Mixed Martial Arts Legalized in Connecticut and Canada; New York State Still Waiting

By: Rich Bergeron

Connecticut became the 49th state to legalize Mixed Martial Arts last Wednesday, and after years of hazy confusion regarding MMA's status in Canada the sport finally became legal across all provinces there last week. The lone holdout state here in the USA is New York, and the reasoning behind that failure to launch seems to have little to do with safety concerns. Instead, the legalization of mixed martial arts in the Empirie State appears to be a political football in the hands of a powerful union called Unite Here.

While attempting to force Station Casinos to unionize their workforce, a Las Vegas subsidiary of Unite Here called The Culinary Union (Local 226) is using a peculiar strategy to intimidate and irritate the casino chain's ownership. The Culinary Union is waging a war on all business interests owned by Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III, the billionaire brothers who own the majority of both Station Casinos and Zuffa, LLC (The parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championships). Though the jury is still out on how this campaign will actually pay any dividends toward unionizing Station Casinos, it is apparently beginning to cause massive headaches for politicians in New York who support legalizing MMA there.

Media POV: Was the Cat Zingano vs. Miesha Tate fight stopped too soon?

Cat Zingano took to the cage this weekend at the TUF 17 Finale where she defeated Miesha Tate to earn herself not only number one contender status, but also a coaching gig alongside Ronda Rousey on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.

The win didn’t come without some controversy.

The referee in charge of the bout was Kim Winslow. Earlier in the evening she was officiating a match-up between Maximo Blanco and Sam Sicilia in which she gave countless warnings to Blanco for grabbing the fence. After about eight warnings there was still no penalty or point deducted.

Winslow then stepped inside the octagon for the Zingano vs. Tate match-up – the crowd gulped.

It was almost at the get-go that we heard Winslow make another warning towards Tate for grabbing the fence, which means nothing obviously. The finish was what was questioned by most. Zingano won the fight via third round TKO, after what some are calling an illegal knee. She followed that knee up with another knee and some elbows. Right as Tate was knee’d she dropped for a takedown and Winslow stepped in to stop the fight.

So was it a bad stoppage? Was the knee illegal? That’s where the MMA media come in to play. I caught up with some of the best in the business and they gave me their perspective on the fight at hand.

51 Year Old Herschel Walker Seeks UFC Fight

Herschel Walker is mostly known for his Heisman campaign at the University of Georgia and his time in the NFL as a running back, but Walker is looking to take the next step in his MMA career by competing in the UFC.

Walker was on the Lavar Arrington Show and had this to say about his MMA Career:

“I absolutely love MMA. I think it’s an excellent sport.”

“If I were younger, I’d be doing it right now.”

“Because I’m a little bit older and I have a business going, I say I’d like to do one more fight, and then I think it’s time for me to step aside and give it to the young people. But I’d like to do one more fight.”

Rani Yahya impressive with unanimous decision victory over Mizuto Hirota

A very quick start in the featherweight division, as Rani Yahya immediately threw some feints and leg kicks against Mizuto Hirota.

Yahya showed in the first round that he is extremely comfortable no matter what position he is on the ground. Hirota had him on his back for a portion of the round and Yahya showed his patience and control.

Once Yahya reversed and gained the dominant position, he searched for numerous submissions, but was unlucky.

Vancouver MMA Brand Proves Worthy

PRESS RELEASE

Reign Full Contact, founded in 2009 in the Western Canadian province of British Columbia, has become a Canada-Wide success story. In 4 short years, Reign is now available in select retailers Canada-wide and is about to be distributed across Europe.

With a background in martial arts of over 50 years collectively, the three owners knew the industry standards could be improved and knew just how to do it. In 2009, Reign worked with some of Western Canada’s best professional fighters and trainers at John Punt’s renowned Impact MMA in Nanaimo, B.C.

From there, Reign acquired crucial firsthand feedback on their products and the development process began.

‘Cyborg’ Santos to Ronda Rousey: ‘Step up b*tch, I’ll kick your ass with one hand tied behind my back’

Esther Lin for Showtime

Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos is raving mad at critics who say she is afraid to step up against UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey. In fact, she is willing to fight ‘Rowdy’ with one hand tied behind her back to prove she can ‘kick her ass.’

Oh no she didn’t!

Former Strikeforce women’s Featherweight champion Cristiane Santos is fed up with all the naysayers, including Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White, who feel she is ducking current Bantamweight champ, Ronda Rousey.

“Cyborg” wants to make it clear she is “not afraid” of “Rowdy” and her slick submission skills; she simply can’t make the drop down to 135 pounds. However, Santos is more than willing meet Rousey at a catch weight of 140 pounds.  If that’s not enough, she will gladly step into the Octagon against the former Judoka with one hand tied behind her back.

There Will Be MMA This New Year's Eve

For at least one more year, there will be MMA on New Year's Eve in the country of Japan.

It was announced last week that Dream will have a revival for one night at least, and that night will be one of the more important dates in MMA: December 31^st. It was announced as a mixed martial arts and kickboxing card, co-promoted by Real Entertainment Co. Ltd. and Glory Sports International. The card appears to be ten MMA fights with three kickboxing matches, and the recent tradition of MMA fighters competing in kickboxing and vice versa will continue this year as well.

Participants are still to be announced, but three Japanese fighters that were present at the press conference announcing the event were Hiroyuki Takaya, Dream's featherweight champion as of their last event, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Satoru Kitaoka. Expect those three to be in fights on the card.

As for the kickboxing matches and potential kickboxers in MMA fights, look to Glory's kickboxing card in Japan at the beginning of December. On December 4, Glory is holding a one-night sixteen man kickboxing tournament and because Glory was able to get first crack at the kickboxing free agent market before the new K-1, this tournament is stacked with names. Entrants in Glory's one night tournament on December 4 include Semmy Schilt, Remy Bonjasky, Peter Aerts, Jerome LeBanner, Sergei Kharitonov, and Errol Zimmerman. All of these men have at least one or two fights in MMA, though for a few of them that's about it.

Out of those names, only Schilt was any kind of star in MMA as he made a decent mark in UFC and Pride before achieving even more success in K-1, winning the World Grand Prix four times. LeBanner is still a big name in Japan and that was proven when he was matched against Satoshi Ishii in an MMA fight back on the last day of 2010. It was agreed that LeBanner was a big name opponent for Ishii, but then during the fight it was LeBanner getting all of the cheers from the crowd instead of Ishii in his home country.

In addition to the fights scheduled, it wouldn't surprise this writer if Antonio Inoki's IGF pro wrestling promotion contributed to the card with a few pro wrestling matches involving MMA fighters and kickboxers. If that were to happen, figure on Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata to make another appearance as a tag-team (they wrestled on last year's Dream New Year's Eve card) as well as Kazuyuki Fujita (a former MMA fighter) and LeBanner being on the card in that format.

For the sport of MMA in Japan, it's a good thing that the New Year's Eve tradition is being continued this year. As of this moment, this may be more of a good-bye to the sport than a re-introduction. Dream is still basically dead as the co-promotion with GSI is mainly what is making this card possible. Any kind of continued running of Dream by Real Entertainment would likely have to be in co-promotion with GSI unless Real Entertainment somehow could get some money coming in to produce MMA cards. But the sport itself is in a grave depression in the country, having gone almost practically back to the days when it was a brand new sport, and the chance of any promotion becoming a long-running promotion that isn't a small Independent like Pancrase isn't good at all.

If the sport of MMA in Japan is destined to only be on the biggest stage once a year then so be it. It won't last that way forever. At some point the sport will begin to achieve new-found popularity, but because nobody can see into the future it's unknown when that time will come. But if MMA is guaranteed to be on national television in Japan on the one day of the year guaranteed to have more potential viewers than any other day of the year, it's not a bad day to be the sport's one big day of the year.

Dan Benton

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