Lift the Ban Watch: Massachusetts Edition

Sherdog's Jack Encarnacao reports that Sen. James Timilty's state budget amendment which would have precipitated the long-overdue regulation of MMA in Massachusetts has been "taken off the table" for the time being, with the state legislature's session having expired for this year without any movement on the bill.

Matthew Moran, chief of staff for state Sen. James Timilty, said members of the legislature's conference committee simply did not have the time to vet the MMA legislation that Timilty had proposed and still meet its deadline to get the rest of the state budget in front of the governor.
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Moran said he doesn't think the outcome had anything to do with any legislative opposition to the sport.

"I doubt that was the issue," he said. "Everything we received as far as feedback was a desire to pursue this … there was a great desire to do it. Unfortunately, in the rush to the finish line, certain issues just had to be taken off the table."

So I guess we won't be seeing the UFC in Boston this November, but the defeat feels far less crushing than the one that the New York Tourism Committee dealt to a similar bill last month. With some great upstart promotions operating in Mass. already and Dana White mentioning the state as a UFC target in nearly every interview, it's only a matter of time before the legislature has to make a decision.