UFC on FOX 2 Picks

Solid free card on FOX, looking forward to it. Here are my picks via Tapology:



Going with the New Yorker, Weidman, although the massive weight cut makes me nervous.


Fight Lawyer

New York Attorney General and District Attorney for the County of New York Motions To Dismiss Counts IV and V of Zuffa et al.'s Complaint

Here are both briefs in support of the motions to dismiss Counts IV and V of Zuffa et al.'s complaint.
Ag Motion to Dismiss

da mtd

Fight Lawyer

Update on Zuffa et al.'s Constitutional Challenge to the Ban on Mixed Martial Arts in New York

On January 5, 2012, there was a status conference before Judge Kimba Wood in Zuffa et al.'s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law banning mixed martial arts in New York.

The minute entry from that proceeding provides, in relevant part, as follows:

Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Kimba M. Wood: Status Conference held on 1/5/2012.  Defendants will submit a limited motion to dismiss addressing only the issue of whether due process and equal protection analysis requires the Court to determine whether there was a rational basis for the law at issue only at the time it was passed, or whether the Court must determine whether there is a rational basis for the law at present (in other words, whether the Court should take into account a change in factual circumstances that makes the law no longer rational, even if it had a rational basis at the time of passage). Defendants' motion is due 1/27/12. Plaintiffs' reply is due 2/17/12.Defendants' response is due 3/2/12. (js) Modified on 1/9/2012 (tro). (Entered: 01/06/2012)

Essentially, as predicted, the New York AG and New York County DA's offices will be submitting a motion to dismiss. Having said that, I was surprised that the motion is so limited.

Specifically, the minute entry focuses only on the due process claim and the equal protection claim, i.e. whether those claims survive rational basis analysis--the lowest level of scrutiny the Court will pass on the law. The Minute Entry makes no mention of the First Amendment claim. The narrow issue the parties will brief involves whether the Court should determine whether the law is rational now given the current state of the sport or if the court should focus on whether the law was rational as of 1997 when the ban was implemented.

I will continue to monitor.

Fight Lawyer

Golden Glory v. Overeem Nevada Lawsuit and Annexed Contract

This lawsuit has been extensively covered by Josh Gross over at ESPN here and here particularly because it could have impacted Overeem's ability to receive his fight purse from Saturday night's fight.  Note this is not the same as the lawsuit in California I wrote about here. 

For those interested, here is a link to the Nevada complaint and the management agreement, which is annexed as an attachment.

Fight Lawyer