Friday, February 19, 2016

What Will Happen After the New York MMA Bill Passes, Part 2: Amateur MMA

NEW YORK


When the State Attorney General's Office admitted that the law banning professional combative sports didn't apply to amateur fights, the floodgates were cast open, and New York was suddenly filled with would-be Dana Whites organizing bouts in cages. Some shows were relatively safe affairs, with medical personnel present and trained officials and many of the other trappings of an event held in jurisdictions with state sanctioning. Many more shows were not so safe, with every possible corner cut and fighters literally risking their lives for nothing. But the common denominator shared by all was that, under the 1997 Combative Sports Law, the Athletic Commission could regulate none of them.

Thanks to the MMA Bill soon becoming law, that will all change. Drastically.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

What Will Happen After the New York MMA Bill Passes, Part 1: The Timing

NEW YORK


History has been most unkind to proponents of sanctioned mixed martial arts in New York, but the future glimpsed within the shifting sands of the hourglass is more positive than ever. So let's talk about what will happen once the MMA Bill passes and the changes it will bring - specifically, the timing of it all.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Monday, February 15, 2016

Monday, February 8, 2016

Flashback: International Fight Night, Brooklyn's Russian MMA Promotion

NEW YORK


New York teeters on the precipice of drastic change, all set to tumble headlong into the chasm of acceptance, and soon what was will nevermore be – all of which is just a fancy way of saying it’s time to take a walk down memory lane.

If you were in Brooklyn in 2001, and you wandered south of the Belt Parkway to the Russian enclave of Brighton Beach, you might have seen the posters. Colorful posters, taped to lamp posts and hanging in the windows of shops whose awnings bore Cyrillic letters. The posters promised violence, promised heroes to cheer for, promised a slice of the kind of thrills offered by the UFC (which was at the time banned from pay-per-view, but would soon make a comeback in a big way).

The posters advertised something called “International Fight Night”.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The Senate Passed Their MMA Bill Yesterday - Why This Time Around It's Special

NEW YORK


The New York State Senate approved their version of the MMA Bill yesterday by a vote of 48 to 14, making it the eighth time in seven years they've done so (last year they did it twice, with the extra thumbs-up coming after the MMA Bill was overhauled and revised). The Republican-run Senate has never been much of a problem for proponents of the sport - the hold-up has traditionally been in the Assembly, which has yet to vote on their version and whose approval is needed to turn both bills into a law. So big deal, right? The Senate just did what it's always done, and there's nothing to be too thrilled about - right? Not quite. Before you dismiss what happened yesterday as something less than noteworthy, consider the timing of the Senate's actions.