Albany

Times Union Center will host upstate New York's first Ultimate Fighting Championship professional match on Dec. 9, the promoters announced Friday

New York's statewide UFC debut will be Saturday, Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

UFC is a major promoter of mixed martial arts, or MMA.

The competitor list for the UFC Fight Night event in Albany has not yet been finalized.

The sport was legalized earlier in August, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill allowing the fights, which take place in a 750-square-foot octagon-shaped cage.

Combining martial arts such as boxing, tae kwon do, kick boxing and other combat styles, MMA was banned in New York during the Pataki Administration for its violence.

But UFC promoters have spent nearly a decade and millions of dollars on lobbying to get it legalized in New York, which until this year remained the last state where pro matches had been illegal.

In addition to lobbying, promoters introduced more rules and precautions to make the sport safer.

They also had to overcome resistance in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, where it had been blocked by former Democratic Majority Speaker Sheldon Silver.

He was an ally of the culinary union, which had long opposed UFC, since it is owned by the operators of the Station, one of Las Vegas's few non-union casinos.

Silver was forced from office in 2015 amid corruption charges of which he later was convicted.

Legalizing MMA in New York had been a priority, due to the state's size and the stigma of a ban.

The sport has for several years had a major pay-per-view cable TV presence, with UFC's owners, the Las Vegas-based Fertitta brothers, estimating viewership of up to 40 million people for the largest matches.

And the sport has its share of female competitors, such as Ronda Rousey.

A 2008 bronze medal winner in Judo, Rousey last winter traveled to the state Capitol in Albany to try and persuade Assembly members to legalize the sport. The Republican-controlled state Senate already had lent its approval.

MMA isn't the only new sports-related entertainment that has been legalized this year in New York. Gov. Cuomo also has signed a law, passed earlier in the legislature, allowing Internet-based daily fantasy sports games.

Fantasy sports fans compile "fantasy" teams of their favorite players in sports like basketball or football and win prizes if their players perform well in real life.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in late 2015 ordered the two main providers, FanDuel and DraftKings, to halt the games in New York, saying it was illegal gambling. Lawmakers then passed legislation saying it was a game of skill rather than chance.

While Times Union Center is hosting the first upstate UFC competition, other leagues or promoters of the sport also are looking at coming to various venues in the region.

The Oneida Indians' Turning Stone casino, for example, is also working on bringing an MMA event in the fall.

And the under-construction Rivers casino in Schenectady is considering hosting MMA matches, although there are no firm plans, said spokesman Charles Wiff. They are planning to open in early 2017.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU