According to Amtrak's timetables, it takes a mere 18 minutes to get from Newark Penn Station, located a few blocks from the Prudential Center, to New York's Penn Station, which sits underneath Madison Square Garden.
And yet that short hop over the state line seems so, so far away.
The UFC once again had to pull the plug on a planned New York City debut date. The Empire State's asinine ban on mixed martial arts remains in place, meaning a planned April 23 MSG date needed to be scrapped.
But as the UFC once again brought its revenue across the river to New Jersey, this time for UFC on FOX 18 on Saturday night, it remains committed to its effort to get the sport legalized in New York.
"We're going to still work hard and get here in New York and Madison Square Garden, the Barclays Center [in Brooklyn], to the entire state," UFC PR chief Dave Sholler said at the UFC on FOX 18 post-fight press conference. "It's absolutely, 100 percent a top priority for us."
Overturning the ban, enacted during an anti-MMA media hysteria in the late-1990s, has repeatedly run into roadblocks at the legislative level, although the sport recently received a boost when Gov. Andrew Cuomo voiced his support of legalization.
Sholler said the UFC remains committed to getting the UFC in New York in 2016, with November the next target time frame for an MSG event.
"We feel pretty confident that 2016 is the year, and as [UFC COO] Lawrence [Epstein] said, the next date we're targeting is November," Sholler said. "We're committed to bringing the UFC to New York."