Nexersys iPower Trainer - built to handle your toughest workout
Ronda Rousey testified in front of
the New York State Senate about MMA (Getty)If, as it should be,
mixed martial arts is ever legalized in New York, don't forget to give
Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey her share of credit.
On April 18 in Albany, N.Y., the New York state Senate voted 43-14 to approve
a bill that would legalize and regulate MMA in the state. It still needs to pass
the Assembly and then be signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in order to become law.
The bill has passed the state Senate before, but this time around, said Marc
Ratner, the UFC's vice president for governmental and regulatory affairs, the
job was made much easier with Rousey's testimony.
"She got up there and she really made a great presentation and I think she
had a significant impact," Ratner said. "We [as executives] can talk all we want
to them about the positives of MMA, but to hear it from someone like her, a
fighter, someone who is very articulate [and] who made her points very
passionately, it definitely made a huge impact."
Visit the Official UFC collection at Century MMA
Ronday Rousey celebrates a win
(Getty)Rousey, who defeated Miesha Tate by, what else, an arm bar
submission to win the title on March 3 in Columbus, was particularly effective
when she spoke about what MMA has done for her. She won a bronze medal in judo
in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but said she would be struggling
financially had she remained in that sport. She said she'd be losing money if
she were a professional judoka.
Several senators approached her, she said, and told her her presentation
changed their minds and caused them to vote in favor of the bill.
"MMA has a bad rap among some people," Rousey told Cagewriter. "It's marketed
sometimes in a way that is not what the sport is. You hear the marketing, 'Two
men enter. One man leaves,' but that's ridiculous. It's not what this sport is.
They just do it to sound dramatic. It's like a movie preview. The whole movie
isn't just running around and screaming and explosions, but they make it seem
like that [in the trailer] so people go to the movie. There's a lot of quiet
time and dialogue and there is a plot. What they're doing is like they're
comparing a commercial for 'The Bourne Identity' to actually sitting there and
watching it for two hours."
Visit the Official UFC collection at Century MMA
She spent time explaining the nuances of her specialty, the arm bar. She
pointed out that she'd been arm barred "more times than I can count," and
pointed out that she wasn't out snapping bones. She said she doesn't think she's
ever broken an opponent's arm.
That, too, worked.
"I explained everything behind it and after I did, they were like, 'OK,
that's no problem, it's not barbaric,'" Rousey said.
Visit the Official UFC collection at Century MMA
Her best point, though, may have been when she told the senators that there
was actually already MMA going on in the state. She made them aware that there
is a robust amateur scene there, but it isn't as safe for the fighters and the
fighters aren't able to make a living, like they do when they're professionals
and compete where the sport is regulated.
That point struck home with many of the lawmakers.
"In New York, you could fight and have people do MMA," she said. "But they
have to do it without the proper medical checks. They have to do it without
getting paid. They have to do it without any kind of regulation or oversight.
[Amateur MMA in New York] is unsafe the way it is now, because they're missing
all the things we have in pro MMA.
"We're not asking them to bring in a bunch of people and tell them to kill
each other. That's not what's going on. That's how it was being presented. I
wanted to point out that amateur MMA is here already, but we want to get it
regulated so it's safe and there is regulation and it is safe and everyone gets
paid for what they do. I want to be able to work in any state in my own country.
Can you imagine, we're in 2012 and I still legally can't do my job anywhere I
want in my country?"
The tens of millions of dollars poured into the legalization effort by UFC
owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and president Dana White will be primarily
responsible for MMA's passage in New York, if and when it occurs.
But Rousey's day on the hill shouldn't be forgotten. On that day, the lady
was a champ when it came to wooing the legislators
