Georges St. Pierre file photo: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com
After years of advocacy and lobbying by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the potential gold mine of Ontario, Canada, is poised to sanction mixed martial arts.
The Ontario state government announced last weekend that it was moving to sanction MMA by implementing the unified rules. The change would mean the province would be ready to host a card in 2011. There were several reports that the UFC has already reserved the roughly 70,000-seat Rogers Centre in Toronto for March.
The province’s capital city of Toronto has long been the most avid for the UFC’s product. UFC sanctioning guru Marc Ratner predicted the company could drew a record crowd of 40,000 in Toronto, the number one market for the UFC in terms of per-capita television ratings and pay-per-view buys.
The UFC made an intense lobbying effort to clear the market, bringing in Georges St. Pierre to represent the sport in the halls of government and hiring a former premier to lobby on its behalf. MMA sanctioning was thought to require the federal government to amend Sec. 83 of the province’s Criminal Code, which regulates prize fighting. The head of Ontario’s athletic commission has long interpreted the law as only allowing boxing in the province.