By SPENCER TURKIN
Serra, along with officials from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), are keeping a keen eye on the progress of a bill that would legalize professional mixed martial arts (MMA) events in New York state. The sport was banned in 1997 when lawmakers deemed it brutal and unsafe.
Despite being prohibited from staging events in New York, the UFC and other popular mixed martial arts leagues have drawn large crowds in venues across the continent, including the Prudential Center in nearby Newark.
Serra, a former UFC champion who lost his title in April 2008 in front of a raucous Montreal crowd, hopes the day will come when he can fight in front of his hometown fans. "To fight at Madison Square Garden or even Nassau Coliseum would be unbelievable," said Serra, who graduated from East Meadow High School and now owns the Serra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy in East Meadow with his brother, Nick Serra. "I graduated from high school a few miles away. To be able to fight in that venue would be unreal."
The mixed martial arts bill was approved by the state Assembly committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports Development on June 3, but it needs a vote by both the full Assembly and Senate before it reaches Governor Paterson's desk. Without legislative approval during this session, it is unlikely that the bill will be finalized before 2010.
State Assemblyman Thomas McKevitt (R,C,I-East Meadow), who cosponsored the bill and once attended school with Serra, was enthusiastic about its prospects, but did not appear confident that the legislation would be passed in the near future. "There is bipartisan support and bipartisan dissent," said McKevitt. "There is no set timetable with this piece of legislation, and nothing is moving forward in the Senate right now."
State Sen. Kemp Hannon (R,C,I-Garden City), whose district includes East Meadow and Salisbury, could not be reached for comment.
When UFC was first established in 1993, an "anything goes" format dominated the sport. Since the 1997 New York ban, the league has taken major steps to increase the safety of participants and make the sport more appropriate for younger viewers. After many states followed suit by banning what was believed to be the most brutal style of fighting, the UFC, under new owners Zuffa Inc., turned "a completely restructured MMA into a highly organized and controlled combat sport" in January 2001, according to the organization's Web site.
Adding more structure to the matches has had a positive effect, fans say. Aside from pay-per-view fights, Spike TV broadcasts some of the matches. The sport's increased popularity has spread across the country, and moved lawmakers in New York to revisit the possibility of hosting matches here.
Representatives of the UFC and other MMA-related leagues and businesses discussed the proposed bill with local lawmakers, including McKevitt and fellow Assemblyman Rob Walker, at a special roundtable discussion at the Nassau Coliseum in March. MMA supporters lauded the potential revenue that UFC events at the Coliseum would generate for the local economy.
Zuffa LLC, a sports promotions company, hired a consultant to determine the economic impact of a fight at Madison Square Garden as well as in Buffalo. The study, posted on mmafacts.com, predicted revenues in the millions of dollars for both regions as well as the creation of new jobs.
"We are very pleased to be one step closer to regulation in New York," said Marc Ratner, UFC's vice president of government and regulatory affairs. "We appreciate the time that the Assembly Tourism Committee took to learn about our sport and the economic impact our events would have on the state. We look forward to the next step in the regulatory process and a continued dialogue with legislators. We remain very excited about the prospect of coming to New York."
Serra, one of the sport's superstars, explained that mixed martial arts has evolved to the point where the fans who would like to see it come to New York aren't just the typically targeted 18- to 25-year-old men. "The fans range from women in their 50s to 7- and 8-year-old kids," Serra said. "The sport has exploded with a huge fan base as well as those who want to learn martial arts themselves. Bringing the sport to New York could only increase this as well as help the economy."
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