Earlier this year, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was planning a 20th anniversary supershow for Madison Square Garden (MSG) in New York City. Instead, the world's largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion will have to settle for its home base of Las Vegas, Nevada.
That means East Coast fight fans will have to head south for this UFC title fight in November.
After all, it's kind of hard to hold a show in "The Empire State" when the Assembly can't even find time to vote on it before the current legislative session ends. According to NY Daily News, that means we can forget about legalizing MMA for the remainder of 2013.
Perhaps beyond.
The blame lies with "Unite Here," the Las Vegas Culinary Union (find out what their beef is here) who've made a career out of cock-blocking the UFC when it comes to "Big Apple" cage fighting. Find out 'The Truth About Culinary 226" with ZUFFA's new website here.
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta elaborates (via MMA Weekly):
"While our disappointment cannot be overstated, our commitment to seeing New York legalize the fastest growing sport in the nation and the world is intact and undeterred... This year's new, absurd, offensive, and completely erroneous charge used to justify the defeat of MMA legislation was that MMA is anti-woman and leads to domestic violence. This is a deception fabricated by a Las Vegas union that is recklessly and callously trying to use an important societal issue to try and punish the UFC."
Ever since the state of New York imposed a ban on MMA in 1997, ZUFFA officials have been trying to somehow reverse it to hold an event in the "city that never sleeps." In fact, for the last four years, White, the Fertittas and several fighters on the UFC roster (like this outspoken champ) have been lobbying for the ban to be lifted.
The ban remains intact, despite the positive economic impact that a live MMA event would have on the state and surrounding areas. Until then, New York fight fans will have to travel across the bridge to places like neighboring New Jersey to get their UFC fix.
See you in 2014.