New York Takes Crucial First Step Towards Legalizing MMA

June 3rd, 2009 · 1 Comment

The state of New York is now one step closer to hosting Mixed Martial Arts events after the bill to legalize MMA was passed in the Assembly Committee today. One of last major states still without professional MMA, it was feared by many supporters that Assemblyman Bob Reilly, the leading opponent, would prevail again in his efforts to stop the legalization process. However, this is just the first step and the next vote will be on June 19. Here is an excerpt from the Times Union newspaper out of Albany. To read the entire article please copy and paste the link or click through to get a live link.

From TimesUnion.com:

ALBANY- The sport of mixed-martial arts passed a major hurdle toward legalization in New York state by being passed out of an Assembly committee by a vote of 14 to 6 Wednesday.

The overwhelming margin was a defeat for Assemblyman Bob Reilly, the Colonie Democrat who delayed the measure in committee last spring. He became the leading opponent in the past year, speaking out strongly against what he considers a barbaric and extremely dangerous sport.

“I’m disappointed,” Reilly said after his defeat in the Assembly’s Committee on Tourism, Arts, Parks and Sports Development. “I disagree very strongly with my colleagues. I predict we’ll see some dire consequences.”

To read the enitre article please copy and paste this link >

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=806560

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1 response so far ↓

1 Hacksaw // Jun 4, 2009 at 4:27 am

This is great. I hope this momentum carries through to the general assembly vote.

Bob Reilly must have an ulterior motive. His arguments make no logical sense. How does banning MMA competitions in NY stop youths from seeing MMA?

MMA is on cable TV almost every day of the week. There are also dozens of MMA gyms in NY.

And what are these dire consequences? That is just political rhetoric. People with valid points use facts and statistics to back themselves up. Real arguments don’t need to drum up support with fear based tactics and ominous language.

Off The Cuff... Edgar VS. Alvarez!

In early May, I was down at Almeida BJJ to shoot and produce a feature on Frankie Edgar tied to his photo shoot for FIGHT! magazine. That video will be on Fightmagazine.com soon. While working, I was lucky to witness one of the great sparring sessions in my day. Edgar was going toe-to-toe with Eddie Alvarez who was one week out from his fight V. Josh Neer. Now, I have known Frankie for some time, so I might be biased but he did seem to control the action. Standing, his fast hands and feet allowed him to get off first much like we saw against BJ and Sherk. Each man got a couple takedowns but the overall pace and forward movement seemed slightly in favor of Edgar. Now, in Eddie's defense, he may have been only seeking to work on one element of his game V. Edgar and only trying to react or setup something only he knew of, specific to the Josh Neer fight ... so in that respect, it was not a true test of each fighting the other under the same context. That said, there was not really anything off limits - it was vicious jab/right combos from Frankie followed, at one point, by a head over heel body-throw take-down from Eddie on Frankie ... neither giving an inch. It felt like the real thing minus the the bright lights and octagon. It seemed to get harsh a couple of times but that may have just been my read. In the end, hard core sparring at play. Two of the top-5 lightweights on the planet going after each other at 110% on a lazy Thursday morning in Hamilton, NJ. After the session, what did Edgar do... relax-no, he went to use a chainsaw and chop down small trees in a friend's backyard for three hours.