Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is not a new concept. All of the martial arts we know today initially had a mixed or multidisciplinary aspect. When most people hear of the term “mixed martial arts” today they think of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which itself was inspired by Brazilian Vale Tudo or “anything goes.”
It was in this vein that the UFC originally marketed the sport, which is to say as a no holds barred competition. The intent was to promote the danger factor in order to whip up excitement and, by-and-large, this succeeded but perhaps a little too well as it soon developed an unsavory – and not wholly undeserved – reputation for brutality and spectacle.
Since then, professional organizations, including the UFC, have had considerable success in elevating and legitimizing MMA as a separate, unique combat sport in the popular culture.(1) popularity of this “new” sport has spurred many states to sanction MMA matches in order to cash in on some of the potential revenue. There are several states that oppose legalizing MMA, based on its previous reputation and New York State is one of them. Many of the reasons given for not legalizing MMA seem to boil down to an assumption that MMA is more dangerous to the fighters than already legally sanctioned combat sport events such as boxing, kickboxing, judo, and jujitsu. The irony is that MMA, as sanctioned by the professional organizations, is a combination of all of these legal combat sports.
This then begs the question: Why would New York State consider MMA an illegal sport when it is essentially a combination of all of the martial systems already legally available to us?
There’s little doubt that MMA suffers under its outdated reputation of “human cockfighting” spurred by its aforementioned own early marketing. This, in turns, leads to the assumption by governing bodies that the sport does not fit into the confines of the law. But there has been a sea change since those early days when the sport was struggling for recognition and this is simply not true.
Technically speaking MMA easily passes the New York State Athletic Commission guidelines’ definition of a combat system.(2) Unfortunately, the NY State Athletic Commission has the authority to include or remove organizations from its list of approved Martial Arts Organizations, based on additional criteria. (3)
It seems that, because MMA does not fit completely within the additional criteria, it has not been approved as a legal combat sport in NY State. However it can be argued that other legal martial organizations do not fit these criteria either.
Consider that Thai Boxing does not provide feet protection – one of the mandates in the law, 19 N.Y.C.R.R. § 206.7.(4) Similarly , boxing and wrestling matches do not require an organization and only a licensed promoter
This law seems to be more of a reflexive action against the original gory reputation of MMA in its early days and an easy political slam dunk for lawmakers looking to score with conservative voters. MMA has undergone a complete overhaul in the past 20 years with it’s pivotal moment on November 22, 2002 with the UFC 40 (5) fight between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock whereby Shamrock represented the previous iteration of the UFC and Ortiz represented the it’s current iteration. Put another way, the 40th fight of the UFC represented a break from it’s past and it’s entrance into the mainstream.
Since then, the UFC, as the largest and most influential MMA organization, has been very diligent in working with various state athletic commissions by amending existing guidelines and creating new rules for any gray areas where rules conflict or do not exist. Overall, MMA is far safer and has shed its former roadhouse reputation.
MMA being illegal in NY State is not due to a lack of safety or a lack of adherence to NY State law. It suffers from a cultural stigma due to a lack of knowledge of its current form. A clear majority of almost all of the legal martial sports in New York do not strictly adhere to New York State law. MMA has not been proven to be any more dangerous than existing combat sports. Organizations like the UFC have standardized guidelines(6) to protect their competitors and lift MMA from spectacle to sport.
– Akira Bryson
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(1) http://mmaweekly.com/ufc-mirrors-nba-and-nfl-rise-to-mainstream-with-strikeforce-purchase
(2) http://law.justia.com/codes/new-york/2006/boxing-sparring-and-wrestling-ch.-912.20/
(3) see generally: here.
(4) http://www.nyintegrity.org/law/ethc/Part937.html
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_40
(6) http://www.ufc.com/discover/sport/index
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