NYSAC Head: MMA Not a Problem
November 10, 2008
George Willis of The New York Post has a brief mention of the new Head of the NYSAC commission Melvina Lathan and the motivations behind what may have been the impetus for her move to the top of the board:
The change took many in the boxing community by surprise, and there were whispers the major reason Lathan was named chairman is because she supports legalizing mixed martial arts in New York.
Lathan resents those whispers, saying being an advocate for MMA was never mentioned during her appointment.
“That was all news to me because I had never heard anything like that,” she said. “I don’t really know what happened in general, as far as why the change was made.”
Chief among the critics questioning the move are Assemblyman Bob Reilly who is quoted in a piece from ESPN.com,:
“It’s clear to me that this new person was put in her position because of her support for legalizing mixed martial arts,” Reilly told espn.com. “Can I prove that? No. But if I see something that walks like a duck and it’s quacking, I call it duck.”
MMAPayout.com has detailed in our expose on Unite Here and NY MMA legislation the questionable motivations Reilly himself has. The real question to be asking here is if it walks like a duck (Reilly receiving campaign money from Unite Here in 2004) and quacks like a duck (a more than doubled donation from Unite Here for 2006), does it vote like a duck, against MMA?
