Though MMA earned a victory when Vermont decided to legalize the sport last week, it suffered a defeat when a bill to legalize the sport was stopped before it could reach the floor. Assembly leader Sheldon Silver decided the bill didn't have enough votes to pass.
After years of lobbying and hoping to have an event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the UFC is disappointed that they will have to fight on another year. Zuffa vice president of government and regulatory affairs Marc Ratner was unhappy that the bill didn't even come to a vote.
"I feel 150% if we had a vote on the floor of the Assembly, we would win," Ratner said. "Not to get a vote is un-American."
Earlier this year, UFC president Dana White "guaranteed" that MMA would be in New York this year. He said the UFC wanted to bring fights not just to NYC, but to Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, too.
Losing the chance to get MMA in the third largest state is particularly hard to swallow considering the UFC just brought an event to the NYC-area over the weekend. Though the UFC on Fox 3 fights and weigh-ins were in East Rutherford, N.J., other pre-fight events were in Manhattan. They showed how an event can bring money to the area, but still were spurned by the legislature.
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