torpainter
08-15-2010, 01:58 AM
Morgan Campbell
Sports Reporter
The provincial government let the news slip so quietly it’s a wonder they bothered announcing it at all.
Shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday, Minister of Consumer Services Sophia Aggelonitis circulated a press release announcing news sports fans thought would have come with a lot more hype — that the government would take steps to regulate mixed martial arts.
MMA is the nearly no-holds-barred style of fighting made popular by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the sport’s largest promotional outfit and the group behind the push to legalize MMA in Ontario.
Saturday’s announcement, however, doesn’t mean the UFC will land in the Rogers Centre next week. The Ontario Athletic Commission now must amend the Athletics Control Act, which regulates prizefighting in the province. That process will last into 2011.
Meanwhile, questions remain about how all this will unfold.
• Will MMA adopt the same-day weigh-ins boxing currently uses, or will Ontario okay MMA’s custom and allow fighters to weigh in the night before the card then pack on pounds until fight time?
• Will expensive liability insurance and safety deposits — two costs about which boxing promoters complain — squeeze out smaller MMA outfits?
• What happens to smaller promoters who can’t afford to draw from the same pool of experienced officials the UFC uses?
The commission will have to settle those questions and more before the UFC brings its octagon to Toronto.
But uncertainty aside, the news is the breakthrough the local MMA community has sought for more than a decade and what UFC has campaigned for since 2006, when its officials first spoke openly about coming to Ontario.
The decision adds Ontario to the growing list of jurisdictions (46 states and six provinces) that recognize MMA as a legitimate sport and the UFC as a revenue generator. And it proves that Ontario’s Athletic Commission has finally joined the 21st century. Instead of prudishly clinging to the idea that MMA is simply a cockfight between humans, Saturday’s decision shows that the provincial government’s point of view, like the sport itself, has evolved.
The addition of rules and weight classes have made the sport safer, and MMA advocates say it is probably less dangerous than boxing or football.
While that point is open to vigorous debate, the economic benefits of a sold-out UFC card are hard to argue.
Not only will the commission collect 2 per cent of the live gate revenue from any MMA show (UFC 117 drew a reported $1.56 million in ticket sales), but the province estimates that a large event could generate up to $6 million in economic activity.
Even so, the ministry seemed almost embarrassed to admit they’ve joined the MMA party.
UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre spent all of Thursday in Toronto, hyping a new line of Gatorade products, and you’d think the ministry would capitalize on his presence, teaming up with the sport’s most popular Canadian and ensuring the biggest splash possible for the announcement.
Nope.
Granted, the provincial government doesn’t work around the UFC’s schedule and the people behind the decision might not have known St. Pierre was here, but it still doesn’t explain the ministry’s low-key handling of some high-profile news. Instead of trumpeting Ontario’s official acceptance of a wildly popular sport, the ministry treated the announcement the way they would a controversy, releasing the news with little fanfare and limiting chances for the press to follow up.
Though the ministry’s announcement went out after 10 a.m., Aggelonitis was only available for comment until noon, a window of opportunity compressed further when you consider that all this happened on a Saturday.
Seems like a strange way to celebrate a decision that proves to younger citizens (and voters) that the government is in touch with their interests. And it’s an even odder way to announce a development that ultimately will enrich the province.
Sports Reporter
The provincial government let the news slip so quietly it’s a wonder they bothered announcing it at all.
Shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday, Minister of Consumer Services Sophia Aggelonitis circulated a press release announcing news sports fans thought would have come with a lot more hype — that the government would take steps to regulate mixed martial arts.
MMA is the nearly no-holds-barred style of fighting made popular by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the sport’s largest promotional outfit and the group behind the push to legalize MMA in Ontario.
Saturday’s announcement, however, doesn’t mean the UFC will land in the Rogers Centre next week. The Ontario Athletic Commission now must amend the Athletics Control Act, which regulates prizefighting in the province. That process will last into 2011.
Meanwhile, questions remain about how all this will unfold.
• Will MMA adopt the same-day weigh-ins boxing currently uses, or will Ontario okay MMA’s custom and allow fighters to weigh in the night before the card then pack on pounds until fight time?
• Will expensive liability insurance and safety deposits — two costs about which boxing promoters complain — squeeze out smaller MMA outfits?
• What happens to smaller promoters who can’t afford to draw from the same pool of experienced officials the UFC uses?
The commission will have to settle those questions and more before the UFC brings its octagon to Toronto.
But uncertainty aside, the news is the breakthrough the local MMA community has sought for more than a decade and what UFC has campaigned for since 2006, when its officials first spoke openly about coming to Ontario.
The decision adds Ontario to the growing list of jurisdictions (46 states and six provinces) that recognize MMA as a legitimate sport and the UFC as a revenue generator. And it proves that Ontario’s Athletic Commission has finally joined the 21st century. Instead of prudishly clinging to the idea that MMA is simply a cockfight between humans, Saturday’s decision shows that the provincial government’s point of view, like the sport itself, has evolved.
The addition of rules and weight classes have made the sport safer, and MMA advocates say it is probably less dangerous than boxing or football.
While that point is open to vigorous debate, the economic benefits of a sold-out UFC card are hard to argue.
Not only will the commission collect 2 per cent of the live gate revenue from any MMA show (UFC 117 drew a reported $1.56 million in ticket sales), but the province estimates that a large event could generate up to $6 million in economic activity.
Even so, the ministry seemed almost embarrassed to admit they’ve joined the MMA party.
UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre spent all of Thursday in Toronto, hyping a new line of Gatorade products, and you’d think the ministry would capitalize on his presence, teaming up with the sport’s most popular Canadian and ensuring the biggest splash possible for the announcement.
Nope.
Granted, the provincial government doesn’t work around the UFC’s schedule and the people behind the decision might not have known St. Pierre was here, but it still doesn’t explain the ministry’s low-key handling of some high-profile news. Instead of trumpeting Ontario’s official acceptance of a wildly popular sport, the ministry treated the announcement the way they would a controversy, releasing the news with little fanfare and limiting chances for the press to follow up.
Though the ministry’s announcement went out after 10 a.m., Aggelonitis was only available for comment until noon, a window of opportunity compressed further when you consider that all this happened on a Saturday.
Seems like a strange way to celebrate a decision that proves to younger citizens (and voters) that the government is in touch with their interests. And it’s an even odder way to announce a development that ultimately will enrich the province.