NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: The exterior of Madison Square Garden is seen prior to Andrea Bocelli's concert on November 30, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Loud/Getty Images), LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 28: Ronda Rousey celebrates her victory over Cat Zingano in their UFC women's bantamweight championship bout during the UFC 184 event at Staples Center on February 28, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
New York finally legalized mixed martial arts in the state on Tuesday in a lopsided vote of 113-25 but the bill didn't pass without quite a few angry voices speaking out in opposition of the sport.
Assembly members were afforded up to 30 minutes to voice an opinion -- positive or negative -- with thoughts on the bill and some of the statements left those in the MMA community with gaped mouths and jaws on the floor.
According to UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, who spoke with FOX Sports after the hearing was concluded and the bill was passed, some of those same outlandish comments were made to him and other officials while stumping in the state for the past eight years while trying to get MMA legalized.
"The answer is yes. Marc (Ratner) and his team as well as myself and even some of our fighters like Chris Weidman have been up and down the halls of the assembly talking and trying to educate many of the legislators and many of the things that you heard today in the public forum were actually told to us in their offices or in meetings," Fertitta said.
"I was actually kind of surprised some of the things were said publicly today. It's kind of shocking the way the opponents really tried to paint not only the sport but our athletes and I was actually surprised that a lot of the opponents actually said some of those things."
Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman said he was "embarrassed" for some of the people in the government who spoke out against the bill. Not so much because they opposed MMA, but the arguments being used against passing the legislation.
So what were some of these outrageous statements? Take a look.
DANIEL O'DONNELL (who just happens to be the brother of talk show host and noted MMA fan Rosie O'Donnell)
"I read a story where the vice president of MMA said 'well of course we're going to make this happen in New York we gave $50,000 to a Democratic lobbyist so it's all taken care of.' That didn't make me feel very good."
"I should really like it -- you have two nearly naked, hot men rolling on top of one another, trying to dominate each other. Just in case you don't know, that's gay porn with a different ending."
CHARLES BARRON
"This one -- throwing two people in a cage, personally as an African-American we've been in cages fighting on the plantations and other places and people bite off each other's ears and do all kinds of things until they regulated that and made it something different. But throwing two human beings in a cage and you know how we used to say in our neighborhoods how you should have a fair fight, even when the man is knocked down when I grew up, you're supposed to step back, let him get up and let's start all over again.
"This one you can pounce on him, beat his or her's brains out while they are on the floor, choke them, and you know how we feel about the choke hold in New York City, put them in a choke hold and then the ref has to be determining whether he got choked enough or she got choked enough."
ANGELA WOZNIAK
"Right now, a registered sex offender could own an MMA school, they could teach in that facility and we can't be naive to the fact that these people target these schools, they know what they're doing. They know if they're teaching a child, they can put that child in a situation where they're doing a maneuver perhaps to touch them in a way that the child might not even realize they're being touched."
CATHERINE NOLAN
"A real person perhaps from a poor background finding his way or her way out of that background, the only way they know how with their fists. A person who is easily exploited perhaps because they don't have the education, who looks for that one in a million dollar."
DEBORAH GLICK
"I understand this is very, very popular with folks but there are many things that people might enjoy that we do not actually think are a good thing. I was quoted as saying if we wanted to charge a fee for public hanging there would be regrettably some segment of our society that actually would show up but we don't do that."
Despite those objections, the bill still passed with overwhelming support and now it's just up to Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign into law before MMA is officially allowed in the state of New York.
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