Cage Potato has the rundown on Bob Reilly (update: MMA bill passes first test!)

Today is the first of hopefully many steps toward legalizing MMA in New York, and the one man to beat I think has his work cut out for him, although nothing is certain. Cage Potato has all the relevant information you need to sort out Bob Reilly's argument; I understand it's not for him, but when you have boxing as a huge draw at places like Madison Square Garden, why is mixed martial arts given the special beat down? It's simply the mix of disciplines, the Western bias (probably) against other types of combat sports, and overall different look that I guess gives this man no choice but to stand his ground.

Check out the list of ignorance here: Cage Potato - The Many Fallacies of Bob Reilly

The look of love is in her eyes, photo by Cage Potato.

Update from CP, it passed! Here's their article:

"The New York State Assembly’s Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development Committee finally voted on bill A02009 this morning – known to you jokers as the thing to move MMA towards legalization in New York State – and it passed with a 14-6 vote. The bill has been referred to the Codes Committee for another vote, which means MMA is now closer to being sanctioned in New York than ever before.

The bill still has to make it past the Codes Committee and a vote by the State Assembly, but at least it survived the opening onslaught by Assemblyman Bob Reilly, who reportedly tried to sway other committee members yesterday in a twenty-minute presentation on the brutality of the sport and the unsavory nature of its proponents with a video featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Corey Hill’s broken leg, and Dana White’s video blog tirade against Loretta Hunt.

The bill passed anyway, suggesting that just maybe those fourteen members of the committee thought Lesnar/Couture was a pretty decent little scrap. We now raise our celebratory flutes of champagne or, failing that, a can of Miller High Life (the champagne of beers), and toast a small, though important victory for our side. Salud, Potato Nation."

MMA In New York: Hearing to push a bill to a committee who hands it to another committee who submits it for a vote

Cage Potato has the breakdown of the push for a MMA regulation bill for the state of New York. For those who are out of this political loop, New York, for example, has laws and commissions set in place to regulate boxing, but MMA has yet to be included in the discussion. According to the original MMA Weekly story, this hearing on June 3rd, if it turns out favorably, will allow a draft of the bill to enter into the committee process (both legal and financial) before getting put to a vote (if it gets that far).

To check out the story, click here.

Fighting movie trailer - A Guide To Recognizing Your Fists

Lloyd Dobler was so right when he said kickboxing was the "sport of the future". At least partially.

I'm a pretty big mixed martial arts fan, my initial interest materializing as a child when I started learning Shotokan karate and watching first pro wrestling, then UFC when my friend Mark came to me with some VHS tapes of the first UFC events which featured our favorite at the time, Ken Shamrock.

Currently I favor guys like Lyoto Machida (who has a highly anticipated matchup later this month against Thiago Silva) and Cung Le (who is featured in this trailer, he's the Asian fighter in Tatum's first underground fight) who started with more traditional martial arts and branched into other facets.

With Never Back Down, Summitt Entertainment tried to branch into a real theatrically released film involving mixed martial arts, and this spring we have Fighting (what a boring title) which chronicles Tatum's character Sean Arthur as he battles poverty by getting involved in underground fights.



Cinematically it makes sense to seduce the audience into thinking that there's this dangerous and alluring underground system, a la Fast and the Furious. The story is typical, but with the twist being that the combat is something relatively newer.

The director, Dito Montiel, should be able to get some great footage of New York, as he is a native and used to be in a NY hardcore outfit. The other great thing it has going for it was Montiel directed A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, also with Tatum, which was a terrific little slice of Queens way back when and had a great natural feel.

Strictly speaking from the perspective of say, someone who wants MMA to succeed in the mainstream as a legit sport (which it already is, and really is breaking ground), a film like this probably will not further that cause. Now technically, New York State has not sanctioned mixed martial arts, so the fact that the film revolves around underground fights makes sense. But the corruption and lack of rules and organization which the sport has managed to stay away from kind of doesn't bode well for someone coming in knowing nothing about MMA, if they don't like it, they might get the wrong impression. David Mamet's Redbelt took a story and used it within a legit fight circuit, which presented the idea of MMA as a sport rather than something for thugs to get into.

The movie had been filming all over the city last year, including some massive staging with some kick ass fake rain.

However, I'm sure Fighting will be entertaining. It's like Step Up (also with Tatum), but with fight fights, not dance fights.

For more on Fighting, IMDb it here. Or go to the official site. It releases on April 24th from Rogue Pictures.