UFC coming to Tennessee and Florida

On the last Tuesday in June Amateur Mixed Martial Arts became fully sanctioned in Florida. This opens the door for amateur shows such to finally add ground-and-pound and jiu-jitsu to their striking shows. While this doesn’t mean we will see UFC 90 in Miami or Orlando, Florida is loaded with talent and this will provide a good training ground for the next round of UFC stars. This weekend, you will see 3 fighters from Coconut Creek (Marcus Aurelio, Gleison Tibau Alves and Cole Miller).

With Tom Molloy, executive director of the Florida Athletic Commission, spearheading the move to sanction amateur MMA it won’t surprise me when a few years to see an UFC or Affliction Event in Florida.

In Tennessee the 105th General Assembly passed legislation legalizing and regulating mixed martial arts competitions in Tennessee. This means that we should soon see major events in Knoxville and Memphis where Quinton Rampage Jackson was born and raised.

With both these states moving the right direction, its a shame that Delaware is moving in the opposite direction.

Currently Delaware does not have its own Athletic Commission and instead is government by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission. In July 2007 Pennsulvania chose to draft regulations that would allow MMA events to occur. Unfortunately, while those laws won’t go into effect until Thanksgiving Delaware officials are beginning to create their own laws that would prevent the “Pennsylvania-sanctioned MMA events to be held here [Delaware]” according to James Collins director of the state Division of Professional Regulation.

Like we saw in New York, the ignorance of current politicians still see these events as dangerous not understanding how much safer they are from boxing.

Its an odd time we live in, as soon as we know if the Ban Passed in Delaware, We will update you.

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