check out the Vancouver Sun article posted in the UG!
in case you lads missed the UG post.
The B.C. government would be happy to see Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts events staged in Vancouver, Attorney-General Mike de Jong said Thursday.
De Jong called mixed martial arts "a growing sport with an amazingly large fan base in Canada."
"It's clearly a legitimate sport with legitimate athletes and as long as they're working with the Vancouver council and a proper athletic commission, we have no problem with it whatsoever," he said.
"And we're happy to see them in the city."
UFC officials said the organization is aiming for its first Vancouver event early next summer.
"We're looking some time in June of 2010, that's our framework," Marc Ratner, UFC vice-president of regulatory affairs, told reporters Thursday. "If we get everything down, and I'm very confident we will, we will be here."
Executive vice-president Lawrence Epstein said the UFC will hold its annual Montreal fight card in late April and follow up with its first Vancouver card.
"We have enough Canadian fighters to ensure there's a good local presence on both cards," said UFC official Mike Mersch.
UFC sent representatives to meet Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson several weeks ago, and they were to meet with the Vancouver Athletic Commission late Thursday after meeting de Jong in Victoria Wednesday.
"We had a very positive, very supportive meeting [with de Jong]," Ratner said. "The attorney-general had done his homework, he knows MMA, knows what we do."
"I think we'll see things set in motion within 60-90 days," Epstein said.
The UFC said it will meet with Vancouver council again soon, and will also lobby the federal government for changes to Canadian prizefighting laws to legalize the sport nationwide.
"We feel very strongly that we have to get the Criminal Code changed to include MMA [as a legitimate sport]," Ratner said. "We're willing to spend the time and the money to make sure that happens."
The company is also looking to bring its "fan expo" to Vancouver. A fan expo event in Las Vegas recently drew 40,000 people over two days.
And what about the hordes of wild, intoxicated, adrenalin-fuelled teens that some expect to follow a UFC event?
"It would be a first," Mersch said. "Let's put it this way, no city has ever said 'Don't come back' to the UFC."
cparry@vancouversun.com
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