James Brydon

Which will come first: MMA in Ontario or at the Olympics? I hope the answer is a given.

This week has been an eventful one on the subject of MMA expansion.

Of course the UFC is currently invading yet another new city with their big event in Sydney, Australia. But let’s start with the never-ending topic of MMA in Ontario and the question: Will it or won’t it be legalized and if so when?

Premier Dalton McGuinty threw a wrench in what had appeared to be some steady progress in that area with some public comments he made on Wednesday. While in the past McGuinty has indicated the government would be open to careful study of the possibility and would certainly rather see it properly sanctioned than see it driven underground, this week he apparently backtracked, saying it wasn’t a priority right now.

To me the most curious statement he made was this one:

"We have other things on the go right now, and we'll stay focused on those."

Other things on the go? Mr. McGuinty, it's not like we're asking you to undertake a project. We don`t need you to develop a sanctioning plan, put together rules, set up health and safety standards. We`ve got a commission that can handle that. All we`re asking is for you to make it legal.

We don`t even need a change in provincial legislature. We just want our officials to interpret Section 83 of the Criminal Code in the same way other provinces have done; effectively grant an exemption to MMA and not consider it a banned form of prize-fighting, which is what Ontario has already done for boxing and kick-boxing. Then the sanctioning body already in place can go ahead and do what it’s there for.

Of course, it isn't that easy. Nothing involving laws and politics is. There are safety concerns to consider. The government isn't just going to take the UFC's or other provinces' word for it and risk liability issues -- or tremendous backlash from citizens -- if something happens to go wrong. I understand MMA wasn't one of the topics McGuinty had on his agenda. Perhaps he was caught off guard, perhaps he was trying to be careful not to offend anyone and said something that wouldn’t commit him one way or another. (A politician staying on the fence on a topic? You don’t say?) And at least he hasn’t gone the Sen. John McCain route and call it “human cockfighting,” but even he eventually backtracked on that stance.

Unfortunately, McGuinty needs to recognize that it's a big issue that many people care about and he can’t just put it off. He really needs to come out and say what and when he plans on addressing it, and be more specific on what exactly he's got "on the go" that might keep his time away from this. Because the topic isn’t going to go away just because he said he’s got higher priorities.

Now might be a good time to take a lesson from Vancouver, which is currently basquing in the glow of the Olympic Winter Games. City council members there at one time tried to pass the buck on legalizing MMA, moving to leave it up to the province to determine whether to sanction events rather than make the decision themselves. But that didn`t fly, and late last year they voted to allow MMA under a two-year trial. Some may say they caved to pressure, others may say they saw the light. Either way, they`ll be reaping the economic windfall, especially when the UFC comes to town in June.

Vancouver landed the 2010 Games, while Toronto has already failed in a couple of recent Olympic bids. Now Van City will get a UFC event before MMA is permitted at all in Ontario. As the premier spoke from his downtown headquarters in Queens Park, I wonder if McGuinty looked around. Because if they`re not careful, Toronto might soon be considered a second-rate sports city compared to the one on the West Coast.

The UFC meanwhile was quick to respond to the premier`s comments:

"We respect the fact that the Premier has indicated that MMA regulation is not a top priority; however, we are confident that our efforts in educating Canadian officials, including members of the provincial cabinet, will eventually result in regulation of the sport in Ontario," Marc Ratner, vice president of regulatory affairs for the UFC, said Wednesday during a PR blitz ahead of UFC 110 this weekend in Sydney, Australia.

Nothing earth-shattering here. But nor is there panic from the UFC brass.

Interestingly, while all this is happening the UFC is not only in a new city this week, it is holding an event in a brand new continent. And in a couple months they’ll venture into the Middle East for the first time when they head to Abu Dhabi in April. In fact, it will be the UFC’s first time in Asia since Zuffa took over. (Past trips to Japan were prior to that.) So while the UFC’s worldwide expansion ventures on, the organization still can’t come to the most populous province north of the border. Shameful.

Next were comments by the UFC about the future possibility of having MMA in the Olympics (a natural question right now.) While I found it a little surprising that Dana White said they wouldn’t necessarily go gung-ho in trying to lobby to get it included, it’s just indicative of the confident approach with which the UFC execs handle the growth of this sport. They truly believe this will eventually happen, in due time.

The earliest possibility for it to be an “official” Olympic sport is 2020; but it could be included in some unofficial capacity in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- not necessarily as a demonstration sport, a practice the IOC has basically shelved, but running in parallel to the Games in Brazil, where there are obviously many MMA connections.

The question I shudder to pose is: Which will come first, MMA at the Olympics or MMA in Ontario? It certainly has to be the latter... doesn’t it?