The biggest hurdle preventing the legalization of mixed martial arts in New York State has finally been cleared.
Long the only state in the United States which banned the sport, the Assembly in the capital city of Albany voted to legalize MMA on Tuesday on a bipartisan vote of 113-25.
The bill now moves to the desk of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has expressed his intention to sign it. From there, the New York State Athletic Commission has 120 days to adopt guidelines.
If all goes according to plan, the UFC will debut at Madison Square Garden in New York City in November.
"This has been a long time coming and on behalf of our New York UFC athletes and fans, I want to offer heartfelt thanks to Speaker Heastie, Majority Leader Morelle and all the Members of the Assembly - Democrats and Republicans - who voted for this bill," said UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta.
The most difficult and entertaining hurdle took place on the Assembly floor. Some of the Assembly members gave reasons against passing the bill ranging from corruption in the sport to the negative impact on women and children to the possibility of sex offenders taking advantage of the sport. Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell likened the sport to gay porn, while Charles Barron compared MMA to slavery where men were "thrown in a cage." Another politician claimed that MMA consisted of bare-knuckle fighting. But through all of that, MMA is finally legalized.
Wow. I could see it if they were concerned about many more things before gay porn and slavery.
I had it recorded and just got a chance to watch the free card from the weekend. That was crazy. How in the world did Magny stay in that fight? How did it get past round two then for Lombard?? That was actually great reffing for the first round and then just brutal for the second. Exciting card all around though.
The former UFC light heavyweight champion was arrested Tuesday for a probation violation, according to the Bernalillo County Metro Detention Center website. TMZ was the first to report the news.
Jones was taken into custody at 10 a.m. local time. He was arrested by officers from Probation & Parole, not the Albuquerque Police Department, and taken to the detention center. Jones remained in custody as of Tuesday afternoon. No bail has been set.
But when he left the next day, it dawned him. Diaz believes GSP was in the building to set up a fight between him and Conor McGregor, he told Chael Sonnen on the "You're Welcome" podcast. Of course, no one called anyone out, because Diaz beat McGregor by second-round submission March 5 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
"I put a big old hole in that sh*t," Diaz said. "What do you guys think that I'm some game to be played with? I've been in this game for too long to ##### with.
"Yeah, they had GSP there. We're gonna have this big old GSP-McGregor show bullsh*t. I don't even want to hear about that. GSP is gonna come out of #####ing retirement to fight this little ass Conor McGregor? What the #####? This is all just a freak show now. So now what did I do? I pissed off Conor McGregor, I pissed off GSP and most of all I pissed off the UFC. But LOL mother #####ers.
Diaz is irritated because he believes the UFC expected McGregor to win and go on to fight St-Pierre. He also thinks that fight would be ridiculous and GSP is "full of sh*t."
"You're a #####ing bully," Diaz said about St-Pierre. "You know you're gonna hold that little ass Irishman down. You're gonna hop in and take this money fight, like I'm coming back for this. What the #####? Get your ass back to your weight class. And Conor McGregor is out of line, too, trying to fight big ass people."
Any truth to that notion, or is just a Diaz being "a Diaz"?
Diaz's are as real as it gets, but it can be hard to see from their perspective. Connor beating Diaz would make taking on an ex-champ at 170 lb viable, if loosely. He knows there is too much money in Connor v GSP to just ignore and he probably can't think of a reason that any of them would say no to it. Big payday and no one is really putting anything on the line.
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