On Saturday night, New York State hosted its first sanctioned MMA event in ten years. Granted, the event was amateur, took place in the outer reaches of the known universe (i.e., a town outside of Buffalo), and took advantage of the part of the combative sports law that allows for outside sanctioning bodies to do the athletic commission's dirty work (instead of the "amateur loophole", which is what the UCL uses), but it's something. Here's intrepid reporter Pete Lampasona and Mac's MMA with their reportage - http://www.thefightnerd.com/two-lessons-to-be-taken-from-amateur-mmas-return-to-new-york/ and http://macsmma.com/2012/05/21/macs-ny-mma-news-first-sanctioned-fight-in-ten-years-held-in-western-new-york/.
So does this mean MMA in New York is now on like Donkey Kong? Not quite. But what it does mean is that the athletic commission has reverted back to the passive, laissez-faire stance it took from 1997 to 2002. In those years, you could go to a Lou Neglia event at a nightclub on Long Island or in a hotel ballroom in Times Square, or a Gene Fabrikant event in a nightclub out in Brighton Beach, and see some awesome MMA fights go down while sipping a brewski. The commission didn't care back then - and when it did start caring, they used the Alcohol Beverage Control law banning booze at all MMA events to shut them down. And guess what? The TNT event this past weekend in Tonawanda served booze. What more evidence do you need that we've entered a time warp?
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