Summerside - Ontario's move to allow professional mixed martial arts fighting has some local combatants jumping for joy.
"I think that's great ... it's about time," said Richard Arsenault a fighter and trainer from Wellington.
"It opens up a lot of doors," he said. "Right now a lot of people from down here on the East Coast are going up to Montreal to fight."
Fellow Island fighter Mitchell Rogers agrees. He's new to the sport, but he's excited about this news and is looking forward to fighting in Ontario some day.
The Government of Ontario announced that it would start allowing the fights in 2011. A press release stated the move would allow an expected 10 and 15 professional mixed martial arts (MMA) events, including one large event, to be held in the province annually. It is expected that having even one large MMA event could bring up to $6 million into local coffers.
Ontario proposes to adopt the same MMA rules as the State of New Jersey and would ensure MMA falls under the Ontario Athletics Control Act. Ontario's Athletic Commissioner would be responsible for regulating the sport.
It's all great news for lifetime boxer and recent MMA convert Joe Borden.
The Summerside resident is a member of the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame and has been involved lately with training some local MMA fighters with their stand up combat.
"I think it's a great move," Borden said. "It's like any other sport, when it's well run and well organized with good officials things will be great."
Borden acknowledges for the longest time he wasn't sure what to think of the sometimes-brutal sport of MMA. He was won over, he said, after watching local fighters train, but it took a lot of convincing.
"I remember watching the early (Royce) Gracie tapes in 89/90 and I remember thinking to myself 'jeez they'll never pass this stuff.' But you know times change and it's time."
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the sports strongest advocate, considers Canada to be a Mecca for MMA. Canadians are some of the highest per capita consumers of UFC events and Toronto is the largest market in the country.
But Ontario had been hesitant to support the sport in the past and they weren't alone. A handful of provinces still have bans on professional MMA fighting, including P.E.I., Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the territories of Yukon and Nunavut. New Brunswick has a ban in place everywhere expect Moncton.
But Ontario's move is likely to have little impact on the situation here at home, says John Morrison, Director of Sport and Recreation for the Province.
"(There needs to be) a commission sanctioned by legislation that would allow professional level mixed martial arts to hold events here. There's really never been a commission in place to do any of that," said Morrison.
"There was some discussion around the creation of one, but that hasn't occurred. So at the moment that's (professional MMA) an event that couldn't be held."
Much of that discussion took place in the City of Summerside. Back in February the city voted to establish the province's first combative sports commission.
But since council made that vote there has been little or no progress made on moving the project forward.
Police committee chair Coun. Cory Thomas said the book is still open on that project, however it hasn't been a top priority for council.
"From what I understand staff are in the process of contacting individuals to set up that commission."
For his part, Arsenault is confident the Island will eventually legalize competitive MMA fights. Especially now that Ontario is on board.
"I think it wasn't coming here because they were waiting for Ontario to go through first."
