McCain tried to ban UFC events

[archerships]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Fighting_Championship

“Senator John McCain (R-AZ), was sent a tape of the first UFC events and immediately found it abhorrent. McCain himself led a campaign to ban Ultimate Fighting, calling it “human cockfighting”, and sending letters to the governors of all fifty U.S. states to ban the event.[8] “

Original: craschworks - comments

Comments

[other.livejournal.com]

McCain attacked the UFC because it didn't really have any rules (unlike Boxing--which he was a fan) and it wasn't sanctioned by the appropriate athletic commission. Once they got some rules and aligned with various appropriate athletic commissions, he stopped having a problem with it. Marc Ratner was the other guy attacking the UFC at the time and he now works for the UFC.

I remember watching an interview with Dana White and he said that McCain was the best thing to happen to the UFC as it forced it to become a real sport. (Although, he said that in a really forced manner.)

[crasch.livejournal.com]

So what? I'm supposed to be happy that he stopped trying to shut them down after they kowtowed to his demands?

[other.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't think you would be happy that he was merely trying to get the UFC regulated. What he did isn't that unusual. He wanted to the UFC to follow the same sort of regulations that other sports have to follow. *shrug* That's pretty normal for a politician.

[other.livejournal.com]

I flipped through the documentary UFC: Beyond the Glory as it spends a bit of time (esp ~21 minutes in) about the McCain troubles, but I didn't see the Dana White quote I was thinking about. It might be in there though.

McCain's attack used to piss me off until I watched that documentary. I still don't like it, but running towards regulation instead of away from it (as Lorenzo Fertitta put it) transformed the UFC for the better.

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

He's just jealous that they can raise their arms over their heads.

[perich.livejournal.com]

While I'm not happy with regulation a priori either, early UFC was pretty close to "human cockfighting."