In an attempt to overturn the current ban on Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events in Ontario, the UFC has entered Canadian politics; more specifically, soliciting the services of one of the most powerful law firms in Ontario – Cassells Brock & Blackwell – in an effort to help lobby the Ontario government to sanction MMA events in Ontario.

Federally, the UFC has hired the ‘Capital Hill Group,’ a powerful Parliament Hill lobbyist in hopes that Ottawa will change the Criminal Code to expand the section that permits boxing to also include mixed martial arts.

Allowed in some Provinces, Montreal and British Columbia being two examples, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events are still banned in Ontario under Section 83* of Canada’s Criminal Code.

*Prize Fights
Engaging in prize fight

83. (1) Every one who

(a) engages as a principal in a prize fight,

(b) advises, encourages or promotes a prize fight, or

(c) is present at a prize fight as an aid, second, surgeon, umpire, backer or reporter,

is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Definition of “prize fight”

(2) In this section, “prize fight” means an encounter or fight with fists or hands between two persons who have met for that purpose by previous arrangement made by or for them, but a boxing contest between amateur sportsmen, where the contestants wear boxing gloves of not less than one hundred and forty grams each in mass, or any boxing contest held with the permission or under the authority of an athletic board or commission or similar body established by or under the authority of the legislature of a province for the control of sport within the province, shall be deemed not to be a prize fight.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Toronto Acton, Ajax, Aurora, Barrie, Belleville, Bolton, Bowmanville, Bradford, Brampton, Brantford, Brockville, Burlington, Cambridge, Chatham, Cornwall, Elliot Lake, Etobicoke, Georgetown, Guelph, Halton, Hamilton, Kanata, Kingston, Kitchener, Lindsay, Leamington, Listowel, London, Markham, Midland, Milton, Mississauga, Montreal, Newmarket, Niagara Falls, North Bay, North York, Oakville, Orangeville, Orillia, Oshawa, Ottawa, Owen Sound, Peel Region, Peterborough, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Sarnia, Scarborough, Sault Ste. Marie, St. Thomas, St. Catharines, Stratford, Sudbury, Thornhill, Thunder Bay, Timmins, Toronto, Trenton, Vaughan, Waterloo, Welland, Windsor, Woodbridge, Woodstock, York, York Region Ontario Canada.