Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is suggesting he may consider allowing mixed martial arts fighting events, including the wildly popular Ultimate Fighting Championship, in the province.
MMA fighting has exploded in popularity in the past decade and has a strong fan base in Ontario, but has long been banned in the province because it's considered to be "prize fighting" and is thereby illegal under the federal Criminal Code. It can be licensed, however, by provincial athletics commissions.
Although Ontario has resisted doing that, saying the 1-on-1 fights are too violent, McGuinty didn't sound opposed to the notion during a year-end interview with CTV.
"No, no. I've got an open mind to those kinds of things. I think, you know, I'd want to hear from everybody," the Premier said in excerpts aired last night.
He said regulating the sport may be a better option than banning it and forcing its followers into underground fights with no medical precautions and little training, and wanted to consult with police forces.
"Are these kinds of events taking place now in an unsupervised way? I'd want to hear from medical officials," he said. "It's not the kind of thing that I would want to drive underground, in other words. I'd want to bring a thoughtful approach to this."
The comments are sure to come as welcome news to UFC organizers, who have long sought entry in to the lucrative Ontario market. UFC president Dana White has called Canada the "Mecca" of his sport, with Toronto topping the list.
"There's a tremendous amount of interest [in the Ontario market] and we would come up there at [the Premier's]beck and call, whatever timing, and be more than happy to talk about the sport of mixed martial arts." said Marc Ratner, who left his post as head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission three years ago to join UFC, of which he is vice-president of regulatory and government affairs.
A recent Ipsos-Reid poll found MMA to be the fastest growing of 30 sports in terms of popularity, with 22 per cent of Canadians claiming "avid" or "casual" interest. One-third of Canadian men claimed some interest in UFC events. Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal consistently rank among the best pay-per-view markets for UFC events.
"Ontario, on a per-capita basis, is our best market. Best market in the world. It's really a hotbed for mixed martial arts," Ratner said. "I've been to Canada more times than I ever dreamt I would, that's for sure."
While McGuinty's comments are far from a ringing endorsement for a sport that began in the 1990s as no-holds-barred brawling, the Premier's decision not to reject the idea outright may be something of a shift from the government's earlier position. A spokesman for the provincially run Ontario Athletics Commission told The Globe and Mail earlier this year its "concern is the health of participants and spectators," and that it stood by its ban.
Ontario's position, however, is becoming a rare one. Last week, Vancouver officials officially opened the door to UFC, setting the stage for a card next June, while Montreal has hosted two UFC fights.
At Toronto BJJ, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA studio along Bloor Street West in the city, general manager Joshua Rapport said the opening of Ontario to regulated MMA events would be a "dream come true" to fighters who train in the sport and want to compete legitimately. He agrees with the Premier's assessment that a ban simply drives the sport underground, and believes a regulated industry would be safer.
"It doesn't take a genius to figure out this should happen in this province," argues Rapport, 32. "Personally, running a gym, this has been growing and growing despite what the economy is doing. People love the stuff."