The Honorable Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes Chairwoman, New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc.

Room 619 Legislative Office Building Albany, NY 12248 Dear Assemblywoman Peoples-Stokes, First, I want to congratulate you and wish you Godspeed in your new role as Chairwoman of the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators. I wish you much success as you get set to begin the Associations 43rd annual conference this weekend. As a son and a father, your theme of reclaiming our sons and our daughters strikes a very personal chord with me and even as I continue my training I will be watching news from the conference. Second, I want to thank you for your sponsorship of legislation to legalize and regulate professional mixed martial arts (MMA) in New York, the only state in the nation where professional MMA is illegal. Your strong support of the effort to legalize MMA means a great deal to me and to the millions of MMA fans in New York. This legislation, which has strong bipartisan support in both houses of the Legislature, has failed to come to the floor of the Assembly for a vote, despite having passed the Senate the last four years. As you know better than I, part of the public objection to the bill from its opponents centers around the sport of MMA and the UFC in particular, of which I am the light heavyweight champion of the world being anti-women, anti-gay and anti-people of color. That is another reason your strong support means so much to me. As an African American woman, you understand that this sport like many other sports and careers can be empowering for women, for people of color and for lesbians and homosexuals. The athletes of the UFC and the athletes involved in both professional and amateur MMA (which, bizarrely, is legal in New York) look like New York. We are black, brown, yellow and white. We are men and women. We are straight and gay. Many UFC athletes are veterans, who served their country with distinction. Recently, my friend and colleague Liz Carmouche was in Albany lobbying for the bill. Liz is a professional UFC athlete, a U.S. Marine Corp veteran who served three tours of duty in Iraq, a woman and a lesbian. Liz said this to some of the Albany media: I came back with nothing. I had no job, no sense of direction and thats exactly what MMA provided for me. I would have been just another veteran that came back lost on the streets, going nowhere in life. MMA created a job for me, a home for me, a life, and a sense of direction. My story may not be nearly that dramatic. I was born in Rochester, raised in Endicott, where my parents still live, and currently live in Ithaca. My brothers both exceptional

NFL players and I were raised in a very strict household where strong values and respect for all people were instilled in us. The respect, hard work and discipline needed to succeed at the professional MMA level are values I learned from my parents and they are values that continue to guide me in my MMA career. They are the same values that children across this state and across the nation learn every day in MMA classes and gyms, which can be found in every community across New York. Your conferences theme of reclaiming our sons and daughters is the kind of message I heard regularly from my Mom and my preacher Dad. It is also akin to the values of respect and discipline that are among the cornerstones of the martial arts. Its ironic that my parents can watch my brothers who represent cities outside of New York do their job in New York when they visit your hometown team, the Buffalo Bills, but they cant watch me do my job in my home state. Assemblywoman, I thank you again for your support to legalize in New York the profession I practice. However, I respectfully urge you to do even more. Use the conference this weekend to rally support among your colleagues. If the Association you chair and the State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus got united behind this bill and urged the Speaker to allow it to come to the floor of the Assembly for a vote, I know we would be on the road to success. Thank you for all you do for the people of New York, and again my best wishes for a successful conference this weekend. Sincerely,

Jon Jones