My Take On: MMA as an Olympic event
by Rich on Feb.24, 2010, under MMA, Other MMA News
With all the talk of the Olympics, many people have been debating at length about the inclusion of MMA in the Olympic games. Many detractors feel that the “barbaric” nature of the sport would be inappropriate for the squeaky clean games. As a fan, I feel that this argument is really poorly researched and continues to enforce the fact that people still need to learn about the sport. For those detractors, I present the following courtesy of Wikipedia:
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions, to be used in competitions. The rules allow the use of striking and grappling techniques, both while standing and on the ground. Such competitions allow martial artists of different backgrounds to compete.
As described above, MMA is a mixture of a wide variety of fighting techniques such as Wrestling, Judo, Taekwondo and Boxing ‚which are all Olympic sports. Disciplines alreadyrecognized by the International Olympic Committee — Karate and Wushu, are also practiced by some MMA fighters. The Olympics preach brotherhood and equality among it’s athletes and MMA shares a similar brotherhood and desire to represent one’s country. I feel that the global appeal as well as the diverse mix of athletes would allow most, if not all, countries to be represented.
The IOC will need to make some adjustments to keep the bloodshed to a minimum, but with the proper safeguards I feel MMA would do well and allow fighters another avenue to grow the sport on a global scale. In researching the Olympics, I learned that Pankration at one point was an Olympic event. Pankration was the first form of MMA and was a viable Olympic sport.
I am sure many people will agree with my recommendation, just as I am sure others will disagree, but in the end it would be quite a sight to see. Imagine GSP as Welterweight Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist. Dana White I am sure would love to that become a reality. We can only hope as fans that when the Olympics visit Rio in 2016, they request the inclusion of Vale Tudo or BJJ into the Olympic games.
Would you like to see MMA in the Olympics? Share your thoughts below:
2 Comments for this entry
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February 24th, 2010 on 10:46 AM
I agree that MMA should be an olympic sport, but my main concern is that it would have to be a tournament of some sort where fighters would have to fight multiple times in a short period of time, which is much different from how the fighting works now. Boxing works as an olympic sport because of the head gear and the winner doesn’t usually take much damage. The tournament could be won based on conditioning and luck rather than overall skill. Thoughts? Josh Fuld(Quote)
February 24th, 2010 on 1:21 PM
I was going to say it in my response but then I saw it in the post that the bloodshed would have to be toned down. Also, I like what Josh was saying that there would be headgear. perhaps there could even be electronics in the headgear to set up some sort of scoring system. Based on force and duration, the computer could determine point values for punches, kicks and grapples. It is something that would take several years to develop, but I think it could work. Handel(Quote)