For six hours on November 12, New York’s Madison Square Garden was the global epicenter of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). This was a major departure from the states recent history as the lone holdout of MMA legalization. But after years of waiting, professional MMA finally came to New York, and the state is better off for it.
On March 22, New York finally took a long overdue step towards joining the rest of the country in sanctioning professional MMA (amateur MMA has existed in the state for many years). Though, there was a great deal of resistance from many within the state leading up to that moment.