Mixed Martial Arts KO’d Again in New York

[cgc]

Didn't Dana promise MMA in NY in 2012?

http://www.mmaweekly.com/mixed-marti...in-in-new-york

Mixed Martial Arts KO’d Again in New York
Posted on May 7, 2012 by MMAWeekly.com Staff



Another year and once again mixed martial arts fans in New York will have to wait for the sport to arrive at Madison Square Garden… or anywhere else in the state for that matter.

The New York Daily News is reporting that the New York Assembly Democratic conference, behind closed doors, discussed and denied bringing MMA sanctioning to the floor for a vote this year. Speaker Sheldon Silver determined that the votes weren’t there for a bill to pass, according to the report, so it will not go to the floor for a vote.

“It will not come to the floor this year,” Silver told the Daily News. The conference, he said, “was pretty evenly divided.”

He went on to say that he felt MMA legislation in New York was evolving and that it could pass within the next couple of years, but currently felt support was about a “50-50 proposition.”

UFC president Dana White believed years ago that MMA sanctioning was on the cusp of passage in New York, but year after year it gets stalled out along the way.

It isn’t just a matter of infighting among politicians of New York over mixed martial arts, according to White. In his view, the UFC’s problems in helping get sanctioning for the sport passed in the Empire State has nothing to do with the sport; it has to do with unions… one in particular.

“In a nutshell, my partners, the Fertittas, own a company called Station Casinos. It’s the fourth largest gaming company in the country,” White explained recently as a guest on the Mark Levin Show. “They’re non-union. So the union, the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, has been using their pull in New York to keep us out of there.

“It really has nothing to do with mixed martial arts. It has to do with culinary business in Vegas.”

Regardless of who, why, when, where, or what, the simple fact is mixed martial arts in New York is once again non-existent, at least for another year.

[John L]

Yeah but Dana also thinks the UFC is as popular as soccer.

[cgc]

Yeah but Dana also thinks the UFC is as popular as soccer.

Yeah, I saw that....As much credit as I give him for the sport growing like it has - I think he's a bit off his rocker with these comments.
“We’re already bigger than the NFL.”
“We’re neck-and-neck with soccer,” said White. “Soccer isn’t huge here in the United States, but all over the world it is. The only other thing that could work is fighting

http://www.mmaweekly.com/dana-white-...igger-than-nfl

[mmondo13]

Dana needs to knock it off with trying to be bigger than the NFL and soccer. It isn't bigger now, and it never will be.

But the thing is, it doesn't have to be. As long as they're making millions of dollars every year what does it matter... Dana and the UFC need to just focus on putting on great fights, and stop worrying about being the biggest sport in the world because Dana sounds like a dumbass every time he talks about it.