UFC schedules 2016 event in New York pending federal injunction

Last month, UFC filed an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which seeks to overturn New York’s MMA ban on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment rights of both fighters and fans. The UFC also submitted a new case to federal court on September 28, “reiterating its claim that the New York law banning MMA events is unconstitutional”.

They are planning to ask a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction against New York state officials.

The UFC is finally heading to New York – maybe. New York state’s battle with Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta is centered on the brothers’ casinos being nonunion establishments, which runs counter to the pro-union stance of the state. “The statute, and the state’s pattern of enforcing it, violates the Constitution’s prohibition on unconstitutionally vague laws”.

The popular sport that has long sought to hold events in the lucrative New York market sued Monday in Manhattan Federal Court, alleging that a law banning it from the state “is so badly written that neither ordinary persons nor state officials are able to say with any certainty what it permits and what it prohibits”.

It has nothing to do with mixed martial arts the reason that we’re not in New York.

In the complaint, the UFC reveals that they’re a licensed WKA promoter and “has a contract with MSG to hold a live, professional MMA event on April 23, 2016, and an agreement with the WKA to sanction that event“. If that injunction is not granted, the planned fight card at the Garden would not take place.

UFC events have been deemed illegal since the state passed a law governing “combative sport” in 1996.

Theories on why the state has kept its ban have run rampant, with UFC President Dana White indicating it has to do with the promotion’s ownership.

Hope was renewed this year in New York following the unceremonious resignation of former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver on federal corruption charges.

The suit said New York’s ban on mixed martial arts was first adopted in 1996, when the sport was being promoted as no-holds-barred, bloody, anything-goes matches, and exemptions were made for more traditional martial arts and fighting contests sanctioned by established world and national organizations.