While New York represents a potentially lucrative market for the world’s most prominent MMA promotion, the UFC and other supports have repeatedly failed to bring regulated MMA to the state. Today, September 28, 2015 the UFC went to Federal Court to reiterate the organization’s belief that New York’s prohibition of MMA is unconstitutional.
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New York represents one of the most targeted locations on the planet for sports, and the UFC wants their piece of the pie.
The group said its televised events reach a half-billion homes worldwide, it is featured in major films and has mainstream sponsors like Anheuser-Busch, and will lose millions in revenue if a scheduled April 23 event in Madison Square Garden has to be canceled. UFC is also taking additional steps through the federal courts to ensure the event’s success. Essentially, the Culinary Worker’s Union, which has strong ties in the New York state senate, is flexing its muscle to keep a company with strong non-union ties from expanding their business into the state. Without it, the UFC will be unable to host its event.
UFC president Dana White has been fighting for the legalization of MMA in New York for years.
“We believe fight fans have waited long enough to experience live UFC events in the state of New York and we are thrilled to announce our first event at Madison Square Garden”, UFC COO Lawrence Epstein stated.
The statement continued: “Events featuring every combat sport except MMA seem to be allowed in New York, though this is not explicitly stated in the law”. The MMA promoter believes the ban is “too unclear for the public to understand” and allows officials to “pick and choose” which events are permitted. “The statute, and the state’s pattern of enforcing it, violates the Constitution’s prohibition on unconstitutionally vague laws”.
The UFC is trying to push an event through at Madison Square Garden in April of 2016.
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MMA’s top promotion filed a federal lawsuit Monday looking to overturn the longstanding ban on the sport, saying the law “is so badly written that neither ordinary persons nor state officials are able to say with any certainty what it permits and what it prohibits”, per Stephen Rex Brown of the New York Daily News.
