Victoria, Australia’s most densely populated State, has not been a friendly venue for the UFC as the Government allowed MMA but banned events from taking place in a cage. This prohibition kept the UFC out of the Country’s second largest City due to their desire to only hold events in their trademarked ‘Octagon”.. After years of lobbying the ban is now being overturned. With this development the UFC has announced they will host UFC 193 in Melbourne in November, 2015.
The Australian Broadcast Corporation quotes John Erin, Victoria’s Minster of Sports, as follows:
“Mixed Martial Arts has been legal in Victoria, the only thing that was not legal is the actual fencing which made it safer for competitors, officials and spectators. This sport will be much safer. A whole raft of stakeholders that I spoke to indicated how unfair it was that their sport was not being looked after by the previous government.”
With this development MMA in a cage is now legal throughout Australia with the exception of the State of Western Australia which has banned the cage since 2008.
Combat Sports Law 