MMA - The Olympic Debate.

Heya guys.

Just been reading a dated article about Dana White being 'certain' of MMA being inducted as an Olympic sport one day. It's certainly an ambitious goal, but what changes do you think there would have to be for it to be accepted as an Olympic sport?

Personally, I think these changes would be helpful:

1) Create a governing body which is affiliated to the IOC. The problem at the moment is that MMA is a promotion-led sport with very little in terms of sporting regulation (an athletic commission in my opinion doesn't suffice).

2) Create legitimate international competition with national representative sides (such as a World Cup or a similar event?)

What would you say about the topic?

not sure whether MMA will ever become an olympic sport, I mean you already have Greko-roman and Freestyle wrestling, Boxing, Judo and Taekwondo. These martial arts/combat sports between them in a way make up the basic elements of MMA already - grappling and striking. Besides I think if any more martial arts were to be included in the Olympics its more likely to be Karate or BJJ, disciplines that already have competition elements to them that would be much easier for lay people to follow. You have to think about the scoring and the awarding of points. Sport Karate already has a points scoring system similar to Taekwondo; BJJ would be a little harder for non MMA fans to follow but there are already international BJJ tournaments so I'm sure their system could be adapted. The thing about Olympic combat sports is that they're never going to be as violent as MMA/UFC - Boxing in the Olympics is amatuer level with protective head guards, head guards are worn in the Taekwondo competitions too if I'm not mistaken and the grappling arts involve very little risk of blood. If MMA became an Olympic sport it would have to be modified to make it safer - they would have to wear headguards presumably and the gloves would probably have to be more padded too. The problem is the more protective gear you wear, the harder it is to fully compete in all areas of MMA - it would make the grappling elements far harder to engage in and runs the risk of it just becoming a Kick Boxing competition and there's no reason then why the Olympics shouldn't just introduce Kick Boxing itself. So I see a lot of problems with MMA, especially in its UFC form becoming an Olympic Sport. Besides I'm not sure I'd like to see an 'amatuer' like style of MMA used in the Olympics. One of the appeals of MMA is that it is probably the purest form of combat allowed in sport. With both the striking and grappling aspects it takes on one of the best all round approaches to fighting and consequently at professional level can be very violent and bloody. It would lose something if it was made more Olympic friendly at a very high price to the sport imo.

I love MMA but can't see it being in the Olympics and can understand.

As talkingpoint says, there are many martial arts already there and would certainly have to have the rules changed and simply wouldn't be MMA as we know.