Letdown City: The Dana White Rumor Revealed

We just couldn’t wait, could we? After Dana White revealed that he had a big announcement, the rumor mill went wild. Could it be a huge New Years Eve show? Did White buy out the UFC with Vince McMahon? Was Floyd Mayweather Jr. ready to fight against the worlds best in a cage?

Well, no. But some of the rumors were correct in assuming that White was going to announce the arrival of MMA in New York state. Unfortunately, the bill to allow MMA to be sanctioned in New York wasn’t passed today as expected.

What a letdown. Not only did the lawmakers let down all of the MMA fans in New York who were looking to finally see a live event at Madison Square Garden, Dana White let down all of the UFC fans as well. And in more ways than one.

When White went on ESPN and said that he had plans to change MMA for the next five years, heads nearly exploded. The forums went wild. Blog sites churned out article after article about the announcement. “Could this be the start of a MMA explosion?” people said to themselves. We just couldn’t wait to find out. Well, we didn’t have to wait until Thursday to find out.

Sam Caplan of Five Ounces of Pain revealed the news today, a day early. It was the news that Dana White did plan to release the details of an approved NY bill to sanction MMA in the state, but the bill was not approved. Apparently there was support to approve MMA in the state of New York, but once someone changed their mind as the voting began to take place, a domino effect was in full swing. Caplan says that the assemblyman who originally introduced the bill, Steve Englebright, ended up voting against it. Strange. Now that White has rescheduled his announcement to Tuesday, there’s word that the committee of Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development will be voting on the bill again early next week. Already?

While it looks like this second vote will probably allow MMA in the state, mostly thanks to the lobbying of the UFC, it’s still a letdown that the biggest news from the largest MMA organization is about the state of New York being sanctioned. Will this carry MMA for the next five years? No. Can the UFC thrive in Vegas, California, New Jersey, Ohio, and Montreal amongst many other major U.S. cities? Certainly. It’s great to hear that a state so geographically close to me is allowing the sport that I enjoy, but it’s not “an indicator of where the sport is going in the next five years”. It’s an indicator that lobbying still works. Throw enough money around in the states where MMA has yet to be sanctioned and you’ll be surprised how quickly bills can be passed.

So to wrap things up, Even though it’s not an indication of where the sport will be in five years, it is a great move to allow the UFC and the sport of MMA into new areas for more reasons than one. But if the vote to sanction MMA in New York fails again next week, everyone in New York City can make the short drive to Newark to watch the next UFC in New Jersey again. Either way, the people in the area can still expect to see live MMA action from the fighters they have watched for years.

For everyone outside of the area, it’s the same old.

And Dana, just wait and surprise people next time.

Update: White is denying that the big secret had to do with New York. Perhaps he was hoping to set up a big show in New York at MSG with a television network and he was assuming that the state was going to sanction the sport today.