The debate about regulating MMA in the New York Assembly is missing the point. Allowing unregulated MMA is endangering fighters.
Adrion and Marwin square off in a tiny basement boxing gym in the Bronx. Adrion's femur is broken exactly six seconds later, snapped clean in half after a misstep and Marwin jumping on his back like an angry monkey. The crowd goes wild. Adrion grits his teeth and clutches his leg. It's February, 2012, and though this fight has taken place at an event dubbed the "Underground Combat League," that name is just clever marketing.
A loophole in the 1997 law banning professional mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts in New York has left amateur fights - where the competitors are unpaid - completely legal.