Mixed Martial Arts is a sport that's been exploding in popularity since the early 2000s. Taking the (semi-)organized pageantry and chaos of professional wrestling with all it's grudge matches and larger-than-life personalities and blending it with the real life violence or boxing, it's been a multi-(multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-multi-)million dollar industry for years, bringing in pay-per-view money and drawing tens of thousands of people to buy tickets at every venue.

So why is it still banned in New York?

There's been a struggle for years to get the sport sanctioned in our state, but for various, often questionable reasons, it remains banned. Well, one New York MMA pundit has put together a comprehensive article on Deadspin about why this is causing more problems than it's solving:

This is New York, where on most Friday and Saturday nights a ring or cage is set up somewhere, with combatants hurting one another for nothing but applause and a primal sense of accomplishment. State law bans professional mixed martial arts bouts, but amateur fights—under both MMA and kickboxing rules—are legal.

The problem is that while these fights are nominally regulated by private organizations, some of them are, in practice, not regulated at all. That's why fighters can compete in New York with HIV, hepatitis C, and other conditions that would prevent them from getting in a cage anywhere else in the United States.

 

He goes on to make a really compelling case that MMA fans and non-fans alike will be interested in. Check it out here.

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