ETHICAL RESEARCH PAPER

Ethical Research Paper

Connor Hayden

Jonathan Bechtel

PHIL 250

December 2, 2015
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My ethical research paper will be on the legalization of mixed martial arts in the state of

New York. New York is currently the only state in the United States that has not legalized MMA.

All of the other 49 states have legal and regulated mixed martial arts events every year. I believe

the reason of the non-legalization is a result of poor ethics from the New York Assembly,

particularly speakers Sheldon Silver and Carl Heastie. I will go into detail about their reasoning

for not legalizing mixed martial arts and the efforts the Ultimate Fighting Championship has

done to legalize the sport. I will also compare the sport to boxing, which has been legal in New

York since as long as I can remember.

It is almost a joke to anyone involved in the mixed martial arts community that New York

refuses to legalize the sport. A bill for the legalization of MMA in New York has been issued for

8 straight years. Each year it seems more likely that the bill will pass and the UFC will always

hold a date the following year for an event at Madison Square Garden. Every year, however, we

get a statement from some reporter sounding something like this, Another year, another

disappointment for the UFC and MMA fans in New York. For the eighth straight year, the bill to

legalize MMA will not be brought to a vote in the New York State Assembly after passing in a

landslide in the Senate (Raimondi, 2015). This paper will provide many more reasons for the

legalization of mixed martial arts in New York than it will supporting the ban, and this is not

because of my biased opinion as a passionate fan of the sport. There simply is little to no

reasoning for the ban of the sport, which is why it is literally the only state that refuses to

regulate the sport.

The only reasoning for the sport to be illegal to this day is the viewpoint that some people

may have about the sport. Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports put things into perspective very accurately

in my opinion. He is quoted as saying it's laughable, and clearly corrupt. There is no logical
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rationale to ban MMA or to impose conditions that would make it difficult to promote events in

the state. This is one of many similar quotes written by MMA journalists every year this bill

fails to pass. Those who say it's too brutal or too violent simply don't understand the sport. In 23

years, the UFC has experienced zero deaths. Football can't say the same. Neither can boxing.

Personally, I've covered seven boxing deaths in my reporting career, and boxing is a sanctioned

sport in New York (Iole, 2015). A possible reason people may find mixed martial arts more

brutal than boxing is the fact that elbows and knees are allowed. A full mount position on the

ground may also look very barbaric to the uneducated viewer. Elbows and knees may provide

more cuts, which leads to much more blood, but they do not produce the type of force a punch

does in most cases. Cuts can be stitched and healed very quickly and fights will be stopped for

too big of gashes in certain places. If a fighter receives too many blows without intelligently

defending himself a referee will stop the fight and the winner will receive a victory by way of

technical knockout.

There are many ways that boxing is much more dangerous than mixed martial arts. Some

may argue that the reason for more deaths in boxing is that is has been around longer. This might

be an acceptable argument if there was even one case of death in MMA competition. The result

of death in a sanctioned MMA fight is nearly impossible. In boxing, the rules are very limited

and it is designed for an all stand-up fight. This will result in much higher head strikes. There is

also standing eight or ten counts in boxing. A boxer may be knocked unconscious and if he can

stand up within ten seconds the fight will continue. There is no such thing in mixed martial arts.

Referees are very experienced and will stop a fight intelligently as soon as a fighter has no

chance to win the fight. Boxing matches also have ten to twelve rounds; compared to mixed
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martial arts three to five rounds. Anyone who does not understand this should not be qualified to

be making the judgement of banning the sport from an entire state.

Another reason that makes the banning of this sport highly unethical is that they are

allowing unsanctioned fights to happen in their state. Even with my points of how safe the sport

is compared to boxing, it is obvious this can be a very dangerous sport if not regulated properly.

Unsanctioned and underground fights can easily result in death. It is unethical for them to allow

this to happen in their state. If they refuse to legalize the sport because they feel it is barbaric,

they need to realize what kind of barbaric things happen as the result of it being illegal in the

state. There are legitimate health concerns related to illegal, underground and/or unsanctioned

fights fights without qualified referees, doctors or emergency personnel on hand. These kinds

of matches happen in New York because the commission has no power to stop them, yet

sanctioned fights (which would mandate qualified referees, doctors and emergency medical

personnel be present) remain banned by law (Iole, 2015). This reason alone should open the

eyes of the people against the legalization of the sport.

Mixed martial arts is actually highly respected in the state of New York by many people

of power, and it has believed to be the corruption of one man who is putting a stop to the

legalization. In the past, the antagonist was the reviled Sheldon Silver, the powerful and long-

time Speaker of the New York State Assembly. But in January, Silver was arrested on federal

corruption charges and resigned as speaker in February. He's no longer able to prevent a bill from

surfacing (Iole, 2015). This news came to no surprise of anyone educated on the ways of Mr.

Silver. Mr. Silver was arrested on Jan. 22 on a five-count criminal complaint that detailed two

alleged bribery and kickback schemes in a case that has upended Albany (Rashbaum, 2015).

The person who was arrested for bribery was the same person responsible for banning the sport
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of mixed martial arts for little to no reason. This led the MMA community to believe that he was

being paid to constantly hold back this bill. I feel this is a fair accusation considering the

information we have received about Mr. Silver and the lack of information we have received

from him about his reasoning on this topic.

Sheldon Silver resigned as speaker of the New York Assembly and the problem

continued. His resignation led to the elevation of Carl Heastie, believed to be an MMA

supporter, to the speaker's job. Still, it wasn't enough to get a vote on the deal. UFC officials

believe they have well over 100 votes in the assembly if the matter is ever brought to the full

body for a vote. This time, apparently, that didn't happen because the legislative session ran too

long and some Democratic members had already left Albany and headed home (Iole, 2015).

This is an example of bad ethics as a result of unprofessionalism. When something of this

importance comes up, members of the assembly should not be able to leave when they feel a

meeting is running too long.

The biggest fear of all comes with the thought that some UFC executives have created an

enemy with high power. There is the specter of the powerful Las Vegas Culinary Union, which

is a mortal enemy of UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta. The Fertittas own the Las Vegas-

based Station Casinos, which has remained non-union. As a result, the culinary has battled the

Fertittas at every turn, including in their other businesses such as the UFC. Silver has done the

Culinary Union's bidding in the past simply by blocking the bill from coming up for a vote. Even

without him in charge, the status quo continues (Iole, 2015). The fact that a company that has

nothing to do with the industry has the power to unethically keep the bill from being passed

disgusts anyone who feels that this is happening.

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A possible resolution for the legalization of mixed martial arts in New York is to simply

be consistent in trying to get the bill passed. The new speaker of the Assembly is a supposed

MMA supporter. That has to be an improvement from somebody who was arrested on fraud and

bribery charges that kept declining the bill to be voted on. The alleged problem this year was that

there simply was not enough voters to get the bill passed. This is unacceptable, yet an

improvement from what has been going on in the past. The MMA community must spread

awareness of this issue and not let members of the Assembly act so unprofessionally. It's lunacy,

but there is no real political pressure being placed on the members to make something happen.

There is a large segment of the public in New York not interested in MMA and not taking a

stance one way or another. At the same time there aren't widespread protests against the

inactivity, and so members don't feel their jobs are at risk for not supporting the bill (Iole,

2015). Earlier this year, a fighter was wronged by the Nevada State Athletic Commission in an

unrelated issue and fans were able to create a Whitehouse petition and produce 100,000

signatures on it. If we can make a movement of this magnitude the members will have to be held

accountable for their actions. If it is indeed a result of the Fertittas brothers enemy using

unethical ways to keep the ban then I fear that the solution involves a long and strenuous lawsuit.

Either way, awareness needs to be spread on this issue.

I believe I have proved this ethical issue to have an obvious group in the right and group

in the wrong. The reason I did not provide more defense or viewpoints on behalf of the New

York Assembly is because it simply does not exist. The ethical solution to this is to have mixed

martial arts legalized and stop the potential deaths of athletes trying to compete in unsanctioned

events. The UFC has been very ethical with their approach to this solution and deserves to be

able to hold their events in the state of New York.

ETHICAL RESEARCH PAPER

References

Raimondi, M. (2015, June 26). Reports: MMA won't be legalized in New York this year.
Retrieved November 27, 2015, from
http://www.mmafighting.com/2015/6/26/8848649/reports-mma-wont-be-legalized-in-
new-york-this-year

Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York. (2015, June 27). Retrieved November 27,
2015, from http://nymmanow.blogspot.com/

Iole, K. (2015, June 25). MMA denied: New York legislature once again acts like loons.
Retrieved November 27, 2015, from http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mma-denied--new-
york-legislature-once-again-acts-like-loons-211821728.html

Rashbaum, W. (2015, February 19). Sheldon Silver, Former Assembly Speaker, Is Indicted.
Retrieved November 27, 2015, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/nyregion/sheldon-silver-is-indicted-on-fraud-and-
extortion-charges.html?_r=0