The UFC's vice president of regulatory affairs celebrated the achievement in Connecticut.
Of the fifty-one North American states, two of them (Montana and Alaska) do not have athletic commissions or laws that address MMA, allowing or vetoing it. In the remainder, forty-seven had already regulated the practice of MMA in their territories. This week, this number increased by one more.
The state of Connecticut approved this Wednesday the regulation of MMA. The law had been approved in the Chamber of Deputies by 117 votes to 26, on May 7th. Last Wednesday (05), the MMA emerged victorious in the vote in the State Senate. In total, 26 senators from Connecticut voted in favor of allowing the practice of the sport while nine other parliamentarians vetoed it. State Governor Dannel Malloy will still sign the release law.
“Today (yesterday) is truly a great day for the sport,” said Marc Ratner, UFC vice president of regulatory affairs, following the vote in the Connecticut Senate. “I want people to understand that there are 47 states with athletic commissions that have approved the sport and two states without a commission that allow the sport,” added the official.
With approval in Connecticut, the state of New York becomes the only state in the United States that has an athletic commission that does not regulate MMA. The sport has been banned in the state since 1997, when the UFC was still in the era of implementing some rules, three years before the emergence of the Unified MMA Rules, which regulate the sport to this day.
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