Would MMA Make a Good Olympic Sport?
What are your thoughts?
I’ve been having difficulty getting into this year’s Olympic Boxing events. I have officially been jaded by mixed martial arts no doubt. So my question today is, would MMA make for a legitimate replacement to Boxing in the Olympic? The pro is that as oldie Goldie from the UFC will tell you 100 times a PPV, MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. The con is that it may not yet be ready for the world’s stage. Let’s admit, mixed martial arts doesn’t have the traditional roots as other Olympic contact sports such as Judo, Karate, or Boxing.
The second question. If MMA was an Olympic sport this time around in China, how would the USA stack up?
Please add a comment and share your thoughts fellow MMA fans!
August 13th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Depends on how many weight division there are, but we know Canada (GSP), Russia (Fedor), and Brazil (Silva) all get at least one gold medal each. In fact, the US might not even come out on top with total medal count.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Boxing suxxxxxx. It is such a dying sport and martial arts alone won’t be able to take it’s place. MMA wll become an olympic sport guaranteed. and i predict it will become one of the most popular of all the events. bam.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Probably pretty well. Brazil, Japan, and USA would be the main contenders, it depends if it was open to amateurs only or pros. I know that they petitioning to make BJJ an Olympic sport. I’m all for that.
Scott
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Jeet Kune Do Instructor
Certified Filipino Martial Arts Instructor
Certified Shamrock Submission Fighting Instructor
August 16th, 2008 at 7:04 am
I’m really not sure if I want MMA to become an olympic sport. Most of the martial arts such as Taekwando, Boxing, Judo, Wrestling that gets in to Olympics becomes unexciting due to the vague rules, gears, politics etc.
Just look at boxing, they made it an olympic sports but they required fighters to wear headgear and huge gloves. Just imagine what they will do to MMA.
On the other note, I’m wondering why Brazilian JJ or any JJ did not get into Olympics. I think JJ is a good martial arts to put into Olympics.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Seems like every time I turn on the olympics they are showing Boxing! I wonder why they are doing this considering it’s a dying sport with the US audience.
August 16th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I think there is enough interest internationally for mma to be in the olympics. However, i don’t ever think mma will make it into the olympics for one reason; recovery time. To have a tournament with say 16 fighters, the gold medalist would have to fight a minimum of 4 fights within the 2 week period that the olypics last for. This would mean each guy would be fighting once every three days. I don’t think it will happen. The endurance required would make Michael Phelps look like a ribbon twirler!
August 18th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I think anything would be better that boxing, even a watered down MMA sporting event, put on the head gear and some pads, maybe even some more padding on the gloves, I don’t care, just get this lame boxing off my TV. Those guys look like rockem sockem most of the time, flurry….cover up…..flurry……cover up, boring. I think most of the top level MMA fighters could easily fight once every three days, some would even love to.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
The fact that every other combat sport in the Olympics is under very specific rule restrictions tells me that, in the unlikely event that the IOC even got behind MMA, it would be under a rule set that nobody would be very impressed with. Consider: Olympic Boxing is point based with protective headgear; Olympic Judo has a restrictive rule set that emphasizes throws and bans chokes and most joint locks; Olympic Tae Kwon Doe is point based with protective head and chest gear (not to mention the overall rule restrictions of TKD competitions that make it more like Fencing with feet than an approximation of a combat sport); and Olympic Wrestling, like all wrestling of course, has a litany of rules.
Can you think of a good way to make MMA a point-based competition? Consider how unhappy we so often are when actual professional MMA bouts go to the judges’ scorecard. Now imagine that for every contest.
To recap: the IOC’s level of comfortability with combat sports, as evidenced by the restrictive rule sets put in place for the striking, throwing, and grappling contests that actually are in the Olympics, make it incredibly unlikely that MMA will be accepted as an Olympic event any time in the near future–and even if it were to be accepted it would probably be an aggravating, subjectively scored mess.
September 1st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
If MMA was in the Olympics it would probably be mostly amatures. Do you think any promoters would let their guys fight in the Olympics? I know the UFC would not.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Obviously the unaffected sport we know it as would make a fantastic Olympic sport, but the politics and bureaucracy of the Olympic Committees hardly ever allow new sports, let alone a “controversial” sport such as MMA. Even if it were make it as an Olympic sport, it just would be watered down like crazy. As most of the people before me said, yes, it would end up being just as as boring to watch as amateur boxing, which is pretty damn bad.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Mixed martial arts has gained so much popularity in the past few years. It’s really becoming a widely recognised sport. It’s good to see those guys who go out and battle like they do, get some well deserved attention.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:00 am
There is no MMA federation, whether it be national or international. To be even considered for the Olympics, you have to show that you are an international sport. Bodybuilding and chess where demonstration sports!!
MMA is not a sport. It is an event that grew in popularity through private promoters. Every sport in the world from dog jumping to frisbee have hierarchical organisation at lowel, national and international level.
Since there is none in MMA like there is in judo, karate, tkd, etc, the chances of MMA being in the Olympics is zero.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
I really think mma will come back to the Olympics. They had a form of mma called Pankration in 648 BC. And you could take the submissions from judo, the kicks from taekwondo, the takedowns from wrestling, and the punches from boxing. There u got 4 sports in one and I think they could recover fast enough because it is gonna be high level fighters in there and if they cant make it they lose. No matter what MMA will be in the olymipcs in 2012.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
i think i read somewhere that they are considering putting MMA in the olympics but just calling it pankration since, give or take some techniques, it really close to being the same thing and pankration was an original olympic sport