Miracles do happen: Ontario to sanction MMA

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted anything but I can’t think of a better reason to get back in the saddle than this latest bit of Saturday morning news: Premier Dalton McGuinty has given his okey dokey to the sanctioning of mixed martial arts in the province of Ontario. It’s not official, but consider it unofficially official, according to a report in today’s Toronto Sun and several sources close to the issue who I’ve spoken with.

McGuinty has long made himself persona non grata in the MMA community for his stubbornness on the matter. His position that the sport wasn’t a priority for his government stuck in the craw of many a fight fan who took it to mean he just didn’t care at all. That’s not the case and never was. McGuinty just didn’t have it high on is list of things to do, what with running the biggest province in the country. Of course, the UFC’s decision to open a local office in Toronto certainly helped the promotion to better make the case for the sport and move things along.

Now it’s only a matter of what event will happen in Toronto first. The obvious choice is card headlined by welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck following their tenure as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter. That would be enough of a draw to fill up Rogers Centre in about seven seconds. But depending on when the sanctioning becomes official – and what sort of regulatory restrictions McGuinty imposes – the first sanctioned MMA event (as opposed to the unsanctioned fights that take place on Indian Reserves) will likely be a local promotion such as W-1. Now, I’ve not yet spoken to W-1 boss Jack Bateman, but he’s been running Montreal events from his Toronto headquarters for a couple of years in anticipation of this very thing, and there are a couple of other promoters circling as well.

Stay tuned. the world of MMA just got a whole lot bigger.