James Brydon

Follow fight-by-fight results for MMA events with Twitter. James will do live updates during all UFC events as well as many other promotions, including Canadian ones.

The threat of rain didn’t keep a couple hundred staunch supporters of mixed martial arts from assembling on the south lawn of Queen's Park in Toronto, in plain view of the Ontario Legislature.

As one of the guest speakers at the event said, “A tornado couldn’t have kept you all away.”

Give a determined citizen with a cause he or she adamantly believes in a protest placard -- in this case ones that read “Green Light MMA” -- and you can bet they’ll raise it with fervour. And that they did, from young kids to older fans, from businessmen to promoters to fighters themselves. Even a politician lent his support.

While the turnout was perhaps less than some had hoped, it was still enough to send a message to those who have the power to change legislation: if you legalize it, people will come. And they’ll bring their wallets too. Instead of taking them elsewhere, which is the source of one of the rallying cries in support of getting MMA sanctioned in Ontario.

It was estimated during the rally that the province has lost out on roughly $40-50 million worth of revenue that has gone outside its borders for events that could not be held in Ontario.

One person who knows this all too well is Toronto mayoral candidate Rob Ford, whose presence at the rally certainly added an interesting twist to the subject.

“This is a money-making opportunity that I just can’t say no too,” said the city councillor for Etobicoke North. “If you don’t want to watch it, you don’t have to watch it. But it’s great for tourism, it’s great for revenue for the city. You can make millions and millions of dollars on this thing. We’re losing it right now to Quebec. As a businessman, you have to capitalize on sports like this.”

Ford said he is baffled by what has held Ontario back from following suit with other provinces, such as Alberta and Quebec, which do not interpret Section 83 of Canada’s Criminal Code to prohibit MMA.

“My question is why is Quebec doing it? They’re not being penalized, right? What makes Toronto different from Montreal? We’re all under one Canada and one criminal code which applies to everybody in Canada equally. If they can do it, why can’t we?”

He also doesn’t buy the commonly-given argument that the sport is too violent.

“This is not streetfighting,” Ford said. “It takes years and years to be a professional at this. And it takes real skill.”

While it could all be part of the proverbial political game, Ford made it clear what stance he plans to take if he is elected mayor on October 25. And he has a message for Premier Dalton McGuinty, who until now has not made the subject of legalizing MMA a priority.

“I’ll be in the Premier’s office right after I become mayor,” Ford said. “And his election’s right after our election, so he has to see the writing on the wall.

“I’m not tapping out. I’m going to stay on him until he says yes.”

On Tuesday, when the UFC is back in town to make what it calls a “major announcement,” it will be interesting to see where the political wind will be blowing -- and who will be doing the blowing.

NOTES: While the announcement isn’t expected to be directly about the sport’s legalization in Ontario, there are rumours the organization has already booked the Rogers Centre for next March in hopes of it getting approved by then ... Mark Pavelich, president of Edmonton’s Maximum Fighting Championship, is another man who never misses an opportunity to make a statement. On Saturday, he announced he’ll be one of the first promotions to hold an event in Ontario if and when it gets sanctioned. In fact, he’s looking to beat the UFC to the punch – his promotion has tentatively booked venues starting in February 2011.

“I have said for years that once Ontario opens up legally, the Maximum Fighting Championship will proudly be there in full-force,” Pavelich said. “We won’t be there once or twice a year -- the MFC will make a home in Ontario and host several shows each year in numerous locations.”