For six years, the behind-the-scenes war between the UFC and the Culinary Workers Union of Las Vegas has kept professional mixed martial arts out of New York.
The idea that this is still the case in 2015, where a sport that is on television on multiple stations every weekend is not allowed in arenas like Madison Square Garden and the Barclays Center, and instead runs across the state borders in New Jersey, makes little sense. New York has MMA shows all over the state, but the only way to legally run is to have them be amateur shows, which are unregulated.