Originally Posted by Ironman @ MMAOpinion

Very little is more important to me, at the moment, than the legalization of mixed martial arts in the state of New York. There are a lot of important fronts in the ongoing battle to extend the legitimacy of MMA, but New York is paramount.

The symbolic gesture of a UFC event in Madison Square Garden aside, being able to access what may be the largest market of young, affluent people in an urban area would make American MMA legitimate, but I also think that cracking New York would bring down the dyke, and allow pro MMA to break out and received credibility in the legislatures in Michigan (another powerful, untapped potential fanbase) and Maryland.

There are very few states where professional MMA has not been legalized and every one of them is important, but because of the nature of union influenced New York politics, the third most populous U.S. state has held out. California and Texas (one and two, population wise) have opened up to MMA, but the media influence in New York adds another dimension and level of importance to the legalization of the sport.

There are a lot of reasons why the battle has been uphill, not the least of which is a struggle with organizing opposition to a puritanical democratic leader in the assembly. I’m not a political expert, but having tracked the political history of mixed martial arts, it seems clear to me that there are certain tactics that work, and there are others that don’t.