Amidst oil spillage, budget shortfalls, and Drakegate, it's difficult to keep sane. The New York State Senate must have sensed this when they approved (albeit narrowly) the legalization of mixed martial arts yesterday, providing New Yorkers a new avenue of vicarious stress release. With the 32-26 vote on Bill No. S2165B, which "authorizes mixed martial arts events in this state" and "imposes taxes on gross receipts of such events," the state may finally be establishing MMA as a mainstream
cash cow.
There's much money to be made here: According to MMA Mania, an independent study suggested that one pay-per-view event could generate up to $11.5 million for the city. After it faces judgment from the Ways and Means Committee, the bill will go to Governor David Patterson, who introduced MMA legislation earlier this year to combat his $9 billion deficit and included the provision in his budget proposal.
Bill sponsors are hilariously trying to downplay the violence, a point of concern since then-Governor George Pataki banned the sport in 1997. Senators have also spoke out: Bill Larkin (R-C, Cornwall-on-Hudson) called it a "hoodlum training program," and Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) "compared MMA to the days of the gladiators, when Christians and Jews were fed to the lions." But Senator Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) rebutted, "I ask my colleagues don't rush to judgment about the level of violence that they believe they see in this and give the sport a chance." Still, it's hard not to judge when a MMA fighter is destroying his opponent's face until it looks like a watermelon thrown off a skyscraper rooftop (warning—this video pretty much shows that):
