No Holds Barred: California Assembly Member Luis Alejo on Professional Bill of Rights for MMA Fighters

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Assembly Member Luis A. Alejo (D-Salinas). He has introduced AB 2100, also known as the Professional Bill of Rights for MMA Athletes, in the California State Assembly. On Wednesday, April 25, this bill was approved by the Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media, and now goes to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.

We spoke with Assembly Member Alejo Thursday afternoon by phone about this bill and what motivated him to introduce it. He explained that as a former successful high school and community college wrestler, he started following MMA from its first telecasts in the U.S. in 1993. But he also said in this interview, "My background has been in standing up for workers' rights as well." When he saw the ESPN "Outside the Lines" report in January on fighter pay and conditions in MMA, that "sparked my interest" in addressing the problems in MMA, including "unfair contracts".

We thus discussed the aims of this bill, why it is necessary for MMA fighters to receive the same types of protections which most other professional athletes have in the U.S., what still remains to be done for this bill to become passed, why its provisions will not hurt but actually help the sport of MMA, and why this bill will become "the norm" and actually "a national standard" like the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act.

In addition, we discussed the many benefits of wrestling, how budget cuts have led to the closing of many wrestling programs including at Gavilan College where he wrestled, his continuing connection to the local wrestling community, and more.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman http://eddiegoldman.com

Great as always, Eddie. I hope you can keep us updated on this and do more interviews.

BTW, Eddie. Do you have his twitter and facebook for us?

Let's show our suppost there guys. Dag or Johan, it would be cool to send him some messages on the official GMMA twitter, and maybe on facebook too. I think we need to work with this kind of people.

Thanks. His Twitter is http://twitter.com/Alejo4Assembly. I'm not sure if this is his staff or him updating it, but they do at least pass stuff on to him. I am not exactly a fan of politicians, but was impressed with him.

As I predicted:

In response to this, Dana White simply said that if the bill fully passes and is implemented, they'll stop running shows in the state of California (via The Orange County Register):

"Do you know what's going on in Sacramento, right now?" White said. "They are trying to pass this bill to raise our taxes and do a bunch of crazy (expletive) to us. They voted 4-2 for the bill. There were a couple of people not present to vote on it. If that thing passes we won't do anymore fights in California. All kinds of crazy (expletive) they're trying to throw in this bill for MMA. You know who's doing it? The Culinary Union from Las Vegas. These guys have been (expletive) with us in New York, too. That's why we're not in New York. These guys got a bunch of lobbyists together to try to pass this bill against MMA. They are putting pressure on my partners, the Fertitta brothers, because they own the fourth-largest gaming company in the country and they are non-union."

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/4/29/2986858/dana-white-california-bill-ufc-csac-AB-2100#storyjump

Fisticuffa wrote:As I predicted:

In response to this, Dana White simply said that if the bill fully passes and is implemented, they'll stop running shows in the state of California (via The Orange County Register):

"Do you know what's going on in Sacramento, right now?" White said. "They are trying to pass this bill to raise our taxes and do a bunch of crazy (expletive) to us. They voted 4-2 for the bill. There were a couple of people not present to vote on it. If that thing passes we won't do anymore fights in California. All kinds of crazy (expletive) they're trying to throw in this bill for MMA. You know who's doing it? The Culinary Union from Las Vegas. These guys have been (expletive) with us in New York, too. That's why we're not in New York. These guys got a bunch of lobbyists together to try to pass this bill against MMA. They are putting pressure on my partners, the Fertitta brothers, because they own the fourth-largest gaming company in the country and they are non-union."

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/4/29/2986858/dana-white-california-bill-ufc-csac-AB-2100#storyjump

I´m happy that some people fight the good fight.

Notice how these Zuffa shill sites report first what White said and don't even bother to interview Assembly Member Alejo or anyone else involved?

^^ yea , typical bs media move.


It turns out after all the resistance from many entities , it is the Las Vegas culinary union that is leading the charge against the evil zuffa empire. Who would've thought?

There is a real social movement about these issues now involving a lot of people and groups. This forum is part of it.

nhbnews wrote:There is a real social movement about these issues now involving a lot of people and groups. This forum is part of it.

Feels good to be a part of the movement. Zuffa are lurking here but they can´t shut us down.

nhbnews wrote:Notice how these Zuffa shill sites report first what White said and don't even bother to interview Assembly Member Alejo or anyone else involved?

Very true. They probably will try to put this guy as some crazy guy with bad intentions that has nothing to do with MMA, and that he's trying to destroy the sport.

Dana -> < - Modern fans and journalists

BTW eddie, did zuffa tried to boycott you in any way already?

Wolfman wrote:

nhbnews wrote:Notice how these Zuffa shill sites report first what White said and don't even bother to interview Assembly Member Alejo or anyone else involved?

Very true. They probably will try to put this guy as some crazy guy with bad intentions that has nothing to do with MMA, and that he's trying to destroy the sport.

Dana -> < - Modern fans and journalists

BTW eddie, did zuffa tried to boycott you in any way already?

Dana and Zuffa always try to pain the other party as the CRAZY. Before it was the Crazy Russian's then it was the Crazy Japanese, then it was Fedor who was crazy and now Dana is calling another group CRAZY. Dana is a lieing slanderous c**t who should be pulled up for his behavious not cheered on by his fellow zombies.

The scum cut me off the Strikeforce media list when they bought it. I don't watch their crap anyway, and prefer boxing, wrestling, real MMA like in Asia and Russia, grappling, real martial arts, and even baseball.