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Report: New Mexico politician wants to ban MMA in his state
By Zach Arnold | February 25, 2009
KRQE in Albuquerque is reporting that State Senator Tim Jennings (D-Roswell) introduced a bill last week in New Mexico’s state legislature to ban MMA activity.
Here is how local station KOB introduces their news piece on the story:
New Mexico already has a ban on dog fighting and cockfighting. Now, one state lawmaker wants to outlaw cage fighting.
Senator Tim Jennings is calling out the cage fighting culture, saying the sport is just as violent as pitting animals against each other.
State Senator Jennings was/is a bigwig politician in New Mexico. He’s not yet age 60 and has spent about 30 years in state politics.
On a seperate note, it appears there are some MMA-related politics happening in Fresno.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
One one level, this is great news for people who believe in dog-chicken-human equality.
Did he just compare martial artists and pugilists in general to animals?
He deserves a gentlemanly slap in the face for that.
If anybody is an animal around here its greedy manipulative politicians with scare tactics and sensationalism instead of genuine issues or public concern.
He must be appealing to all the retired old fussbudgets who’ve moved down to NM to retire for cheaper than Arizona.
I can see this not going too far. While the “humanitarian” population in the state has grown, the overwhelming sense of “don’t fuck with what we do” is still alive and well here. We have some of the most lax gun laws in the country and that will most likely never change unless the federal government forces it to.
MMA makes money in New Mexico, Albuquerque especially. It attracts people and even the minor KOTC, etc. shows that run here do well. There are endless amounts of MMA gyms since the boom. People talk about Greg Jackson’s camp, which is the biggest, but there are dozens of other MMA gyms within miles of Jackson’s.
Never mind even if it did pass, we have a bunch of Indian Reservations and casinos which would be able to run shows on their own.
There are a lot of problems in the state right now, so I’m doubting anybody is going to get too up-in-arms about banning something that is making money.
Wait a second… New Mexico is real?
Isn’t Carlos Condit’s dad also a bigwig politician in New Mexico?
This guy is gonna get flattened.
Check out the write up http://www.newmexicocombatsports.com wrote about “bill 688” to ban MMA NM!
Oh I forgot; people can carry guns but not take part in sanctioned Mixed Martial Arts fight. Right.
What year is this? It’s still 2009, right?
How is this even possible?
I’m pretty sure that site misread the bill quite a bit. I think that it is poorly written, yes, but I don’t think they are looking to ban boxing, kickboxing or competitive martial arts.