Foreign-Born Fighters Banned From UFC On Fox Sports 1:Boston

UFC on Fox Sports 1 Boston is in danger of facing cancellation due to legal issues regarding foreign fighters. The news is emerging shortly before the release date for ticket sales, and it poses a serious threat of cancelling the event all together.It seems the drama is stemming from laws about social security numbers for foreign fighters competing in Boston.

Here is the story via The Boston Herald:

“This law has been in existence since we legalized mixed martial arts in the commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said Terrell Harris, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, which regulates prize fighting. “It’s been brought to the attention of the UFC more than a few times since we legalized the fighting here. But they’ve chosen basically to ignore the law and hope that they could skirt it somehow,” Harris said.

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Harris said the UFC has petitioned the state for a one-time exception to allow foreign fighters to square off at the Aug. 17 Garden event — with or without a valid Social Security number. But state law is clear that officials are prohibited from issuing an MMA license to any fighter without proper documentation.

“They’ve approached us and asked us if we could make exceptions to the ?law for them,” Harris ?said. But the law is the law. The law doesn’t allow us to make exceptions.”

Now this isn’t all doom and gloom, there are ways around getting foreign fighters social security numbers. Word has it that the UFC are in negotiations with Boston lawmakers to try and solve the situation, but if they are unable to then this could be a huge blow for the UFC.

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The August 17th event is stacked from top to bottom, and I really hope that this is just a small bump in the road. Stay tuned to Lowkick for more updates as they come in.ufc on fox sports 1 1 335524 EventFeature