MMA not for Olympics?

The Paris Olympics loom ahead, and there is a discussion on which sports can inevitably make it into the Games. By virtue of its popularity and versatility, mixed martial arts is at the top of the list. However, there there are a lot of complications that have to be sorted out before a consolidated bid can be made to join the Olympic Games.

To begin with, there is a very active amateur mixed martial arts scene, not just in the Philippines, but in other countries as well. However, everyone seems to be left to their own devices, even if there is an international effort to bring everyone together.

“This initiative (in the Philippines) was started by Alvin Aguilar before the Philippine MMA Federation,” combat sports analyst Nissi Icasiano said on the radio program Hardball with Bill Velasco on DWAN 1206 AM. “Today, amateur MMA is, I don’t want to say colorum for lack of a better term. They each have their own rules. What PMAF is doing is really setting the standard in conjunction with IMMAF.”

To avoid having to pay membership and sanctioning fees, many local promotions dub their contests as “pro-am,” which adds to the confusion. Besides, all of the biggest international mixed martial arts groups like UFC, One Championship, Brave and Bellator, focus primarily on pro bouts, to the exclusion of amateurs and even lower weight classes.

In the amateurs, there should be unified safety precautions. But some promotions don’t use shin pads, can’t agree on the size of gloves, use of head gear, and each has their own set of rules. Some allow elbows for striking, others don’t. This whole mess has been difficult. Besides, MMA has precursors that aren’t in the Olympics themselves, like Brazilian jiujitsu (which was partly the foundation of MMA), muay thai and kickboxing.

Even if by some miracle, all of these amateur groups come together, there is still the issue of the cost of bidding to be in the Olympic Games. It takes tens of millions of dollars to prepare a bid to convince International Olympic Committee members to vote for inclusion.

On top of that, it takes at least three Olympic cycles and the support of 70 countries at minimum for inclusion. This all seems daunting, but at the end of the day all it takes is a single will to get it done.