From the New York Daily News:
The push to legalize ultimate fighting in New York is on the ropes. Assembly Democrats stripped approval for the wildly popular violent sport from a budget bill that lawmakers will take up as soon as today. Gov. Paterson sought to legalize mixed martial arts, saying fights could pull in more than $2 million in tax revenue for the cash-strapped state. "The majority of voices who spoke about this issue in our conference were not supportive of approving it as part of the budget," said Assemblyman Steven Englebright (D-L.I.), a fight fan. Englebright said it's a long shot the Assembly will revisit the issue. The state Senate has already approved the sport.
Fugetaboutit. Any hopes of MMA and the UFC coming to New York in 2010 have been dashed. Apparently, no matter how hard the UFC lobbies to make a change in New York -- and you can be sure they spent millions doing just that -- there's just no way, at least for the time being, to convince the people in power of the Empire State that the sport of mixed martial arts deserves to be treated, well, like a sport. It's an unfortunate turn of events to say the least. One has to wonder what needs to be done to get some MMA action in Madison Square Garden. Yo, Bob Reilly, I'm looking at you.
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