(Photo courtesy of NYCFight.com)

New York Governor David Paterson’s attempt to include sanctioned MMA in his budget proposal has stalled, but in the past two weeks the State Senate passed a bill that would allow professional mixed martial arts back into the Empire State and the State Assembly’s Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development voted 12-9 in favor of a bill that would do the same, a pair of legislative moves that are the beginning in a multi-step sanctioning process that began years ago and has seen detours and derailments galore.  Meanwhile, earlier this month an amateur unsanctioned event at an undisclosed location in Brooklyn went off without a hitch – proof positive that, in the shadow of a sanctioning mess, there will be underground shows.

It’s called the Underground Combat League (UCL), and in the span of seven years these clandestine New York City-based events have seen battles waged between well-rounded studs and kung fu men, thugs and disciplined martial artists, wanna-be’s and future stars.  Notable alumni include Bryan Vetell, Frankie Edgar and Lament Tareyton Williams; Vetell fought in the IFL and Edgar is the current UFC lightweight champ, while less than two weeks after his UCL debut Williams snatched a power saw and went on a crazed and bloody rampage in a subway station.  He’s doing 18 years in a prison upstate now.

But no characters so extreme were there on that Sunday afternoon in June.  Instead, there was a bouncer with decent wrestling, a kickboxer built like a Greek statue and a dreadlocked Team Renzo Gracie grappler, among others.  Competing underground throws a monkey wrench into the works for someone interested in doing sanctioned bouts across the Hudson River in New Jersey, so fighters often use aliases – stage names like “Fighter X” or “James from Ozone Park” to go with their knockouts, submissions and TKO wins.  The lack of sanctioning also means no pre- or post-fight medical screening, no weigh-ins and no Unified Rules (bouts are vale tudo).  There was, however, no shortage of entertainment.

The highlight for this UCL installment was a four-man heavyweight tournament.  After steamrolling over a Russian Wing Chun practitioner in only 14 seconds, James from Ozone Park re-entered the ring later on and won the whole shebang with an arm-in guillotine applied to Dave the Bouncer.  Afterwards, James and Dave smiled and hugged and mugged for the camera, fielding questions from a pair of reporters from CNN.  Other than few scrapes and bruised egos, no one seemed any worse for wear.

How has something like the UCL survived for so long?  Of course the need for a local New York promotion is there, but there’s also a loophole in the existing law that has allowed amateur MMA to exist unmolested, albeit in an existence mired in secrecy and covert texting of times and locations.  But depending on which version of the new law gets passed – the one passed by the Senate and passing through the State Assembly sews up the loophole while the one attached to the governor’s budget proposal leaves it untouched – all that could change.  Yet predicting which law will pass and when has proven to be akin to guessing tomorrow’s lottery numbers.  After an unprecedented and unrelated Senatorial coup disrupted the legalization process last year, and after the governor’s budget failed to get approval this year, the only thing that’s proven true is it’s impossible to tell.

“The UCL is a brand,” said promoter Peter Storm.  “If the law changes, maybe I’ll sell it.”  Until then, however, the show – as always – will go on.