Mixed martial arts—a euphemistic name for what essentially boils down to "beating the shit out of another human being until they faint and/or die," might soon be made legal in New York. Hooray!?
New York is currently the only state in which MMA is prohibited—in part because of its violence, but more relevantly, UFC officials say, because of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's shady, complicated ties to Las Vegas gambling interests.
“The UFC has been forced to go to New Jersey for a long time now because of this, and that’s 100 percent because of corruption,” MMA commentator Joe Rogan told the Post. “Now that this crook is out of the political picture, we may finally see the UFC in New York.”
UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is meeting with Governor Cuomo and other state legislators today to make the case for MMA in New York. Silver's successor, Carl Heastie, supports MMA's legalization, dramatically increasing the likelihood that fans can catch the spectacle at Barclays Center or MSG in the near future.
"The fact that the guy who was arrested for corruption was against this bill is a testament that no one should have been against this bill, at all," Rousey told MMAFighting.com. "If the corrupt guy didn't want it to pass then I would like to be on the other side of that."
Politics aside, some lawmakers have argued in the past that MMA's brutal nature could have a potentially negative impact on women and children.
"Due to the violent nature of mixed martial arts and the surprisingly high incidence of unchallenged sexism and misogyny displayed by certain fighters, commentators and other public figures associated with this sport, the prospect of legalization in New York state raises legitimate concerns about the increased exposure of our children to this new and potentially very negative influence," reads a 2013 bill introduced by state Senator Liz Krueger.
Rousey, however, disagrees.
"Having women shown fighting on TV shows that it's OK for us to be strong," she said. "It's OK for us to fight. So much history is being made through MMA for women in sports. It's a new sport so it's not really bogged down in tradition the way that a lot of others are."
