In what was supposed to be a day of oral arguments pertaining to the State Attorney General’s most recent motion to dismiss, attorney John M. Schwartz — representing the Attorney General’s office — acknowledged unequivocally that the law prohibiting pro MMA did not apply to amateur versions of the sport, and that as per the statute, a pre-approved third-party sanctioning body could oversee MMA events in the state. The admission of the latter prompted the counsel representing Zuffa’s interests to say that if that were truly the case, then there’d be no further need to pursue the lawsuit – which in turn prompted the presiding Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S District Court of the Southern District of New York to push both sides to immediately settle…
Notwithstanding whether a settlement is reached, the door is now open for Zuffa — or any other MMA promotion — to circumvent the ban by utilizing one of the pre-approved sanctioning bodies enumerated in the statute. Those sanctioning bodies include the World Karate Association (since renamed the World Kickboxing Association, a.k.a. the “WKA”), the Professional Karate Association and the U.S. Judo Association, among others…
In what was supposed to be a day of oral arguments pertaining to the State Attorney General’s most recent motion to dismiss, attorney John M. Schwartz — representing the Attorney General’s office — acknowledged unequivocally that the law prohibiting pro MMA did not apply to amateur versions of the sport, and that as per the statute, a pre-approved third-party sanctioning body could oversee MMA events in the state. The admission of the latter prompted the counsel representing Zuffa’s interests to say that if that were truly the case, then there’d be no further need to pursue the lawsuit – which in turn prompted the presiding Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S District Court of the Southern District of New York to push both sides to immediately settle…
Notwithstanding whether a settlement is reached, the door is now open for Zuffa — or any other MMA promotion — to circumvent the ban by utilizing one of the pre-approved sanctioning bodies enumerated in the statute. Those sanctioning bodies include the World Karate Association (since renamed the World Kickboxing Association, a.k.a. the “WKA”), the Professional Karate Association and the U.S. Judo Association, among others…
Under the 1997 law [banning professional MMA in New York] and by the Attorney General’s own admission, sanctioning by a third-party organization is a viable way around the ban. In addition, as long as the law remains on the books, the New York State Athletic Commission has no regulatory authority over MMA and would therefore have no oversight over such events.
“We’ll take it,” said UFC in-house counsel Timothy Bellamy, who was present at today’s proceedings. “We’d rather have the state lift the ban and we go that route first, but we’ll know in the next two months if that’s going to happen.” If it doesn’t, said Bellamy, then the UFC would use the third-party-sanctioning option.
The UFC is facing the fight of the company’s life this Wednesday in U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood’s Pearl Street courtroom, leading a group of plaintiffs contesting a 1997 law that made the sport of mixed martial arts illegal in the state of New…
The UFC is facing the fight of the company’s life this Wednesday in U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood’s Pearl Street courtroom, leading a group of plaintiffs contesting a 1997 law that made the sport of mixed martial arts illegal in the state of New York.
It’s a battle that has raged for years, quietly at first, but publicly and in earnest in 2007 when the UFC began to attack New York’s ban in the press and in the legislature, pumping millions of dollars into the state in attempt to bring the sport to the historic Madison Square Garden.
No one knows exactly how this fight will end. But it may have begun in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a Kenpo Karate expert named Keith Hackney. Six times on that fateful night in December, 1994, Hackney’s fist was raised. Six times it fell, finding its mark again and again, targeting an opponent lying flat on his back.
There’s nothing unusual about that on its face. Today we see that kind of action on network television, not just prime time on the Fox family of networks, but heavily advertised during NFL football games as well. Even back in 1994, when Hackney took on Joe Son in the first round of the fourth UFC tournament, the nascent sport was already well on its way to being a pay-per-view mainstay.
What was different in this case was the target of Hackney’s blows—Son’s unprotected groin. As each blow landed the audience and even the battle-hardened announcers couldn’t help but cringe. Hackney’s attack was undeniably brutal, but, at the time, well within the rules of engagement.
“I didn’t bite or eye gouge anybody. They were the only things you weren’t allowed to [do], but if you did it, you’d just lost $1,000,” Hackney told Sherdog,com. “But nobody said anything about groin shots. I’d probably do some different things today.”
Those six punches did much more than weaken his opponent, allowing Hackney to win the bout with a choke in less than three minutes. They became, captured for all time on video tape, the clearest and most visceral example of the sport’s potential brutality. When politicians came in earnest to take on the sport, as it was inevitable they would, the Hackney assault was always among their most powerful pieces of evidence.
Senator John McCain used it, along with a handful of the other ultra-violent clips, to help lead a nationwide campaign against the new sport, sending letters to all 50 governors urging them to ban what he called “human cockfighting.” And McCain was not alone. Hackney’s testicular assault was also a key piece of New York State Senator Roy Goodman’s campaign against the sport.
Goodman told his fellow Senators according to a written transcript of their debate in early 1997:
In the particular film to which I refer, which I will show you gladly in my office, or at least unhappily in my office since it’s quite revolting, there is a deliberate effort to take a fist and to pummel directly the vital parts which are situated between the legs of one contestant. It is done repeatedly and viciously. It is done with no other intent than to visit the worst kind of injury upon the opponent.
With Hackney’s inadvertent help, Goodman was able to make his case. Then Governor George Pataki and New York City Mayor Mayor Rudy Giulani joined Goodman to take their anti-MMA rhetoric to the press, most notably The New York Times, and to the people.
”I think extreme fighting is disgusting, it’s horrible,” New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said at the time. “I happen to be a boxing fan, have been all my life. And I know there are issues regarding boxing, and they are serious ones. But this is way beyond boxing. This is people brutalizing each other.”
What had started as an argument with the athletic commission about how to regulate the sport had suddenly become something else entirely. On February 7, 1997, after the Athletic Commission imposed an onerous set of new rules, including a demand for the UFC to construct a 40-foot Octagon on three days notice, the promotion moved their 12th event from New York to Dothan, Alabama.
Weeks later, the sport was banned outright in the state of New York.
“We felt like observers at our own funeral,” former UFC executive Campbell McClaren told me in Total MMA. “…Everyone really jumped on the bandwagon and they quickly passed legislation banning us. We later found out…that it was done in a very illegal and bogus manner…we were still f*cked. It didn’t matter.”
In the years since, the UFC has taken major steps forward to protect fighter safety. By the end of 1997 they had eliminated the groin strikes Hackney found so effective, and by 2000 were being regulated by neighboring New Jersey. Nevada soon followed, and with them, the world.
New York is the last major market that bars the UFC, which has tried and failed to address the issue through the legislative process. Every year, MMA fans are hopeful New York will finally join the 45 other states that have legalized and regulated the sport. And, every year, after passing in the State Senate, the proposed bill is stuck in a bureaucratic morass of the State Assembly, failing to make it to the floor for a vote.
They’ve had difficulty with the legislative process. It’s not that they’re losing in the legislative process—they can’t even get the thing up to a vote in the Assembly. It’s not uncommon, if you can’t get the legislative process to work, to go to court. And that’s what we did. We’ve been talking about it since February, but the UFC really wanted to give it all that they could through another legislative round. And they did, with the same outcome they’ve had in the past. And so we moved forward with the lawsuit.
In August, two of the UFC’s seven counts, its reasons to invalidate the New York law, were rejected by Judge Wood, who decided there was a rational basis for the law, both in 1997 and today. Left in limbo were five other counts, all of which will be decided in court on Wednesday.
Of the remaining constitutional claims, Friedman sees great potential in the idea that mixed martial arts is an artistic expression protected under the First Amendment. Citing Bruce Lee, among others, in their claim, the UFC lawyers believe that a fight is much more than a fight. It’s creative expression protected by the law:
For First Amendment purposes, there is an essential difference between banning conduct in all circumstances and banning that conduct (as is done here) only when it is done for the purpose of entertaining a live audience. Murder is illegal in New York, whether it is done by amateurs or by professionals, whether it is done in public or in private, and whether an exempt organization sanctions it or not. The State’s approach to MMA is entirely different because it allows the conduct generally, and only prohibits that conduct when it is performed with the intent to entertain an audience. Countless people lawfully do MMA every day in gyms across the State; they watch it on pay-per-view and even on the big screen at Madison Square Garden. The State makes MMA a crime only when it is performed for the purpose of entertaining a live audience.
The UFC believes the law to be overly broad, seeking to subject not just the competitors and promoters of the event but anyone who “knowingly advances or profits from a combative sport activity” to criminal penalties. While Senator Goodman denied that was the law’s intent, others in the 1997 Senate session believed the law could be read that way.
According to the transcript, Senator Rick Dollinger told Goodman during debate:
I understand…that you as the sponsor did not intend to affect pay per view. But there’s nothing in this document that would prevent the prosecution of Time Warner or MSG for putting on pay per view an ultimate fighting match because the language is broad enough.
Senator Franz Leichter echoed those sentiments. “It’s not a carefully drafted bill,” the Senator said in discussion. “…[T]his bill would seem to imply that any activity in this state related to ultimate fighting, wherever, in Alabama, New Jersey, and so on, could be a criminal act.”
The plaintiffs also argue that vague language and 15 years of uneven enforcement have created a law that is nearly impossible to interpret. Lou Neglia’s “Vengeance at the Vanderbilt” shows, for example, included professional bouts and were promoted without issue in the state between 1998 and 2002. On occasion, officials from the Commission sat ringside while amateur MMA matches took place right before their eyes.
After 2001, this same kind of amateur MMA was considered illegal and the State Athletic Commission made great efforts to shut down smaller shows. Legitimate shows fled to neighboring New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In New York, while fights continued, they were carefully hidden from the long arm of the law.
Depending on where you live in the state, it’s now possible to take in an MMA event live. There are shows sprouting up on the sovereign territory of Indian Reservations, and amateur MMA competitions are kicking off in ice skating rinks and in armories — all of them happening pretty much unmolested by an athletic commission that went from “search and destroy” mode to laissez-faire in seemingly the blink of an eye.
Former Commissioner Jack Prenderville disagrees with Lathan’s contention that the Commission can’t ban amateur MMA. And it wasn’t just MMA events that got caught up in the confusion. In 2007, the Athletic Commission’s General Counsel Hugo Spindola attempted to ban a Pillow Fight League, writing “These types of events clearly do not meet the strict requirements and statutory definitions of either boxing or wrestling…and would be barred.”
It’s a confusing history of enforcement, but how couldn’t it be? It’s a bill that bans “combat sports” without defining what that term means, and allows vague exceptions for “martial arts” without defining what that means either. No one quite understands exactly what is allowed and what isn’t as made clear by each Athletic Commission regime reading the law in a slightly different way.
It’s a history that should lend a promoter anything but confidence. UFC president Dana White, however, is keeping the faith.
White told the media at UFC 155:
I plan on being in New York in 2013 for the UFC’s 20th anniversary. That’s my goal. We’re working hard on it like we always were. Our goal is to get into New York in November for the 20th anniversary at Madison Square Garden. We got a card planned. We got some stuff planned…We’ll see what happens.
(In honor of Reilly’s impending retirement, we proudly present the most embarrassing moment of his entire political career. You crazy for that one, Bob.)
According to a New York State Assembly “insider” quoted in a new report by NY Daily News reporter Kenneth Lovett, “It’s getting harder for [Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver] to keep blocking this,” referring to the bill partially crafted by the UFC to sanction MMA in New York.
“Resistance to it is getting less,” Speaker Silver admitted.
Lovett went on to explain in his report that Assemblyman Robert Reilly — better known around here as “Bob,” and one of New York’s most passionate, confused, and dishonest opponents of MMA sanctioning — is miraculously retiring this week (!!!) and that his departure should take a good deal of steam out of the opposition to MMA in New York. The ban on professional MMA in the state was signed into law by then-Governor George Pataki in 1997, but now even he is calling for the sport’s legalization.
Sources tell The Daily News that if the bill to legalize and regulate professional MMA in New York were brought to a vote in the general assembly right now, it would be passed. However, hurdles remain for the sport and its largest promotion, the UFC. Members of the NY Assembly including Deborah Glick and Daniel O’Donnell still oppose MMA’s legalization, the report says, and they might be able to prevent the measure from getting through committee and to the general assembly for voting.
In addition, the Culinary Workers Union — MMA’s most powerful arch-nemesis in the fight for New York MMA regulation — continues its loud propaganda campaign against the UFC, slamming everything from Dana White’s language to Mandy Moore’s judgment. (Funny story: If you go to the Culinary Union’s anti-UFC website UnfitforChildren.org right now, the lead story is a screen-cap of a CagePotato article. Wisely, they didn’t reprint the article’s first line, which refers to the Union as “two-faced, propaganda pushing arseholes.”)
Nevertheless, UFC President Dana White seems to be as optimistic as ever that his organization will soon put on an event in New York. After UFC 155, the promoter told assembled media that he hoped to host a UFC 20th Anniversary event in Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden this coming fall. “We have a date, and we have a match,” White revealed.
(In honor of Reilly’s impending retirement, we proudly present the most embarrassing moment of his entire political career. You crazy for that one, Bob.)
According to a New York State Assembly “insider” quoted in a new report by NY Daily News reporter Kenneth Lovett, “It’s getting harder for [Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver] to keep blocking this,” referring to the bill partially crafted by the UFC to sanction MMA in New York.
“Resistance to it is getting less,” Speaker Silver admitted.
Lovett went on to explain in his report that Assemblyman Robert Reilly — better known around here as “Bob,” and one of New York’s most passionate, confused, and dishonest opponents of MMA sanctioning — is miraculously retiring this week (!!!) and that his departure should take a good deal of steam out of the opposition to MMA in New York. The ban on professional MMA in the state was signed into law by then-Governor George Pataki in 1997, but now even he is calling for the sport’s legalization.
Sources tell The Daily News that if the bill to legalize and regulate professional MMA in New York were brought to a vote in the general assembly right now, it would be passed. However, hurdles remain for the sport and its largest promotion, the UFC. Members of the NY Assembly including Deborah Glick and Daniel O’Donnell still oppose MMA’s legalization, the report says, and they might be able to prevent the measure from getting through committee and to the general assembly for voting.
In addition, the Culinary Workers Union — MMA’s most powerful arch-nemesis in the fight for New York MMA regulation — continues its loud propaganda campaign against the UFC, slamming everything from Dana White’s language to Mandy Moore’s judgment. (Funny story: If you go to the Culinary Union’s anti-UFC website UnfitforChildren.org right now, the lead story is a screen-cap of a CagePotato article. Wisely, they didn’t reprint the article’s first line, which refers to the Union as “two-faced, propaganda pushing arseholes.”)
Nevertheless, UFC President Dana White seems to be as optimistic as ever that his organization will soon put on an event in New York. After UFC 155, the promoter told assembled media that he hoped to host a UFC 20th Anniversary event in Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden this coming fall. “We have a date, and we have a match,” White revealed.
We’ve long dreamed of a super event in New York City and Madison Square Garden, if mostly for the symbolic significance. MMA is legal in just about every significant American locale except for New York, which is losing untold millions in potential revenue by not allowing the UFC to hold events there.
In honor of this latest glimmer of hope, we now present highlight videos from some of the most awesome MMA fighters that New York has produced: Current light heavyweight champion and pound for pound contender Jon Jones, former welterweight champion Matt Serra, and “Bad Ass” Emeritus Phil Baroni.
The UFC held a show in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1995, and all was well and good. That is, until New York banned professional mixed martial arts in 1997 on the grounds that it was “human cockfighting” and fights to the death suck. Or something like that. But the passage of time has seen the sport evolve, and now MMA is sanctioned almost everywhere in the country — everywhere but New York.
So last year Zuffa filed a lawsuit against the state alleging that the ban violated all sorts of Constitutional rights, and while the suit is currently mired in the muck of the judicial process, and efforts to change the law via the legislature get bogged down year after maddening year, something has changed. Depending on where you live in the state, it’s now possible to take in an MMA event live. There are shows sprouting up on the sovereign territory of Indian Reservations, and amateur MMA competitions are kicking off in ice skating rinks and in armories — all of them happening pretty much unmolested by an athletic commission that went from “search and destroy” mode to laissez-faire in seemingly the blink of an eye. Which begs the question: What the heck is going on in New York?
The short answer is that there’s a lot going in New York. The long answer, however, involves an athletic commission finally admitting that amateur MMA is legal, fights on Indian Land, and an underground fight scene that shows no signs of slowing down.
(A nice little Sunday at the Underground Combat League. / All photos courtesy of the author.)
The UFC held a show in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1995, and all was well and good. That is, until New York banned professional mixed martial arts in 1997 on the grounds that it was “human cockfighting” and fights to the death suck. Or something like that. But the passage of time has seen the sport evolve, and now MMA is sanctioned almost everywhere in the country — everywhere but New York.
So last year Zuffa filed a lawsuit against the state alleging that the ban violated all sorts of Constitutional rights, and while the suit is currently mired in the muck of the judicial process, and efforts to change the law via the legislature get bogged down year after maddening year, something has changed. Depending on where you live in the state, it’s now possible to take in an MMA event live. There are shows sprouting up on the sovereign territory of Indian Reservations, and amateur MMA competitions are kicking off in ice skating rinks and in armories — all of them happening pretty much unmolested by an athletic commission that went from “search and destroy” mode to laissez-faire in seemingly the blink of an eye. Which begs the question: What the heck is going on in New York?
The short answer is that there’s a lot going in New York. The long answer, however, involves an athletic commission finally admitting that amateur MMA is legal, fights on Indian Land, and an underground fight scene that shows no signs of slowing down.
The Word from Above
When Governor George Pataki and the State Legislature enacted the law that banned pro MMA, their ire was aimed squarely at the sport’s two biggest offenders — the UFC and Extreme Fighting (the UFC’s top competitor), both of whom were planning events in the Empire State at the time. But while the 1997 ban was effective in keeping those promotions out (and it even spelled doom for Extreme Fighting), no one in charge really cared about the MMA bouts that popped up here and there on kickboxing cards. Athletic commission officials even sat ringside as guests, watching newcomers like Matt Serra and Phil Baroni do their thing at events that took place in nightclubs on Long Island and hotel ballrooms in Manhattan. As long as the UFC was kept far away, it was all good in the ‘hood.
Things took a turn in 2003, when the athletic commission actively began to shut down anything and everything that involved dudes smashing each other — a move that drove most established promotions out of state, and fostered the growth of New York’s underground fight scene. Why the sudden about-face? Since commissioners are appointed, and they and their staff can come and go like the tide, the 2003 policy shift has always been attributed to the occasional changing of the guard. For the official word, CagePotato reached out to the athletic commission last week.
“The New York State Athletic Commission’s stance with respect to combative sports has remained consistent and has always complied with applicable statutes and regulations,” said NYSAC spokesman Edison Alban via email. “Prior enforcement actions taken by the NYSAC have related to events where prohibited activities, such as unsanctioned boxing and professional martial arts, have been featured.”
Sadly, that answer does nothing to address the amateur combative sporting events that were stamped out.
What of the amateur events that are happening throughout the state now? Thanks to Zuffa’s lawsuit, and the State’s subsequent Motion to Dismiss, it was finally acknowledged by one and all that the law banning pro MMA does nothing to prohibit the amateur version of the sport.
Said Alba: “The New York State Athletic Commission has no regulatory or legal authority over amateur events. The Commission defers to local authorities with respect to whether such events comply with local statutes and ordinances.”
Of course, it helps matters that the current athletic commission regime includes Chairwoman Melvina Lathan, who’s made no secret her appreciation of the sport. Given what the Zuffa case forced the State to admit, and the Commission’s change in posture, it’s no wonder that amateur events have flourished.
(One last question to the Commission, one that Cagepotato couldn’t help but asking: How soon until after the ban is lifted can we start seeing pro shows, like a UFC at Madison Square Garden or a Bellator at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn? “The Commission will not speculate on this,” said Alban.)
Fights on Indian Land
Ryan Ciotoli is sick of traveling. As head coach of the Bombsquad, an MMA team based out of the city of Cortland in Upstate New York, the former collegiate wrestler must trek with his fighters all over the Northeast just so they can compete professionally. To put it bluntly, driving back and forth to places like Maine and South Jersey, over and over again, stinks. But what other option do you have when your state refuses to sanction pro MMA events? For Ciotoli, thinking outside the box involves finding an Indian Reservation (of which New York has a few) willing to host MMA shows, and donning a promoter’s hat. After all, federally-recognized reservations are places where state laws don’t apply. Thus, Gladius Fights was born. Friday, September 22, will be the first event.
“It’s on Sovereign Territory,” said Ciotoli, who is credited with being one of UFC champ Jon Jones’ first coaches in the sport. “It’s going to be in Irving, New York, which is Seneca territory, and the Seneca athletic commission will be overseeing our show. They’ve done shows in the past — they’ve done the Raging Wolf shows, and a couple other smaller shows, so they have some experience. It’s important to us to host a show in New York because there are a lot of pro New York teams and New York fighters and amateur MMA fighters that are aspiring to be professionals. It’s a good home for those guys. Oftentimes we’re travelling to New Jersey, Atlantic City, Massachusetts. We just had a road trip to Maine, which is eight hours, so we’re travelling quite a bit. It’s just nice to have something in your own backyard.”
In terms of running a show, this isn’t Ciotoli’s first time at bat. “We’ve done some amateur shows,” he said. “We started up a league called Fortune Fight League. I think we just got sick of waiting for New York to pass the law to allow [pro] mixed martial arts in the State of New York. So we started looking for venues on that territory, and they just built a brand new facility called the Cattaraugus Sports Arena and it’s pretty modern and perfect for mixed martial arts.” He added: “We’ve done certain aspects of professional shows. I’ve done some matchmaking before…Obviously, we’ve managed a lot of fighters. We’ve just been around mixed martial arts for a long time, and I think we’ve got a pretty good understanding of the sport.”
“Our goal with Gladius Fights is to bring good fights to fans,” said Ciotoli. “Good local fights. You know, guys from New York, and give them the opportunity to fight in front of their fans. Many times, we’re going to other states, and we’re being booed. It’s hard to travel, it’s hard to be the ‘away team’ all the time. It’s just giving fighters a place to compete.”
Clearly, Ciotoli has pros on his team that need fights. But he has amateurs as well. Why not promote more amateur events? “You know, we’ve considered it, but there are so many shows right now that are scheduled — it’s a lot of competition. I know we’d do better than anyone else just because we’ve been involved in the sport the longest in Upstate New York. But it’s touchy, because they’re not using any commissions or sanctioning bodies, and we’ve been to a couple shows already and it’s a mess. It’s dangerous. If you don’t have the proper people in place to run an event, or the proper commission, it’s not good to host those types of events. I would probably stay away from it. Again, the Seneca commission is great. They’ve got a lot of experience, and they oversee the fights. You can’t ask for anything more. I don’t think we’d touch amateur MMA right now.” He added: “I kind of disagree with a lot of those amateur MMA shows. I mean, we’ve competed in a couple of them, and you’d be shocked. It looks like it did ten, fifteen years ago. It’s the Wild West up here.”
The Underground Scene
It’s the Wild West in New York City, too.
It’s Sunday afternoon at a secret location in the South Bronx, and Peter Storm — the man behind the Underground Combat League (UCL) — is running around with a Post-It scrawled with names. It’s the fight card, and as usual it’s an amorphous thing, so in gi pants and four-ounce MMA gloves (Storm’s is one of the names on the Post-It), he’s doing his best to make sure everyone who wants to fight gets one.
February will mark the ten-year anniversary of the UCL, and with over forty installments — held in always-changing locations within the Five Boroughs — it would be hard to label the illicit fighting organization as “just a bunch of dudes throwing down.” In fact, mixed in with the wannabes, thugs, and psychos who’ve stepped into the UCL ring, there have been quite a few legitimate MMA fighters, including licensed amateurs and pros from out of state. Former UFC champ Frankie Edgar even fought there, back in 2005.
Like Ciotoli, Storm chose not to wait for New York to start sanctioning the sport. Unlike Ciotoli, though, Storm saw the amateur loophole as an opportunity. How does he feel about the State now admitting that amateur shows are okay and the sudden explosion of promotions?
“Not too good, because at the end of the day there’s really no appreciation,” he said. “Everybody’s acting like they found the stipulation in the law themselves, and they’re not acknowledging what I’ve done.”
The fights begin. An ardent kung fu practitioner falls prey to a guillotine choke and taps out in about twenty seconds. He wants more, and gets back in there to face a Jeet Kune Do stylist from Harlem; this time he taps out to an armbar about two minutes in — an improvement, at least. Meanwhile, Storm fights a Muslim kickboxer, and after taking him down and delivering a series of headbutts (UCL fights are often vale tudo), he taps his foe with a kimura. The main event sees a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt named Chad go back and forth with a submission wrestler named Pedro. Pedro opens up a cut under Chad’s eye with a punch, and threatens with a perilously close guillotine attempt, but eventually he taps to Chad’s barrage of fists from above.
“The thing about the UCL that’s so marketable is the mystique of the UCL,” said Storm when asked if, in the new climate of acceptance, he’d consider ditching the “underground” aspect. “You always want to keep that mystique,” he said, unwilling to expose his organization to the light of day. “February will be ten years, and there’s nothing that’s really changed about a UCL show — we still do them underground, still word of mouth. I still have the same formula for producing shows, and I’m going to keep it until it gets sanctioned in New York.”
There are usually no doctors or EMTs at Storm’s shows, nor is there pre-fight medical screening. You just show up and fight. Once, an ambulance had to cart away someone who broke their leg, but other than that, the barebones “what you see is what you get” motif has worked like a charm. With no other options for New York-based aspiring fighters to compete locally, the UCL has long been the only MMA game in town.
So what will happen when New York finally starts sanctioning the sport? Will Storm head down to the athletic commission’s office and apply for a promoter’s license, and go legit once and for all? Said Storm without hesitation: “Absolutely.”
Until then, Storm and his UCL will keep keeping on, the lone MMA competition outlet in an area that’s been barren for almost a decade.
(Somewhere in Manhattan, there’s a dumb bastard with the phrase “IFL Pitbulls” reverse-imprinted in his forehead.)
Late last night in New York, legendary fighter/trainer Renzo Gracie was accosted by two men with obvious bad intentions. And since Renzo is one of the gamest S.O.B.s of all time, he wound up beating the shit out of them. Actually, let me re-phrase that: He beat the shit out of one of them, tracked down mugger #2 after he went running off into the night, “raccooned” mugger #2 (explanation below), and tweeted out a live play-by-play of the whole experience including photos. Are you kidding me? Renzo Gracie is like a prime Steven Seagal with an iPhone.
Now, did all this really happen, or was this entire situation just a staged social media infomercial for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu? I don’t know. But I want to believe. Here’s the entire story, from beginning to end, as taken from @RenzoGracieBJJ:
3:11 AM: 22nd street and 10th ave right now two guys following me, can’t help but have a big smile upon my face Im talking about a happy one ;-))))
3:12 AM: Waiting for them… Are they really thinking I’m drunk??? They have to be kidding. Hahahaha
3:13 AM: 25th and 10ave 😉 they are getting closer lol 😉
3:16 AM: I just stop to take a pic, they pretend they are looking at the window, can’t lie… My blood runs in a different speed, man I miss Brazil
(Somewhere in Manhattan, there’s a dumb bastard with the phrase “IFL Pitbulls” reverse-imprinted in his forehead.)
Late last night in New York, legendary fighter/trainer Renzo Gracie was accosted by two men with obvious bad intentions. And since Renzo is one of the gamest S.O.B.s of all time, he wound up beating the shit out of them. Actually, let me re-phrase that: He beat the shit out of one of them, tracked down mugger #2 after he went running off into the night, “raccooned” mugger #2 (explanation below), and tweeted out a live play-by-play of the whole experience including photos. Are you kidding me? Renzo Gracie is like a prime Steven Seagal with an iPhone.
Now, did all this really happen, or was this entire situation just a staged social media infomercial for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu? I don’t know. But I want to believe. Here’s the entire story, from beginning to end, as taken from @RenzoGracieBJJ:
3:11 AM: 22nd street and 10th ave right now two guys following me, can’t help but have a big smile upon my face Im talking about a happy one )))
3:12 AM: Waiting for them… Are they really thinking I’m drunk??? They have to be kidding. Hahahaha
3:13 AM: 25th and 10ave they are getting closer lol
3:16 AM: I just stop to take a pic, they pretend they are looking at the window, can’t lie… My blood runs in a different speed, man I miss Brazil
3:17 AM: JiuJitsu )) never leave home without it
3:18 AM: Please hold there for just a couple minutes be right back
3:23 AM: They are coming closer, asking for a cigaret lol can’t help but have a smile in my face. I don’t smoke. Pretend to wobble. They smile
3:47 AM: My hands hurt… Can’t help but look at him the other one took off running, not much of a friend. Chicken :-/ I can still see him, he looks
3:49 AM: Back as he runs, no chance to catch him… Even though I began to try to run after him, I realize How slow I was. Fuck it :-///
3:53 AM: This one asks me why did I do that, pretending to be stupid, one little kick to the ribs makes him whine and apologize, as I’m writing this.
3:55 AM: I ask him if he was planing to rob me, he says no. All he wanted was a cigarette, lol I can’t help but have a big smile upon my face, and ..
3:57 AM: The certainty that if it was an ordinary man he would be sad about his stolen goods. Fucking cunt cries like a bitch when the tide turns…
3:58 AM: I can’t help but take a pic as his nose bleeds and he wines and asks why did I do that… Like he doesn’t know the reason…
3:59 AM: My fucking hands hurt, hurt like hell…
4:06 AM: Drove around two blocks… The other fellow disappear, I’m heading home… Angry for not finding the second one. Guess no sleeping tonight
4:26 AM: I knew it yessss
4:59 AM: There is basic things like you don’t come back to where the problem was.. You just don’t, I knew he would, just going around the block would
5:01 AM: Be enough… Dumb f%#^ I just gave him the old style Raccoon, it has been a while since the last time I did.. Choke him out 3 times…
5:03 AM: And before he woke up I did hit each eye socket at least twice, tomorrow he will wake up like a raccoon, and every time he woke up I was…
5:06 AM: Whispering at his ears.. That’s what death feels like it.. Don’t do that again. My fucking hand hurts, :-/ a lot
5:08 AM: Next time I will use only the elbows, damn I miss that feeling, sometimes I wonder if the easy life has been making me
5:09 AM: Soft.. All those years in Brazil, without knowing if I would make it home had to count for something, I can’t lie I could have jump in a cab
5:11 AM: But I could not help, I could spot them from a mile away, walking was my option, thank you mayor Giuliani, nobody carries a gun in our…
5:14 AM: Beautiful state, my lucky day, their bad day… My hand hurts and @FrankieEdgar is here at 9:30am for some training, shoot damn little guy
5:16 AM: Could not take a second pic guys sorry, believe I try, as I reach for my iPhone he almost took off :-/ fast mofo
You know, there was a time when we believed that an online petition could change the world. Ah, the naivete of youth. But despite years of UFC lobbying efforts and fan support, MMA is still at square one when it comes to regulation in New York State. In what has become an annual letdown, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — who has never been an ally of the sport — determined during a closed-door meeting yesterday that a bill seeking to legalize MMA in New York didn’t have enough support to pass. According to a New York Daily News report, the circumstances seemed profoundly shady:
The decision not to bring the bill to the floor helped highlight a growing split between younger members of the Assembly and older lawmakers, insiders said. “[Silver] is still siding with a dwindling number of aging veterans,” one source in the room griped.
The source said after eight people had spoken in favor of legalizing MMA and eight against, Silver called on members who don’t support the bill to raise their hands. About 25 members did. Then he asked for a show of hands of those who support it before saying that it looked even, the source said.
An upstate member who supports the measure complained it didn’t look even to her, the source said…The speaker took another informal vote, with 25 again raising their hands against. The “ayes” seemingly had more than 60, the source said.
Silver then said others had expressed opposition privately and that the votes weren’t there to move the bill.
(Sheldon Silver: Son of a bitch.)
You know, there was a time when we believed that an online petition could change the world. Ah, the naivete of youth. But despite years of UFC lobbying efforts and fan support, MMA is still at square one when it comes to regulation in New York State. In what has become an annual letdown, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — who has never been an ally of the sport — determined during a closed-door meeting yesterday that a bill seeking to legalize MMA in New York didn’t have enough support to pass. According to a New York Daily News report, the circumstances seemed profoundly shady:
The decision not to bring the bill to the floor helped highlight a growing split between younger members of the Assembly and older lawmakers, insiders said. “[Silver] is still siding with a dwindling number of aging veterans,” one source in the room griped.
The source said after eight people had spoken in favor of legalizing MMA and eight against, Silver called on members who don’t support the bill to raise their hands. About 25 members did. Then he asked for a show of hands of those who support it before saying that it looked even, the source said.
An upstate member who supports the measure complained it didn’t look even to her, the source said…The speaker took another informal vote, with 25 again raising their hands against. The “ayes” seemingly had more than 60, the source said.
Silver then said others had expressed opposition privately and that the votes weren’t there to move the bill.
Afterwards, Silver had the gall to tell the Daily News that he didn’t rule out passage of the bill in the next year or two. (“I think it’s evolving,” he said. “I don’t think two years ago it was a 50-50 proposition.”) Christ, what a farce. Supporters of MMA regulation in the NY Assembly already outnumber detractors by more than 2-1, so it’s clear that the only roadblock here is Silver himself. Whatever the culinary union is paying you, Sheldon, we’ll double it. [Ed. note: Do you accept PotatoBux?]
But there’s another factor at work here — as FightOpinion points out, MMA’s support among New York lawmakers is much higher than the sport’s approval rating among the general public:
Outside of a specific demographic with a profile of a male between the ages of 18-to-34 with questionable employment status, there is no other demographic that exists in New York that backs MMA legislation. The numbers are especially staggering when you consider that women consistently oppose MMA legislation on a 26/60 split. The overall support level of 38% for both men & women has remained consistent for several years now. In fact, the polling data suggests that the more undecided voters hear about MMA legislation in New York, they less they want it…
Instead of looking at trying to win over constituency groups who are not into passing MMA legislation, Zuffa has chosen the traditional top-down, pro-lobbyist, politician-only approach to getting business done in the State Capitol. It has been a costly mistake for the organization, both in wasting their time and especially their money. Instead of building up support the right way by funding grassroots organizations & creating a real, on-the-ground voter demand, Zuffa basically went for a traditional lobbying model that only works when you have voters who support you in the first place and are willing to be active in a big way in contacting their local politicians…
There is time for UFC to alter its political strategy and start making some grassroots in-roads that can match their traditional lobbying efforts. The question is not whether they have the resources to pull it off but rather if they have the will & desire to do so. Right now, Sheldon Silver has the will & desire to keep MMA legislation from passing in New York because his constituents don’t have the will nor the desire to see such legislation get implemented in the first place.
In other words, the UFC must either wait for Silver to retire, or rip up their current lobbying strategy and start over again. Either way, we’re looking at a long fight.
The UFC is facing the fight of the company’s life this Wednesday in U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood’s Pearl Street courtroom, leading a group of plaintiffs contesting a 1997 law that made the sport of mixed martial arts illegal in the state of New York.
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