Don't Cry for Me Vancouver!

(Don't cry for me Vancouver! The truth is I never left you!)

City of North Vancouver councillors put the kibosh on hosting professional boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA) fights in the city, after voting to disband the North Vancouver Athletic Commission Monday night.

"I've watched enough of it (Ultimate Fighting Championship) channel surfing to know that I find it repugnant ... barbaric," said Coun. Pam Bookham in an interview with The Outlook.

In all honesty the writing was on the wall when Vancouver Athletic Commission chairman Mirko Mladenovic was impeached. From what WKR has been able to gather Mirko was the big MMA ally and basically forced through the temporary regulation for Vancouver.

Then again, the UFC confessed that unless there was national or provincial regulation they wouldn't be coming back due to the city's insurance concerns. Fightlinker takes a stab at the UFC for basically rolling through town and then getting out of dodge. It's probably just them realizing what a loss cause Vancouver is, which sucks because Canada is suppose to be the fertile crescent of MMA fans.

Incidentally this is a good example of how all politics is local and the rhetoric and process changes from region to region. Something UFC fans should remember with all the aggressive international expansion rhetoric.

But the question WKR has is whether or not UFC 115 a success?

On one hand, Zuffa sold a bunch of tickets though must were to the secondary market and the event was fun with a decent pay-per view number. But on the other hand UFC 115 failed to convince the local power brokers that MMA regulation was a good thing. Then there's the issue of insurance cost (in the $20 million range), the theater showing flop, and the fact that essentially UFC 115 killed Vancouver MMA for the foreseeable future.

Let us know what you think.