UFC officials introduce two women, girl to extol MMA

In its unrelenting quest to legalize mixed martial arts fights in New York state, Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship introduced two women and a 15-year-old girl at a Wednesday news conference to extol MMA’s virtues for females in hopes of convincing New York legislators to permit UFC events.

UFC has been lobbying New York Assembly members for years to approve legislation legalizing MMA fights. The state Senate annually approves the MMA bill, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver hasn’t allowed the bill to reach the Assembly floor for a vote.

Some female Assembly members say UFC fights and MMA shows are barbaric, anti-women and encourages violence toward females.

In hopes of convincing them otherwise, a UFC communications representative in Albany said three females and a 23-year-old male graduate student at the State University (SUNY) of Albany, N.Y., spoke about how MMA is a positive force in their lives.

SUNY Albany junior Juliet Shen and Paula Waddell, a kickboxing instructor for the Albany-area Duaneburg Area Community Center, joined a 15-year-old local high school student, Chelsie Dessingue, to say that MMA and UFC fights are not demeaning to women. A fourth speaker was Michael Pascale, a 23-year-old master’s graduate student at SUNY Albany in the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program.

The four met reporters at the state legislative office building in Albany.

In a phone interview with the Review-Journal, Pascale said the argument that MMA fights are anti-women is “hogwash.”

“You’re seeing a rise in female fighters. If anything, it’s more pro-woman,” Pascale said. “To say it encourages violence toward women, that’s complete garbage.”

New York is the sole state in the nation that prohibits UFC fight events.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at 702-387-5273 or asnel@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BicyclemanSnel on Twitter.