MMA Day a Success: Reasons for Legalization Examined to Perfection

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”—Denis Waitley

As I write this article, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is still illegal in many parts of the world. In particular, the politicians in my home Province of Ontario, Canada are still feeling that the legalization of MMA is a “non-priority.”

Quite simply—MMA is not on the political radar because the powers that be do not stand to benefit personally from its acceptance.

How else can you explain why each element of MMA is legally permitted in competition (wrestling, boxing, karate, taekwondo, judo, jiu-jitsu, etc.), but that any combination of these combative aspects is completely prohibited?

It is ludicrous and ignorant on the parts of the politicians to think that MMA is any more harmful than…oh gee, I dunno…cigarettes perhaps??

Cigarettes cause 440,000 deaths per year by the way, which is perfectly okay I suppose when you consider that the government rakes in a heap load of tax dollars as a result.

Thank goodness for “free” Health Care—we’re gonna need it!

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On a more positive note, Saturday May 22, 2010 marked the first Annual MMA Day in Ontario. This event was organized by the Toronto-based Mixed Martial Arts Expo.

In attendance were many of the brightest stars in the Ontario MMA community, including: “Showdown Joe” Ferraro (MMA Analyst, Host of MMA Connected on Rogers Sportsnet), Loudon Owen (Chairman of the Fight Network), Carlos Newton (Business Owner, First-ever Canadian UFC Champion), Mark Hominick (Business Owner, professional MMA fighter), Shah Franco (BJJ and MMA Instructor, Pro Fighter Coach), Sean Pierson (Bellator Welterweight Pro Fighter), Jeff Joslin (Business Owner, Radio Announcer, MMA Instructor), and many more…

MMA Day organizer and president of Mixed Martial Arts Expo, Gerald Chopik, stated that, “MMA Day on May 22 gives Ontario families, related industry workers, and MMA athletes and fans the opportunity to raise awareness about not only how they—but the province at large—will benefit from MMA being sanctioned in Ontario.”

I repeat…”the province at large will benefit from MMA being sanctioned in Ontario.”

This may shock you fight fans, but politicians tend to respond more enthusiastically when they see something to be gained for themselves.

Well, if the Honourable Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, is looking for a few good reasons to legalize MMA, then here they are, thanks to the incredibly diverse and intelligent guest speakers at MMA Day.

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Jeff Joslin: “Bringing the sport of MMA to Ontario is very high on my list. I’ve been training in this sport for a long, long time, training since I was about five years old under my father. I’ve never had a job that didn’t involve punching, kicking or choking people, and honestly, it’s been a very good life. There are so many positive things about Mixed Martial Arts, I’m going to share that with you.

“Seeing MMA sanctioned in Ontario would be a great thing. As a fighter, I’ve never really had an opportunity to fight close to home. I’ve fought in Quebec, I’ve fought on a US Marine base against a US citizen, but I really don’t know what it’s like to have a home town advantage. So hopefully, MMA can get sanctioned so that fighters can fight in front of their friends, family, and everybody else.

“As a coach, it’s done so many good things for me. It’s given me the opportunity to test my techniques. To get out there and really see if my stuff works under pressure. Mixed Martial Arts has given me the ability to do that and to come back and show my students the techniques that really work and are really, really effective.

“Without a doubt, Mixed Martial Arts is the most positive thing in my life and it has done so much for me.”

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“Showdown Joe” Ferraro: “Standing here on Queen’s Park to talk about Mixed Martial Arts has been a dream of mine since 1998 when I first contacted our government just to see what would be required to host an MMA event. It has taken me 12 years to get here and I am so humbled and blessed to be given an opportunity to speak about a sport that I have so much passion for.

“To all the parents who have long seen the benefits that Mixed Martial Arts has given to our children—the ability to be respectful, to show honour, humility, while giving them an avenue to be physical, as opposed to sitting in front of a television. Moms and dads, uncles and aunts, guardians of our future, I thank you for your support to green-light MMA.

“To the professional fighter whose only option is to compete outside of Ontario, away from your friends, family, and fans, we do this for you. And soon enough, this travesty will end as I firmly believe that the Ontario government will green-light MMA and be right there in your corner to support you on the road to becoming a world champion.

“To our Premier, the Honourable Dalton McGuinty, the sport of mixed martial arts has drastically changed since its introduction to the North American market in 1993, nearly two decades ago. In 2001, nearly 10 years ago, the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts were adopted by the Association of Boxing Commissions of which our very own Ontario Athletic Commission has been a member of. Most people don’t know, but these rules were created with one thing in mind—to make the sport as safe as possible for the competitors.

“Over the past five years, an estimated 40 million dollars has been spent by Ontarians outside of our Provincial borders to support the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Mr. McGuinty, I ask that you consider keeping this hard earned money here in the Province of Ontario.

“I also ask that you task your Minister of Consumer Services, the Honourable Sophia Aggelonitis, to make changes to the Ontario Athletic Controls Act to amend the definition of ‘professional contest or exhibition,’ so as to include the sport of MMA which according to a 2006 study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine by the esteemed John Hopkins University School of Medicine, has a lower knockout rate than boxing, which is a sport which we sanction in Ontario. And some food for thought for everybody—mixed martial arts has a lower injury rate than even cheerleading. If you don’t believe me—Google it.

“The time has come to seriously review the facts and ignore the misconceptions associated with MMA and to give the people, the parents, the children, the athletes, and the consumers what they want. I sincerely ask you to please green-light Mixed Martial Arts. Thank you.”

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Loudon Owen: “The Fight Network is in over one million homes in Canada today and largely based on Mixed Martial Arts. We’re the only channel of our kind in the world.

“I am very proud of several things. One—Shah Franco who has been training my son since he was knee high to a grasshopper, and he hasn’t gone on a wild rampage. In fact, he’s a pretty good kid. I’ve been taking my son to Mixed Martial Arts events since he was 13 and guess what? He’s learned a tremendous amount about discipline and respect.

“So I’m a father, I’m a businessman, I’m a lawyer—this is the first time that I have spoken at Queen’s Park publicly since the late 1980’s. The last time I spoke here it was to a group that was about this size, and we were fighting against the budget that at the time was a crazy, lunatic budget that had been introduced. A few months later, we had 3000 people here in front of Queen’s Park. And about five months later, we had 10,000 people protesting and we changed the budget. So folks, you’re at the beginning. You’re at the launch pad. You’re all contributing to what is critically important and what’s gonna happen, which is getting a lot of people directly and forcefully changing the laws and ensuring that Mixed Martial Arts comes to Ontario, sooner rather than later.

“I’m going to talk to you as a father and I believe that the leadership in the Mixed Martial Arts community is outstanding and is as important as anything else. The fitness is critical of course, but the respect and the attitudes demonstrated by these gentlemen on stage and so many of you in the audience are just essential to the growth and improvement of our kids over the next generation.

“The last thing that I’m going to talk about is money. 50 million dollars was brought into Montreal with a single Mixed Martial Arts event…people have to make a living folks, and we have to help them.”

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Shah Franco: “I’m here to give the perspective of the gym owners, the teammates, the sparring partners, the guys who grab ice for the fighters, and everybody who puts their time and energy and heart into the sport that we love.

“For some of these fighters up here, not be able to go home directly to their houses, to their wives, to the girlfriends, and the girls that fight for their boyfriends, and to have to go back to that hotel room, win, lose, or draw, and not have them have somebody that they love and they represent, their moms, their dads, their kids—be there for them. And have to go to a hospital sometimes because sometimes you get cut and it’s not your hospital and it’s not your place.

“I’ve seen all these guys fight away and represent our Province, their cities, their families, their gyms, and all I can say is, you’re looking at some of the bravest guys that you’ll ever meet.”

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Carlos Newton: “I started competing when I was 18 and I started martial arts when I was four years old. It was a long road to become the UFC champion, but for me it wasn’t about winning the UFC title or anything as the goal. The goal for me was to really be the best person that I could be. Be the best athlete. Be the best martial artist.

“For me, martial arts has given me so much. It has given me everything. Because of martial arts, I see a very bright future for myself after fighting. And before fighting, I always wondered what that would was like. I chose martial arts as a way to discover that and for me it has just opened my mind in so many ways. I’ve been able to travel around the world, meet so many different people, meet tremendous cultures and experiences along the way, but one of the greatest things that I’ve always missed was I’ve always come back home and realized that Toronto is the greatest place. I’ve always known that from the first time, and the only thing now that’s left to do is to be able to fight in Ontario.

“This sport’s going right to the top. It really is just the first time in human history probably that it’s been off the radar and it is the first Olympic sport—pankration. I always said, there are only two Olympic sports that count—running and fighting. If you can’t fight, you had better learn to run.

“For me, being able to fight here in Ontario will be a great opportunity, not just for myself but for everyone, for us as a community to get together. Help raise the guys that are really young in the sport and show them the way so that they themselves can discover their full potential. That’s what life is about—being our best.

“Everyone always over-estimates what they can do in one year and everyone under-estimates what they can do in ten. So this is the first step and we’re gonna get there.”

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Mark Hominick: “It’s an honour to speak on behalf of the MMA community at this event and it proves that the love and passion that we all have for this sport is alive and present in all of us. As a professional Mixed Martial Arts competitor for the last 10 years, I would just like to state that MMA has instilled the work ethic, character, and overall man that I am today.

“MMA contains some of the finest, most passionate, athletically gifted athletes in the world with Ontario holding many of these. Due to our Provincial government’s viewpoint and rather ‘neglection’ of the sport, it still remains at a grass roots level in the Province, as opposed to a National and International level that I believe that it should be on—and deserves to be on.

“MMA deserves to be showcased in a sanctioned, regulated, taxed environment in our Province, the same that has been shown proven and so successful in Quebec, Alberta, and soon B.C. in the coming month.

“As an athlete and business owner, the withholding of sanctioning MMA in Ontario hinders my financial well-doing with such aspects of competing, sponsorship, limitation of promotion, as well as, notoriety as an ambassador to the sport. I stand here, a proud member of the Mixed Martial Arts community asking for acceptance, sanctioning, and promotion of the sport that I truly love.”

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Sean Pierson: “Growing up from a wrestling background, my parents never missed a wrestling match for about 10 years straight. I started wrestling in grade four and wrestled all the way through the University level. My parents were at every match, all the time. I look at my career now as a pro fighter and things are completely opposite. I myself, am just looking for the opportunity to have my family actually see me compete. I haven’t had my family actually be able to show up live to an event yet because I’ve never fought in Ontario. I guess I’m being a bit selfish but I want them to see what I do now, and how much I have grown as an athlete, and how much I respect what they have done for me in the past.

“Not being legal in Ontario has made this a tough sport to grow up in. The profile of me as a fighter is—I work a full-time job, I’m a father, I’m a husband, and without the support of MMA in Ontario, it’s made it tough to be a grass roots fighter growing up. My colleagues will all contest that on the lower levels, we all have to work other jobs. I’m at a time in my life right now where first and foremost, I have to make sure that I take care of my family. I can’t base my career off of hopes and dreams all of the time. I have to make sure that my family and my son are taken care of first, and then my career as a fighter is taken care of second.

“Without the support in Ontario that we’re now getting in, with everybody here, ya know—I almost want to tear up—but feeling that it could be legalized in Ontario in the near future makes it so that guys like myself and upcoming fighters throughout the system will be able to follow a dream and get better support from their community.”

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Gerald Chopik: “I love this country and I love this Province and all that it stands for, including the fact that we can actually get up here on the lawn in front of the Legislature and voice our disagreement with their current position. If you watch the news everyday—that’s not something that you can do in every country. So we begin from that perspective. We are really appreciative of the opportunity to state our position here today.

“When I started Mixed Martial Arts Expo, the Company in 2004, honestly I never imagined for a moment that six years later I would be standing here saying ‘c’mon! Let’s get with the program!’

“We’ve had lots of examples today of hard working businesses—people ‘duking’ it out in the industry today, whether you’re fighters, there’s a retail community, there’s the health and wellness, and the fitness end with all the gyms and everyone else in Ontario today working their butts off in a tough economy and still delivering good tax dollars to the Province in a market which is being stifled by the inability to sanction an MMA event.

“We all know it’s going to happen and we all know that it’s going to happen reasonable soon, so the question really is, ‘what are we waiting for,’ if we’re stifling it today?

“Our objective here today really is to raise awareness for the Mixed Martial Arts to the general consumer and to the Government and to the politicians that are out there. I can’t help but to draw a comparison to some of the silly things that we have had to go through in the last few decades, and off the top I would say that the ban on Sunday shopping—that went on for a long time—that was crazy. We also had the ban on having an alcoholic beverage with your meal and you couldn’t buy a lottery ticket. How silly those things are now when we look back on them today. The scenario with MMA is really no different at all.

“It’s time for the change.

“Premier McGuinty, we would say that it is time for a change and our Government and our policies and politicians have to keep pace with that change. I really do want to make a point that now is the time to green-light MMA in the Province. Now is the right time to move forward—it’s going to happen eventually anyway. Thank you. It is the long weekend and we sincerely appreciate the time, energy and effort that you have taken to show up here today.

“In closing, I just want to say—Premier McGuinty, we’re here to tell you that the Provinces current position on the sanctioning of MMA is way out of date. We’re behind the other Provinces and we are definitely behind the times. The time for change is now, so let’s green-light more legitimate business in the Province of Ontario. Let’s green-light more world class athletes like the ones that we have sitting up here today from the Province of Ontario and let’s green-light more jobs in the Province of Ontario. Let’s take advantage of these opportunities now. Let’s green-light MMA in Ontario and let’s get it done today. Thank you very much everyone for coming out today.”

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I told you fight fans—reasons for legalization examined to perfection.

It was truly an honour to be in attendance and to be a part of our Provincial history.

I will simply leave you with this:

Mixed Martial Arts is about discipline, skill, agility and most importantly, mental strength. These factors make this sport more than just mindless fighting and brawling. It is about training, physical education, and perseverance, all of which are advantageous qualities for the youth of today.

And in case you are not familiar with my work-to-date, please note that our younger generation of athletes are my absolute priority in life.

Perhaps it should become the priority of our Canadian Government as well. If you want to ban something Premier McGuinty, try banning alcohol, or better yet, video games.

But please…leave MMA alone. Our inactive youth desperately need something positive to believe in.

Thank you
James Ryan

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MMA ONTARIO PETITION: Please sign the petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ontariomma/

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(Left-to-Right) Loudon Owen, Shah Franco, Sean Pierson, “Showdown Joe” Ferraro, Jeff Joslin, Carlos Newton, Mark Hominick, and Gerald Chopik