According to a New York newspaper, the UFC will be sponsoring an amateur MMA event at the Liberty Games in New York State.
MMA Payout was able to contact Ron McEvilly, the Empire States Sports Council Martial Arts Director and owner of Tigon Academy, LLC in Watervliet, New York. He is the sports chair for the MMA portion of the Liberty Games. McEvilly is involved in the MMA community in New York and indicates that he met with attorney David Weintraub and UFC COO Lawrence Epstein and they offered to support the Liberty Games by sponsoring the amateur MMA event. In an email to MMA Payout he wrote that when explained that the purpose of the event and how it helps youth with anti-bullying the UFC was happy to support. McEvilly also worked with MMA4NY (MMA 4 NY is a coalition working to legalize the sport in NY) on youth anti-bullying campaigns in the past.
MMA Payout has also reached out to the UFC but it has not received a response back as of this writing.
From the registration, waiver and permission form the event is a youth tournament with events in Kickboxing, Submission Grappling and MMA. There are some highlights from 2013.
More information on the Liberty Games and martial arts participation can be found here as well as the rules. The Liberty Games will take place July 11-20 in Schenecteday, Colonie, Saratoga Springs and Albany. According to The Gazette Reporter, the event will take place Saturday July 19th in Scotia, New York.
As we know, the UFC is in a bitter struggle to legalize professional MMA in the state of New York. With one week left in the legislative year in Albany, it appears that there will be no vote on a law to legalize MMA in the state.
Payout Perspective:
This is an interesting move by the UFC to sponsor such an event. In New York at this point, amateur MMA is legal while professional MMA is not. Sponsoring this event keeps the UFC name out there but the controversial point here is the participation of youth in MMA. The California State Athletic Commission invoked a moratorium on youth pankration and MMA last July due to strong opposition by people not wanting children involved in this sport. Thus, this might be something that opponents of MMA would latch onto when it comes to another run at legalization in 2015.
Is this something to be concerned with or should MMA be treated like every other martial art that children get involved with as a youth? It appears that how MMA is utilized for youths here is as a tool against bullying. Certainly the rules suggest that safety is primary.
Trolls………………
Its always good to support amateur sports,
Ufc is doing this so dw can say UFC is in new york hahahahaha
This is a surprising move. Do you think they would sponsor amateur events if MMA was legal in New York?
To Brendan’s point, I doubt it. DW has never supported amateur MMA…especially not unregulated MMA. In fact, Dana has been very vocal about this. But, what they are sponsoring here is more like novice shooto, not MMA. There is plenty of actual amateur MMA if they really feel like sponsoring it. FYI – MMA4NY is not a coalition of New Yorkers. It is a consultant group hired by Zuffa’s PR wing here in NY.