MMA in NY – ‘Steam’ Should Be Enough
Published by on May 13th, 2008 in Current Events

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By Charles Jay
Commentary on MMA history….as it’s happening

“STEAM” SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR MMA PASSAGE IN N.Y.

I do admire the efforts of the UFC in gathering support for the sport of mixed martial arts to be legalized in the state of New York. It has been an incredible display of organization. The lobbying effort is gathering steam, and it features Matt Serra, a Staten Island native and former UFC welterweight champ, and I support it 100%, as long as it is not a lobbying effort to get the UFC’s “version” of the sport passed to the exception of all others. That being said, it is naturally to the benefit of the UFC that New York come into the fold, along with the 32 other states who have now enacted legislation to regulate and sanction MMA. Even though there are plenty of large venues for the organization to promote, being able to do a show in Madison Square Garden, and to draw the kind of sellout crowds boxing has rarely been able to achieve there in recent years, would be a prestigious feather in the cap of Zuffa LLC.

As anyone who has followed MMA knows, New York is significant for other reasons as well. It has been a battleground not just for the UFC (under Bob Meyrowitz’s ownership) but for other MMA outfits, and more than one show has had to be moved from the Empire State at the last minute because of actions, pending or threatened, to shut down those shows. New York banned MMA for good, or so it seemed, in 1997, as the governor, George Pataki, followed the pack in calling the activity “barbaric.”

Of course, New York has been down this road before – with boxing. The sport had been banned in the state for a period of three years, then the Walker Law was enacted in 1920, which established rules limiting the length of matches and instituting measures that would make the sport safer for the fighters.

Sound familiar?

Obviously there is no controversy or argument as to whether mixed martial arts should be legalized in New York. Advocates have presented plenty of evidence in its favor. One of the advocates who has spoken out about is none other than Randy Gordon, who as one-time executive director of the New York State Athletic Commission was one of the people who instigated the ban and encouraged Pataki. He was right in the middle of that battle, but now he’s been won over, and in fact covers MMA rather thoroughly on his radio show “Fight Club” that airs on the Sirius Satellite network.

Randy is an old friend and associate who I go back many years with, from the time we were both working with USA Network in the mid-1980s. We’ve had a couple of conversations about it, and he’s admitted what, frankly, others have been too afraid or ignorant to admit, which is that once he took a close look at the sport that he began to appreciate it, and with the evolution of the rules there was nothing objectionable at all about it. So he’s a fan. So is Larry Hazzard, former commissioner in New Jersey who is a close friend of Gordon’s as well, and who essentially established the rules under which the sport is conducted, and through which it has gained more widespread acceptance among the “suits.”

All they’d really have to do is get Hazzard and Gordon up to Albany to tell their story, and that would be more powerful than any lobbyist.

The legislature in Albany has to pass a law allowing the sport, which I think is a good bet to happen; then it is up to the athletic commission to establish any rules and regulations that would be particular to the state, including certain medical and testing guidelines. I’ll say this – even if MMA is eventually allowed in New York, I’m not sure it’s going to be easy to do business there. Ron-Scott Stevens, the head of the commission, is one of the few regulators with an extensive boxing background. There’s a lot of loyalties and alliances to the Old Guard that go with that, and a lot of patronage. Stevens has been accused by some of playing favorites, and for those of you who have not been big fans of the way Armando Garcia has conducted things in California, you may wind up throwing eggs at Stevens, because he is someone who sees no problem in overstepping his bounds. He is the commissioner, after all, who tried to impose a medical suspension upon Evander Holyfield – one that he attempted to be reciprocated by all states – for non-medical reasons; in fact, just because he didn’t like his performance in a fight against the capable Larry Donald in the Garden one night.

So it won’t be a picnic.

But in New York, a classic “nanny” state, what is?