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Reports from ringside were that it was a particularly "combative" scene, a "fight to the finish." Others shrugged it off as the nature of the sport.

The sport of legislating, that is.

What began over two years ago as a push to legalize and regulate Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Tennessee ended in May with the near-death of the bill, as lawmakers from opposite ends of the state grappled over who would benefit from taxes on gates and broadcast fees. The size of that prize remains to be seen.

To Sen. Dewayne Bunch (R-Cleveland), it made perfect sense: Support the college athletes who help feed MMA—the personality-driven, combat-sport hybrid that generates huge revenues in big-city arenas and on pay-per-view. "The biggest names in the sport are former NCAA wrestling champions," Bunch notes, yet college wrestling in Tennessee is on life support. The state's only Division I program, at UT-Chattanooga, is nationally ranked but survives through private donations. Bunch's amendment to the MMA legislation would have directed half the tax revenues beyond a two-year operating reserve to a grant program for Division I wrestling; the other half would go to the state's general fund.

To House sponsor Rep. Curry Todd (R-Memphis), the "self-serving" earmark was a deal-killer, and as the legislative clock wound down, lobbyists held their breath; the bill wasn't moving. It was revived by a compromise that would fund a grant for NCAA combat sports in an amount from 1% to 50% of excess revenues, determined annually. Todd says he couldn't let the legislation die: "The economic impact was too great for the whole state." He puts that impact at $100 million annually, or $4 million in tax revenues.

Even the sport's proponents admit those predictions are speculative. Shane Messer, who expects his mega-gym, Nashville Mixed Martial Arts, to dominate regional-level MMA in Tennessee, says the impact in the other 36 states where the sport is legal have been "all over the board," from $50 million to $300 million. Todd predicts a single Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event at Memphis' FedExForum or Nashville's Sommet Center, which both lobbied for the bill, could bring in $25 million to $50 million locally; Lawrence Epstein, the UFC's executive vice president and general counsel, suggests those cities are more on par with Columbus, Ohio, which sees $10 million to $13 million from a typical fight.

Bunch says he hopes to see tax revenues flow to UTC, but he worries about unregulated and possibly unscrupulous promoters, and he's suspicious of the "huge numbers" presented by Todd and the FedExForum, which helped push legislation. "If no money comes to pass to any of our student athletes," Bunch says, "it will simply be because they've sold the state on a bill of goods."