The Gun Store owner: These are fighters, they're not playing chess.

As of Jan. 23, absolutely no firearms, ammo, hunting or knife companies will be permitted as sponsors in any Zuffa-promoted events.
A FOX representative confirmed that the move originated not from the UFC, but from FOX, saying "UFC is complying with its FOX Sports Media Group contract, which applies to events and shows carried on its networks. Beyond that, FOX does not comment on its standards and practices." A similar ban was already in effect for Strikeforce, due to similar concerns from CBS. Further, as Dana White explained  "As we go international, a lot of these other countries will not allow it on TV. There are quite a few issues with it. Fun while it lasted."

The most prominent firearm-related sponsor in MMA, Chris Irwin, owner of Las Vegas' "The Gun Store" recently was a guest on MMAjunkie.com Radio,

"The only thing I was officially told was a couple weeks ago from Evan Dunham's manager, who's a friend of mine. He texted me, and he said, 'Hey, you can't sponsor Evan. FOX is not allowing any sponsorships pertaining to guns.' I said, 'That's similar to Strikeforce. OK. Bummer.'
"Evan is a very good friend of ours, and I know his manager, Robert Roveta, very well. That's the only direct contact I've had from anyone pertaining to this situation other than a lot of people sending me Twitters and Facebooks and so forth about the articles that were on the Internet, which I haven't actually looked at yet because I've been traveling."

"There's people out there that are still in charge that have very limited views in their thinking as in, 'Ooh, guns are violent. Guns are bad. These are fighters. They're not playing chess."
"I don't know. I think it just comes down to exactly that type of thinking – limited thinking and, 'Guns are bad and guns are violent,' and they don't realize that this is part of out Second Amendment rights. People have the right to bear arms and defend themselves. And getting into the MMA world, fighters love to come to The Gun Store and shoot."
"If you're not at the pinnacle of this league, if you're not Georges St-Pierre or the Diaz brothers or those guys up there, some of these guys don't make a lot of money. This is really all they have. So the ones I can help out, I'm going to help out, especially the local ones here in Vegas that I know personally. But it really is the fighters that are suffering, and it's kind of unfortunate for them."

"I don't think for a second this has anything to do with the UFC office. I've talked to Dana White before. He was incredibly cordial with me. I know a lot of people over there, and I'm just very well-received over there. We have a good working relationship, and I think this is just something where the UFC's hands are tied due to the network."

The FOX representative steted to MMA Junkie that "our contract with UFC only applies to programming aired on a FOX-owned network." While this would seem to leave the window open for firearms sponors on the PPV main card, which does not appear on FOX, as main card fights are rerun on FOX, it appears that that hunting, knife, ammo, and firearms sponsors are done at the peak of the sport.
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via:mmajunkie.com