The Weekly Wrap: May 30 – June 5

Odds & Ends

• The legalization of MMA in New York cleared its main political hurdle, as the New York State Assembly’s Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports approved, by a 14-6 vote, sending a 15-page bill to the full assembly for a vote. The bill died at the committee level last year due to the protests of Assemblyman Bob Reilly, who has characterized televising MMA as a tacit approval of domestic violence and bullying.

• The UFC has cleared two new international television markets. The company has a deal with the Fuel TV sports network in Australia and an agreement with SIC Radical, a cable company in Portugal that reaches two million of the country’s 3.5 million households. The Portugal deal started with a June 1 airing of UFC 98; the network will also air “Unleashed” and “Countdown” shows. The UFC has also begun offering its events for download on the Playstation 3. Additionally, the company recently hired its first chief marketing officer in Bryan Johnston, who headed global marketing for Burton Snowboards, according to the Sports Business Journal. Johnston will focus in large part on international expansion.

• Former middleweight title challenger Patrick Cote confirmed he has signed a new four-fight deal with the UFC and plans to return in October. Meanwhile, another middleweight, Xavier Foupa-Pokam, was cut from the UFC after back-to-back losses.

• The California State Athletic Commission recently appointed Dave Thornton as its interim executive director after the departure of Bill Douglas, who was also an interim head. The commission, one of the busiest and most prominent in the country, has been conducting a nationwide search for a permanent director since the resignation of the controversial Armando Garcia in November.

• The new UFC video game, “UFC 2009 Undisputed,” topped the sales charts in its debut two weeks ago, with the XBox and Playstation 3 discs occupying two of the top three spots in the sales charts, according to VGChartz.com. The game has sold upwards of 500,000 copies, according to the site. In other MMA video game news, the prominent EA Sports game company announced plans to release “EA Sports MMA” in 2010. There were no details about which fighters would appear in the game.