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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Though New York State remains a hold out in legalizing mixed martial arts, another U.S. state with an athletic commission and no MMA finally came around on Wednesday, as the Connecticut State Senate officially passed an MMA legalization bill.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy must sign the bill into law, but once he does they'll move things in place to allow the UFC and other mixed martial arts organizations to run in the state. New York now remains the only state with an athletic commission not to allow professional MMA.
But there was more good news for the sport north of the border on Wednesday, as Canada's House of Commons passed a bill to legalize MMA and other forms of combat sport, all of which had been technically illegal under their national prize-fighting laws. According to a report from The Canadian Press, this is the first amendment to the country's criminal code on prize-fighting since the 1930s.
The UFC, Bellator, and other organizations had been running events in the country in provinces which enacted their own legislation to cover the sport. Now, though, MMA will fall under the same exemptions to the criminal code as boxing has.
Tom Wright, the UFC's director of Canadian operations, commented on the bill's passage, saying, "This is a major development for the sport of mixed martial arts as we now have a consistent legislative framework for Canada and its provinces."
Penick's Analysis: The sport has made great strides over the last several years in the efforts to gain acceptance and legitimization through legislation and regulation, and now we all await New York State finally coming around themselves. The fact that it remains illegal in the state while amateur MMA is allowed to go on unregulated is insanity, but the political interests of few have continued holding MMA back from a fair shake in the State Assembly for some time now. As the legislative session comes to an end in the next week, time is running out on this being the year in New York.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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