The New York State Assembly passed legislation that would legalize mixed martial arts in the state. The bill now needs the signature of the governor for New York to be the final state to legalize MMA.
The passage comes after years and years of lobbying efforts, two lawsuits and an appeal that was set to occur next month.
The legislation came to the State Assembly for vote and after over 2 hours of assembly members having their chance to speak, the bill passed.
— jim genia (@jim_genia) March 22, 2016
The green in the twitter picture indicates “Yes” votes.
The UFC issued a press release immediately after passage and will hold a press conference at 4:30pm PT Tuesday.
From the UFC press release:
UFC® Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Fertitta applauded the overwhelming, bipartisan New York State Assembly passage of legislation to legalize and regulate professional mixed martial arts (MMA) in New York. The passage of A.2604-C, sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle and 72 other Assembly sponsors, means the bill has now passed both houses and will be sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo for his approval.
Lorenzo Fertitta thanked all in Albany that helped in the effort.
“This has been a long time coming and on behalf of our New York UFC athletes and fans, I want to offer heartfelt thanks to Speaker Heastie, Majority Leader Morelle and all the Members of the Assembly – Democrats and Republicans – who voted for this bill.”
Payout Perspective:
Perhaps the UFC press conference will reveal a date for the UFC to head to New York. Bellator and other promotions will be able to hold events in New York as well. The UFC indicated that it would hold an event in the state by the fall but maybe that could be moved forward depending on when the state will be able to establish its protocols for regulating MMA.
Its 2009…..oh no its not….yawn hahaha
@ tops E
Dude, huh?
Big fights coming up at MSG!!
TOPS comments = yawn
Boxing already has MSG and Barclays.
Thanks for catching up.
Hahaha. Yeah, and their shows at Barclay’s always lose money.
Catching up and surpassing.
The future is MMA.
Boxing is New York.
Mma is dead
MMA is New York
Boxing is dead
That’s more accurate.
Great to see, gonna bring big events to NY now. Culinary Union and corrupt Silver kept them out for years but its finally here.
That debut show in Nov is gonna break MSG gate record.
Hoping for Ronda/Tate, maybe Jon Jones, Weidman, Rashad, Sterling, guys from NJ like Edgar, maybe him vs McGregor.
They can stack the hell out of this show.
No one cares about this in NYC.
Claiming MMA is taking over NY is like claiming its takin over Philly, that ain’t ever gonna happen.
Those are boxing cities.
The eastcoast has the worst demographics for mma. Ask Artie Lange ha.
Right, no one cares about it, that’s why they will sellout MSG with their first show and put to shame any numbers anything in boxing has done there in years.
Philly is not a boxing city anymore, nor is NY. These are mma cities. You’ve got to go to Dusseldorf to find more boxing fans. Outside of the US. The numbers verify my statements.
NY is a mma city?
What’s the biggest gate they ever had?
Vegas is a boxing city as well. The numbers prove it.
Prediction #2 correct for 2016. 3 more to go.
Boxing is a joke in NY. They can’t even sell half of the capacity at Barclay’s for major events. The numbers actually prove mma has taken over already. Boxing is in shambles.
Why are you lying?
The worst turn of hypocrisy imaginable.
You lie every time you comment.
They’ve sold out Barclays alot.
Barclays pushes to have boxing matches there.
There were a bunch of articles about how Barclays arena went out of its way to secure a bunch of matches this year.
They want the matches over MSG.
Both of those arenas could care less about mma.
Mma is too small of a sport.
Realistically the UFC will be in New York once every year or two. Boxing is there like 1-2 times a month, and thats not counting all the minor fights, just the major ones in the NYC area.
Delusions. PBC has never sold out Barclay’s and they have shows there all the time.
The gates they were producing were so poor, the PBC never reported them other than the debut, which did not sell out and wasn’t anything impressive.
Barclay’s may have thought it was a good idea, but it has turned out to be a joke. On the other hand, the UFC will sell out Barclay’s and MSG guaranteed when they go there.
Also, your claim of the UFC being in NY once every year or two is a flat out lie. They agreed with the state that they had to have a minimum number of shows and that number was more than 2 per year. Bellator and WSOF will also be going there, not to mention tons of minor league promoters.
They’ll sell out the first times they go there no doubt but not every time.
NYC is not a mma hotbed.
How many MMA stars come from Brooklyn?
You don’t even have a Paulie Malignaggi type fighter.
Brooklyn doesnt care to watch some Irish loser and some mediocre fighter from California fight.
NYC isn’t North Dakota where you can lie about your D Level athletes and call them the best in the world and fool them. New Yorkers aren’t falling for that.
Hands down boxing will have more fights in NYC than MMA
NYC is a huge mma hotbed. When they go to MSG, they will outdo anything boxing’s put there ever.
Who cares who comes from Brooklyn? That’s what makes it more pathetic that boxing has guys from Brooklyn and does horrible numbers there.
That Irish loser would do 10x the gate anything boxing’s ever put there.
All the best athletes are in mma now, boxing is for guys who don’t like to fight.
Hands down the UFC will destroy anything any boxing promoter puts up in MSG, Barclays or anywhere else in NY. What’s the biggest PBC gate at Barclay’s? Maybe a million? Most of them were doing 2-300k. Pathetic. That’s TUF finale numbers. Their lowest cards. Bellator does bigger gates.