May 1, 2008 3:08 pm US/Eastern
Ultimate Fighting Rights Sought For NY Market
ALBANY (AP) ―
On the eve of the fight that drew 4,000 people to Montreal's Bell Centre just for the weigh-in last month, mixed martial arts had its gaze trained on New York.
"The same show in the Garden would be every bit as big," Ultimate Fighting Championship's Marc Ratner said. The 21,000 seats for the 170-pound title rematch between Long Island's Matt Serra and Montreal's Georges St. Pierre had sold out three months earlier for a $5 million gate.
While New York is a top UFC pay per view and TV market, Madison Square Garden remains off-limits so far.
The state Assembly last year approved legislation that would legalize and
regulate mixed martial arts, which Forbes magazine recently labeled "the billion-dollar blood sport." The bill died in the state Senate. This year the UFC's principals enlisted top Albany lobbyists, meanwhile talking to lawmakers in Massachusetts, South Carolina, Tennessee and Rhode Island.
"We're only going to go where it's regulated. Our slogan is we run to regulation," Ratner said. The 32 states that legalized it so far include California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada, where Ratner was executive director of the state athletic commission.
The unified rules of mixed martial arts, formulated at a meeting in New Jersey almost a decade ago, prohibit biting, eye gouging, head butts, finger bending and many other fouls. Bouts, barefoot and with fingerless five-ounce gloves, often end with punch or kick KOs, chokes, quitting or judges' decisions.
Acknowledging the big gates are financially compelling, New York Senate Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said it's still controversial and under study here. "Some people who are very vehemently against it think it is extremely dangerous, almost irresponsible to the extreme, and the advocates will tell you, and I think they're right statistically, it's actually safer than boxing," he said.
"They point out to you no one's ever been killed in extreme or ultimate fighting because they can tap out," Bruno said of the ability to signal you're done, something choked fighters often do before blacking out or when their arm or leg is twisted toward the breaking point. "You can't say that about boxing," said Bruno, a former Army boxing champion and the state's most powerful Republican.
The sole correspondence received by the Senate Committee on Tourism, Recreation and Sports Development, which has jurisdiction over pending legislation, came from UNITE HERE, the hotel and restaurant workers' union.
Pointing to continued opposition from the American Medical Association because of "great potential injury," the union said police also are concerned about teenagers mimicking moves and staging fights.
"The potential social cost of holding MMA fighting exhibitions should be fully explored before the Legislature acts to allow such events in New York," the union wrote.
Sen. Joe Griffo, a Utica Republican, said he began watching UFC fighter Matt Hamill, with a home and gym in his district, on pay per view and said events could bring money to arenas in upstate cities. "I saw the sport has evolved. It's basically much more reformed and organized than it was in its origins," he said.
"There is some danger. We looked at that. In all of the contact sports like this, like boxing, there are certain precautions that need to be addressed," Griffo said. That's where the New York State Athletic Commission, which regulates boxing, would get involved. And while the UFC is the biggest brand in mixed martial arts, there are other professional organizations, as well as underground fights videotaped and posted on the Web.
Legislation passed the Assembly 145-0 last year directing the New York commission to update the list of martial arts organizations authorized to hold professional matches and ensure they comply with state laws and commission regulations.
Assemblyman Steven Englebright, who chairs the Committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports Development, said the Assembly panel will take a fresh look in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, gyms are springing up across the state where combined techniques in boxing, wrestling, jiujitsu and muay thai kickboxing are being taught.
Hamill (5-1), a former collegiate wrestling champion and 2004 Olympic alternate who is deaf, has become a celebrity. The 31-year-old's sponsorships from his recent fight in Colorado paid double his fight fees, which already exceed what most boxers make with similar records.
Under UFC's rookie contract, Hamill got $5,000 an appearance the first year, $7,000 the second and will get $10,000 the third, for three fights a year, double for a win, manager Duff Holmes said.
Ron Scott Stevens, state athletic commission chairman, said they will regulate the mixed martial arts if the Legislature and governor ask them to, though it will require more staff. "That's the core function of an athletic commission, the health and safety of the boxer or participant, and act in the best interest of the sport. And we wouldn't relax those standards," he said.
The hotel workers' union, which claims 90,000 New York members and spent $100,000 on Albany lobbyists last year while making more than $130,000 in New York political donations, mostly to the Democratic and Working Families parties, has also been trying to represent workers at Station Casinos in Las Vegas, off-strip casinos that say they can't afford union pay. Behind the UFC is Zuffa LLC, which donated $25,000 to New York's Democratic Committee last year. Brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III are behind both the station casinos and the UFC effort.
Union spokesman Eric Sharfstein declined to comment about dealings with Station Casinos and the union's opposition to mixed martial arts in New York.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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