New South Wales, Australia has finally legalised MMA and martial arts.

By Joe Hildebrand

The Daily Telegraph
December 17, 2008 12:01am

CAGE fighting - a brutal martial art in which opponents are fenced into a ring so they cannot escape - has been legalised in NSW, outraging doctors who say it should be banned.

Despite Victoria already banning cage fighting, the debate is now on as to whether NSW teens as young as 14 could be legally allowed to fight.

In NSW the sport and other fringe martial arts have until now existed in a legal grey area - they were not officially sanctioned but there was no specific law against them.

Sport Minister Kevin Greene said the new laws would enforce new safety measures to protect participants and said it was better to regulate violent sports than drive them underground.

"As individuals and as a community we don't have to participate in or support these sports - we don't even have to like them," he said.

"But they're here to stay and on that basis its important for the Government to set some rules."

The Australian Medical Association said cage fighting must be banned.

"You'd have to say because of the serious risk of head injury with combat sports such as cage fighting, no it shouldn't be legal," AMA NSW president Brian Moreton said.

Full story here with some great pro-MMA comments below the article:News.com.au

This is typical of the media coverage MMA gets in Australia. Although it is becoming more common place on pay TV, I still believe the local promotions are being very short sighted by marketting their shows as "Bloody Cage Fighting.."