, is that NY State Assembly and MMA supervillian, Sheldon Silver, was arrested on corruption charges related to accepting millions of dollars in undisclosed income from an NYC lawfirm. And because I gave you my word that I’d start publishing you Taters if you wrote in, after the jump is one such hot taek on Silver’s arrest, via CP reader Mike Reilly. Enjoy and continue to #RallyforCagePotato!

Sheldon Silver Arrested for Millions in Bribes and Undisclosed Income

By Mike Reilly

Remember our old buddy Sheldon Silver? He’s that NY State Assembly crank who hates MMA the way grandmas hate computers. (“Spawn of the devil!” as my gam-gam always says. All because she doesn’t know how to send a photo as an attachment.)

In a stunning instance of Things We’ve Known for Years, The Daily News reported last week that Silver was arrested by the FBI for, get this, corruption!

For those of you who may not remember (and those who’ve tried hard to forget), the story goes like this: Every year, Dana and the Fertitta bros. try to appeal a state-wide ban on MMA in New York. And every year, a liver-spotted sack named Sheldon Silver tells them to go f*ck themselves, bureaucratically speaking.

As everybody knows, Silver’s disdain for MMA has nothing to do with MMA itself. The almighty Culinary Union has a beef with the Fertittas relating to their refusal to unionize their Station Casinos in New York and has had Silver drop the hammer on every MMA proposal for the past umpteen years, spiting Zuffa (and Bellator, and everybody else) while denying the state of NY a titload of event revenue.

Unfortunately, Silver’s arrest has nothing to do with the Culinary Union, which would have been a perfect “2 birds, 1 stone” scenario for us vindictive MMA fanboys. The 70-year old Silver was just re-elected to an 11th term a few months back, but now, he’s facing five felony charges related to fraud and extortion, each of which could mean up to 20 years in prison (or 10 more years than he has left on this earth). The charges allege that since the year 2000, Silver “used the power and influence of his official position to obtain for himself millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks…”

The New York Post has some handy bullet points of the naughty things ol’ Sheldon has done. Among the allegations, Silver “took millions of dollars for legal work he did not do” and “directed state funds to a doctor who referred cases to another law firm that paid Mr. Silver fees.” If you’re a glutton for linguistic punishment, you can read the full complaint here.

So…ding-dong the witch is dead? Maybe.

The Speaker of the Assembly more or less decides which pieces of legislation get voted on. Silver’s been in that chair since 1994. He’s one of the most powerful men in the NY State government, and though Silver has agreed to step down while his arrest plays out, he will have a chance to reclaim his position if he beats the charges. And it just so happens that wealthy men and the justice system are not exactly natural enemies.

Plus, there are no clear frontrunners to take Silver’s place even if he was ousted, so there’s no guarantee that we’ll get someone with, you know, a little common sense. After all, before it was Sheldon Silver cock-blocking MMA, we had this guy Bob Reilly (no relation, btw), who you might recall was as uninformed about MMA as he was vehemently opposed to it.

As a New Yorker, I’ve been wishin’ and a-prayin’ for live MMA for a long time now.  I’m sick of going over to New Jersey to get my fix. (They have these scary orange guys with spiky hair and you get shot at if you say that Bon Jovi is “just OK”). But the absurdity that is the MMA ban in NY has come to feel like something that’s best put out of mind. Maybe I’ve just been burned too many times. Maybe I heard “Fedor coming to the UFC, for realz this time,” once too often. Maybe I’m all out of hope, is what I’m saying.

For all that Dana White has repeatedly said about being done trying with New York, you can bet that he and the boys will be calling a war council soon.

Give ‘em hell, fellas.  Just don’t expect me to hold my breath.

New York’s Professional MMA Ban Is Actually Posing a Health Crisis Now


(BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!)

Despite calling it my home for some 22 years, I have long since given up on the idea of MMA being legalized in New York. We’ve had the carrot dangled in front of us several times before, sure, but when push came to shove, the rug was always pulled out from under us thanks to what I can only describe as “bureaucratic big-whiggery bullshit.” I blame you for all of this, Bob Reilly, you rat-faced c*cksucker.

While the fight towards professional MMA legalization in NY rages on, there have been some small steps made over the years, mainly in the realm of amatuer MMA. Unfortunately, the lack of anything resembling regulation has created something of a health crisis, with athletes that have previously tested positive for everything from HIV to Hepatitis C flooding the state to compete in unsanctioned MMA and kickboxing matches after being banned from doing so in states with actual regulation. As Jim Genia wrote in a recent piece for Deadspin:

Nick Lembo, chief counsel for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board and overseer of all things MMA in the Garden State, lays out the issue as straightforwardly as anyone could.

“There have been many contestants who have been banned from regulated combative sport in New Jersey because of subdural hematoma, hepatitis C, HIV, detached retinas, and other medical concerns who have competed freely in amateur MMA and kickboxing in New York under the direct supervision of state-approved sanctioning bodies, or at shows without such direct supervision,” he says.

He can’t name these athletes—New Jersey privacy laws and federal HIPAA regulations prevent that—but according to him, dozens of them have fought and bled in New York rings and cages.


(BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!)

Despite calling it my home for some 22 years, I have long since given up on the idea of MMA being legalized in New York. We’ve had the carrot dangled in front of us several times before, sure, but when push came to shove, the rug was always pulled out from under us thanks to what I can only describe as “bureaucratic big-whiggery bullshit.” I blame you for all of this, Bob Reilly, you rat-faced c*cksucker.

While the fight towards professional MMA legalization in NY rages on, there have been some small steps made over the years, mainly in the realm of amatuer MMA. Unfortunately, the lack of anything resembling regulation has created something of a health crisis, with athletes that have previously tested positive for everything from HIV to Hepatitis C flooding the state to compete in unsanctioned MMA and kickboxing matches after being banned from doing so in states with actual regulation. As Jim Genia wrote in a recent piece for Deadspin:

Nick Lembo, chief counsel for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board and overseer of all things MMA in the Garden State, lays out the issue as straightforwardly as anyone could.

“There have been many contestants who have been banned from regulated combative sport in New Jersey because of subdural hematoma, hepatitis C, HIV, detached retinas, and other medical concerns who have competed freely in amateur MMA and kickboxing in New York under the direct supervision of state-approved sanctioning bodies, or at shows without such direct supervision,” he says.

He can’t name these athletes—New Jersey privacy laws and federal HIPAA regulations prevent that—but according to him, dozens of them have fought and bled in New York rings and cages.

The paradox is that this is happening because the state is the last holdout from a time when MMA was an underground sport, consigned to Indian reservations and foreign shores. New York banned professional MMA in 1997, at a time when it was more a Thunderdome-esque spectacle than anything else. It was probably the right thing to do; it was certainly what almost every other state was doing. When evolution took hold, though, transforming “two men enter, one man leaves” into a legitimate sport, legislators acknowledged the new reality. MMA is now legal and regulated throughout all of North America. 

In addition to the rampant, unregulated health problems that arise when no regulatory board is placed in charge of an increasingly-popular combat sport, the medical suspensions being placed on athletes in areas like Pennsylvania and New Jersey are all but impossible to uphold should a fighter simply choose to take his next fight in NY. This means the potential for multiple concussions sustained over short periods of time and the fatal health hazards that come with them.

“There’s no question it’s a problem,” says Greg Sirb, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. Like New Jersey, Pennsylvania has a vibrant amateur MMA scene that often sees New Yorkers showing up to throw down. Like New Jersey regulators, he can’t work with New York—ensuring, for instance, that fighters aren’t getting in the cage during the routine medical suspensions given to victims of knockouts—because there’s no one to work with.

“Once they fight here and we suspend them, I really have no way of knowing that’s being upheld,” he says.

“It’s very hard to know what you’re getting when you bring in a New York fighter,” says Sirb. “We don’t know if he’s been knocked out recently, we don’t know what his experience is. If I’m not comfortable with the kid, we just deny the fight. It’s not worth the risk for me as a regulator to say, ‘Come on in, you’re OK to fight.’ We’ll just deny the fight.”

Bernie Profato, executive director of the Ohio Athletic Commission, agrees about the reporting problem. “I don’t follow a fighter’s record and if they fight in New York, which is unregulated, no one would know if they fought because the results are never posted anywhere.”

Says Sirb of the situation in New York: “It’s simply a mess.”

And a mess that is currently causing way more complications than the actual legalization of MMA ever could. While some of the organizations putting on these events, like the World Kickboxing Association, are adequately funded and manned, how are the low-level organizations supposed to properly protect their fighters when they lack the proper governing bodies, or simply the bodies, to ensure that everything runs as smoothly and safely as possible?

Take the show sanctioned by the Muay Boran League in the Bronx last September, where a water bottle was left in the cage between rounds and stepped on by a fighter mid-fight. Or the PKF-sanctioned show in Deer Park last January, where a bout began with one of the fighters’ stools still in the cage. The same event, according to Genia, “was held in a catering hall, where the cage was elevated and so close to the ceiling that the taller fighters on the card were in danger of hitting their heads on a chandelier.”

For Christ’s sake, many of these unsanctioned, New York-based amatuer MMA events lack even the proper medical staff to assist the fighters in case of the most basic injuries, instead relying on “paramedics, acupuncturists, or calls to 911 operators.” Blood tests results are overlooked, documents are forged by coaches, and physicians are sometimes replaced by f*cking veterinarians cageside. It’s criminal negligence on a mass scale, except there are no laws in place to be broken, as Genia puts it.

Suffice it to say, New York has reached a point where the willful ignorance of its lawmakers (and the personal vendetta against the Fertitta brothers/Station Casinos spearheaded by the Culinary Union) could result in deaths. How long will it be before an amateur fighter dies at one of these unsanctioned events, like what happened in Michigan last year?

Check out Genia’s article in its entirety here.

–J. Jones

New York Tells UFC to Go F*ck Themselves, Basically

  ("This one. Right up your ass.")
Despite a high-profile appearance at Madison Square Garden last month in which the UFC announced its intentions to bring MMA to New York State — as well as a reported $75,000 in palm-grease to An…

 Andrew Cuomo New York MMA
("This one. Right up your ass.")

Despite a high-profile appearance at Madison Square Garden last month in which the UFC announced its intentions to bring MMA to New York State — as well as a reported $75,000 in palm-grease to Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign — MMA Payout broke the news last night that Governor Cuomo neglected to include a provision in the state’s 2011-2012 budget that would sanction MMA in New York. In fact, Cuomo’s Executive Budget actually proposes eliminating the chairperson of the state athletic commission altogether. So not only is the Governor not backing MMA as Zuffa had hoped, he doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of combat sports in general. 

At this point, the MMA ban in New York can still be lifted through the more traditional route of a legislative bill — of which there are currently two in the assembly and one in the senate, all awaiting review — but we saw how well that worked last time. Making MMA part of the state budget was supposed to be the easy way in, and it just ain’t happening. If I were Dana White, I’d be furious right now. Money has been donated. Big press conferences have been held. And now, the current timetable of MMA regulation in New York is: Who freakin’ knows?

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