UFC in Ontario: not a priority?

By Ethan Rabidoux

This is going to be short and sweet.

I’ve written at length about the beautiful majesty of Mixed Martial Arts. The uncultured in society fail to grasp its magnificence.

Unfortunately, the uncultured rule the roost in this debt-infested province.

Dalton McGuinty mused a few months back that he was open to legalizing MMA in Ontario. That would have paved the way for UFC to hold Pay Per Views and other blockbuster events in our jurisdiction. 

Just this week, McGuinty said it’s, “not a priority for his government.” 

So, our prizefighting laws languish on in the stone age while revenues from UFC events continue to go elsewhere. 

The government is supposedly preoccupied with bolstering our battered economy. If that’s true then they should roll out the red carpet for the UFC and other promotions.

UFC 97 in Montreal alone generated an immediate financial impact of $5 million in the city. Toronto could do it bigger and better. The UFC is huge and it just keeps getting bigger.

Oh sure, MMA revenue isn’t going to cover the monstrous provincial deficit McGuinty has piled up nor will it solve all our woes but it sure beats a kick in the ass with a frozen boot.

Ontarians will watch this wonderful sport with or without the provincial government’s blessing. We already are. Roughly 42 % of the spectators at UFC 97 in Montreal came from Ontario. The government could generate millions of dollars for its empty coffers tomorrow but chooses not to. 

Not a priority indeed. 

Ontarians don’t need to be shielded from violence by a nanny state. Moreover, Ontario needs the money anyway. That should be reason enough to drag our laws into modernity.

I think there’s a simple way to resolve this; we stick Dalton McGuinty and Georges St. Pierre into a steel octagon cage. The winner decides whether we legalize MMA in the province.

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[Via http://inthepen.wordpress.com]