New York Assembly GOP leader calls for special session to vote on MMA

Michael Nagle

UFC president Dana White has finally expressed his frustration with New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the man who's single-handedly keeping the effort to legalize MMA in the Empire State from getting a vote. Now it looks like he's got some political cover within the Assembly.

GOP minority leader Brian Kolb has issued a press release in which he lists a number of measures that urgently require passage. Among them is this bullet:

Bring a vote on Mixed Martial Arts legislation to the floor, a job-creating measure with more than 60 bill sponsors and bipartisan support in the Assembly.

The important context to know is that Silver is in political hot water for utterly mishandling a series of sexual harassment claims against former Assembly member Vito Lopez. Kolb is admittedly pretty much powerless as the minority leader but hopes to use the Lopez scandal and Silver's attempts to quietly sweep it under the rug as a campaign issue in the fall.

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