UFC files First Amendment complaint against New York State

[kjh]

It's the day UFC finally come out of the closet and admitted that they're "professional wrestling" without mentioning that dirty phrase!

 

UFC Wants To Express Itself In New York

 

The complaint itself.

 

Some amusing excerpts:

 

9. Even if violence were the message of MMA, banning live professional MMA forthat reason is a patent violation of the First Amendment. See Brown v. Entm’t Merchants Ass’n,__U.S.__, 131 S. Ct. 2729 (2011). But as its professional participants and millions of fans wouldexplain, this justification for the Ban misconceives the message of MMA entirely. While there surely are spectators who watch solely because of their misconceived hopes of seeing “violence,” countless fans watch MMA because of the variety of positive messages conveyed. When askedwhy they watch MMA, viewers commonly point to the technical skill and artistry of the fighters, the excitement of the competition, the respect between opponents, and the courage anddetermination to win that fighters display.

 

10. Professional MMA athletes exhibit great prowess; their abilities are the product of years of rigorous training and discipline. During a live performance, these professionals express themselves with their bodies and with their abilities, conveying messages of, among other things, skill, courage, self-discipline, self-confidence, the value of intense training, humility, strategicthinking, and respect for one’s opponent. Their objective is to win, not to harm. MMA before alive audience is also expressive in a highly individualistic way. A woman fighter may use her performance to demonstrate to other women that they are capable of protecting themselves in any situation. A fighter who enters the arena draped in his home country’s flag pays tribute to his countrymen. Fighters pay homage to religious faith, various disciplines of martial arts, andpersonal heroes. None of this expression is about “violence.”

 

11. A live professional MMA event is both sport and theater. Fighters express themselves in every aspect of the live performance—from the entrances they stage and the walkout music they select, to the clothes they wear, to the way they conduct themselves insidethe arena and towards their opponent. Fans come not just for the fights, but also for this entireunified show.

 

12. MMA fighters frequently show great respect for one another during matches. Even long-time rivals pitted against each other will touch gloves before a fight, and they will embrace and thank each other afterward. Fighters often speak of the brotherhood that exists among them. It is unfathomable that in a world drenched in violence—from first-person shootervideo games, to violent movies, to violent lyrics in pop music, to graphic network news—the New York legislature singled out live professional MMA as the one thing it believes sends an impermissible message.

 

17. Various expressive genres have utilized martial arts to transmit the core values of society, mark moments of significance to the community, and commune with higher powers. For example, in some indigenous cultures, horticulturalists wrestle in the fields before or afterharvests. Victory in these matches is incidental. The matches serve as prayers to the powers that invigorate the soil. Moreover, these indigenous tournaments are more than agrarian rites or martial competition. They also provide opportunities to establish social bonds and celebrate physicality. Even those martial arts that, like contemporary MMA, exist as discrete events (forexample, Southeast Asian Silat or South Asian Kalaripayattu), maintain close ties with dance; and the quality of a player’s ability is judged both in terms of aesthetic criteria and martial effectiveness. Muay Thai (Thai boxing), an art that is integral to contemporary MMA, istraditionally performed to musical accompaniment, and the boxers perform a dance, or ram muay, prior to a contest.

 

18. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, competitions were held between fighters of different disciplines, such as boxing and wrestling, to determine whichfighters and methods were superior. For example, style vs. style “mixed matches” were held between American or European boxers and Japanese wrestlers trained in judo, jujutsu, or sumo. Similarly, “culturally mixed” martial arts contests, such as Japanese vs. Western styles of wrestling, developed. After World War I, interest in these types of multidisciplinary matches waned as boxing became more popular in the United States. Nonetheless, “mixed” martial arts continued to be practiced throughout the United States and the world. The legendary martial artist Bruce Lee combined—or mixed—a variety of martial arts to create his famous martial concept, Jeet Kune Do, a predecessor to MMA, for Lee refused to limit himself to any single style of martial arts. Lee’s fighting was considered revolutionary in its fusion of different martialarts styles at a time when cross-training in different martial arts was taboo. On the expressive message of martial arts, Bruce Lee was unequivocal, stating: “But if you don’t have [martial art]styles, how can express myself, totally and completely? . . . To me . . . ultimately, martial art means honestly expressing yourself. . . .” Lee’s moves bear noticeable resemblance to present-day MMA.

There's much more hilarity to be found in points 111 through 158. I think MMA should be sanctioned in New York as much as any other fan of combat entertainment and sports, but this complaint is really hilarious.

[goodhelmet]

I don't tthink the complaint is a bad path to go towards getting the ban overturned but I thought this was great....

 

A. What is MMA?38. MMA is a combat sport. As such, MMA “is not ballet and is not for fans who donot enjoy combative sports. It is, however, martial arts.”19

How many times have we heard that as wrestling fans?

[kjh]

I did a More Wrestling Than Wrestling post about the lawsuit at Cageside Seats: UFC admits to being sports entertainment to get legalized in New York.

[Dooley]

Zuffa's main goal is to force an up or down vote in the State Assembly, which hasn't happened as Speaker Sheldon Silver is an anti-MMA guy. The bill to legalize and regulate MMA easily passed the state Senate last year.

 

As for the Cageside Seats article, I know it's supposed to be tongue in cheek, but.....yuck.

[KrisZ]

Until the Fertittas make good with the unions then they are DOA.

[jdw]

Federal case where the backstory is that the unions are the heels opposite Corporate America trying to make a profit... you don't think that's going to play well for Zuffa if the end up in front of what is now an overwhelmingly pro corporate, anti-union federal court system?

 

All the jokes about the first amendment aside, I think overall that Zuffa laid out some reasonable claims and counts. Of course it's slanted towards the Zuffa point of view, which is what all complaints do. But if you filter out the stuff that you laugh at (because perhaps as fans we're too close to the business) and just focus on the elements that are reasonable claims, it not at all without merit.

 

John

[kjh]

New York Attorney General's Motion To Dismiss Counts IV and V of Zuffa et al.'s Complaint