As if the New York MMA obstacle course needed any more pitfalls. Now assemblyman Bob Reilly has gone into political ‘beast mode’ in a recent debate — and things don’t look that good for the legalization of the sport in NY. If the collective force of MMA was the equivalent of the Justice League of America, Bob Reilly is Darkseid, Doomsday and every other villain who’s ever smacked Superman in the face for rocking a pair red underwear. Maybe a DC comic example doesn’t necessarily apply in this scenario. Perhaps we should go with the ‘angry politician that’s vehemently against change vs. the fastest growing sport in the world’ example. There, that seems to work.
New York’s Justin Klein breaks down a recent statement made by Bob Reilly at a political debate with Jennifer Whalen on Monday night. Although Klein ends his article with ‘he’s a joke’ (to which I completely agree), I’ll let all of you decide for yourself.
“Probably the single effort that I did, and I won’t say that it’s the most important, is my single effort to keep ultimate fighting out of New York State. And why those who advocate this violent and vicious sport for the reason that it will bring money to this state, I, in fact, claim it will not. The owners of ultimate fighting [sic] who have recently spent $174,000, giving that money to various legislators and political parties and have paid their lobbyists $10,000 a month for a number of years are in fact in bankruptcy court in Las Vegas at this very moment to the tune of $7 billion. These are the people who some people advocate bringing in to New York. I’m proud of the fact that almost single-handedly I have kept this out of New York not only because violence begets violence and it’s not what we should have in our state, but also it ultimately saves us money by not having this sport in New York.”
It seems like everyone I know whose name begins with ‘B’ and ends with ‘Reilly’ seems to be a pseduo-politician that is completely out of touch with…everything. Apparently it saves money by preventing a billion-dollar industry from conducting business in your state. Learn something everyday. [Source]
