Issue 092

September 2012

Would mixed martial arts as a discipline within the Olympic Games be the ultimate stamp of approval for our young sport, or an unnecessary vanity?

For the average MMA fan, there’s an a la carte feel to the Olympics. There are plenty of martial arts to choose from, including judo, taekwondo, boxing and two types of wrestling: Greco-Roman and freestyle. And if you were bred as a practitioner of any single martial art, you might have an appetite for such a buffet.

However, with MMA positioned as one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, it begs the question when or if mixed martial arts will ever become an Olympic sport? Would it validate the sport or just give it some perfunctory rubber stamp? Considering the monumental success of the UFC, one might think not. 

And yet, for years before the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Olympics long represented the ultimate fighting ground for martial artists. The Olympiad pitted the best from each country against one another. The profile is high, the honor deep. For many, competing as a mixed martial artist in the Olympics is hardly a rubber stamp. It’s career validation.

Former Olympians and Team USA members dot the MMA landscape: Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix winner Daniel Cormier (wrestling), UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture (wrestling), UFC legend Dan Henderson (wrestling), Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (judo), are only some. As recently as two years ago, UFC welterweight champion Georges St Pierre reportedly had seriously contemplated trying to qualify for the Canadian national wrestling team with a view to London 2012.

But to be considered for the Olympics, MMA faces many obstacles. Even the most optimistic fans would probably be forgiven if they doubt whether it will ever happen. Roadblocks such as establishing an international MMA regulatory body for both professional and amateur ranks exist. As do petty jealousies among each martial art and their current regulatory bodies, the task of developing an Olympic ‘style’ of MMA that considers safety and frequency of bouts, and the meshing regulations from all the arts under one umbrella.

Only when MMA has built an international architecture of amateur ranking and regulations, will it even have a shot at being considered an Olympic sport. Some consider MMA too dangerous or violent for the Olympics. However, the Games’ most popular martial art once was thought of similarly. According to the official website of the Olympics, the original organizing committee omitted boxing from the 1896 Athens Olympiad because they thought it was too dangerous. Of course, eventually boxing became one of the Summer Games’ most popular sports and vaulted personalities like Cassius Clay, Sugar Ray Leonard and most recently Andre Ward to stardom.

Similarly, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was founded in 1973. And yet, taekwondo only made its Olympic debut at the Sydney Games in 2000.

So it might just take a while for MMA to accrue the kind of international legitimacy boxing finally earned in the eyes of the Olympic committee. But it has to start somewhere.

It's a start

Consider what the Olympic committee states in regard to how a sport is recognized as an Olympic sport. As per the official Games website, Olympic.org: “To make it onto the Olympic program, a sport first has to be recognized: it must be administered by an International Federation which ensures that the sport’s activities follow the Olympic Charter. If it is widely practiced around the world and meets a number of criteria established by the IOC session, a recognized sport may be added to the Olympic program on the recommendation of the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission.”

The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation is a good start. The Sweden-based organization is attempting to bring all of the provincial MMA governing bodies under one umbrella and currently boasts Belgium, Canada, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal and Sweden among its members. Sources say they have spoken to 40 to 42 more countries’ MMA governing bodies about joining. Six, even in only six months, might not sound like a lot of members, but the important part is the discussion is being had.

Its mission is to encourage further development of MMA as a sport from recreational to elite levels and to establish a common set of rules and safety regulations. Its ‘Safety Ladder’ concept (right) attempts to offer a tangible system of progression from recreational exercise to international professional sport.

Ostensibly, Olympic competition would be categorized somewhere in between amateur and national professional MMA. But forming this kind of hierarchy at least gives a start in how to evaluate and rank amateur athletes who would compete in the Olympics. Only from there could a ranking and qualifying system be established for MMA in each country.

Just as judo has the International Judo Federation (IJF), boxing has The Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), taekwondo has the WTF and wrestling has the Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées (FILA), perhaps the IMMAF could someday be mixed martial arts’ representative body.

Marc Ratner, the UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs, serves as chairman of the IMMAF’s technical committee. 

“I think the IMMAF shows much promise in helping establish some commonality of rules,” Ratner says. “But this is going to be a long-term process. The judo federations, FILA, they all come into play and this won’t happen overnight.”

Indeed, with so many established sports federations, meshing all of their regulations, particulars and proclivities would necessitate a massive show of cooperation and diplomacy. Others still might view MMA as an entity that could threaten a sport into obsolescence.

“If you can get beyond the factions and jealousies and rivalries between the arts, it will go a long way to progress this idea forward,” Ratner says. “But not everybody’s out for the common good of the sport.”

Ronda Rousey, 2008 US judo bronze medalist, echoes those sentiments.

“I think there are a lot of promoters who could get in the way,” Rousey says. “Some people are just out to make money, and that won’t help that effort.” 

For Rousey, the idea of MMA becoming an Olympic sport is highly significant.

“No, it wouldn’t be just some rubber stamp,” says Rousey. “As a mixed martial artist now, I think it would really validate MMA because the Olympics is what everyone sees. It’s as mainstream as it gets. For a sport like MMA, which is trying to be considered mainstream, it would be hugely significant.”

But, like Ratner, she also understands the road to that validation through the Olympics is a long one.

“It will be a long process to build that,” Rousey says. “I mean, you have to first develop some sort of system that ranks [fighters] and then ranks their countries. In judo, you have to qualify as an individual, then you have to see if your country qualifies even before you step foot in an Olympic ring or on a mat. To put that together will take a long time.”  

Style vs. sport

In amateur boxing, headgear is mandatory to protect the health of the athletes. Rounds are limited to three, and most Olympic outcomes are decided by decision. How or what would MMA deem necessary safety equipment, and how would that impact the sport in the ring.

“I’m not sure if they could make you wear headgear without it truly affecting the nature of the sport,” Rousey says. “Even the five-ounce gloves would have to be modified somehow. You could take a lot of damage.”

Which means reassessing the length of matches, periods and even scoring. Also the number of fights through qualifying rounds, trials and the Olympic tournament could test even world-class MMA athletes. The closest that professional MMA has to this Spartan schedule is the Bellator tournaments, but even those fights are at least spread out over several months. The 2012 Summer Games in London take place July 27th to August 12th, just a couple days over two weeks. Could an amateur MMA fighter sustain damage and weather three perhaps four fights within that span?

On the other hand, would protective headgear or shin guards and more padded gloves basically take the fight out of MMA? Fans used to watching pay-per-view fights might not see the overall ‘big picture’ of MMA fighters in the Olympics going toe-to-toe with so much padding. And how would it affect ground fighting and grappling? Could a fighter get his hands and forearm under the chin on a rear naked choke if his glove is too padded? When does an Olympic version of MMA not resemble MMA anymore?

Further still, would the Olympics allow current professionals to try out and make the national teams? Certainly Olympic alumni like Cormier, Henderson and Rousey would like a shot at winning gold in addition to the UFC or Strikeforce strap. It would only make sense to allow professional MMA fighters to compete. The Olympics allow hockey and basketball professionals to represent their countries. But then Olympic boxing is purely an amateur competition, so would MMA combatants be required to follow a similar path?

Mixed martial arts also developed standardized regulation among the professional ranks first. Resulting in the fact that amateur regulation of MMA on a global scale lags behind greatly. There is no USA Boxing or AIBA, no amateur equivalent or governing body for amateur MMA. 

Some countries, like Sweden, do have a national amateur regulatory agency, but much of the international amateur scene also lags behind. The best fighters would likely be from the professional ranks at first. 

“But USA Boxing is the model we’d have to follow for an amateur system,” Ratner adds conclusively. 

However, considering how quickly some have evolved the sport, young fighters like Jon Jones, John Hathaway, Alexander Gustafsson, Rory MacDonald and Michael McDonald, who have ushered in a new generation of true mixed marital artists, perhaps by the time MMA is considered to be an Olympic sport that amateur system will have been developed and installed.

“There’s just a lot that needs to be done before [MMA] even gets to that discussion,” Ratner accepts. “This whole new generation of athlete will push it forward. But progress is being made. Like I said, it’s a long-term process.”

Ratner, who is the former head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said he hopes to see MMA as an Olympic sport in his lifetime. Rousey too, nearly 35 years Ratner’s junior, thinks MMA will be included in the Olympics eventually.

“I think it would be great because then it wouldn’t be just wrestling or just judo or just boxing,” she says. “The true art is blending all of them together and what better stage to do it than the Olympics?”

IMMAF safety ladder chart

• MARTIAL ARTS WITHOUT FULL-CONTACT IMPACTS: This is the first level of athletic development where practitioners will learn the movements and tactics of different kinds of martial arts without receiving any full-contact impacts. Examples of such martial arts are wrestling, judo, jiu-jitsu, semi-contact boxing and Muay Thai.
• FULL-CONTACT MARTIAL ARTS: On this level, practitioners exercise and compete in full-contact martial arts such as amateur boxing and amateur Muay Thai.
• FULL-CONTACT SPORTS CLOSELY RELATED TO MMA: This level is very similar to amateur MMA but with a more restricted set of rules. For instance the rule-set can allow for striking and kicking while standing but once on the ground only grappling is allowed. This is an appropriate level to start competing in before entering amateur MMA.
• AMATEUR MMA: Amateur MMA is similar to professional MMA with the exception of some differences in the rule-set and the length of the bouts, which are limited to two rounds. Also the athletes do not receive payment for their athletic performances.
• NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL MMA: This is the highest professional level on a national scale. In different countries there might be differences in rules regarding the use of certain techniques.
• INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONAL MMA: This is the most physically and mentally challenging level of MMA and follows the recognized rules called: the Unified Rules of MMA. Very few athletes around the world have the ability to compete at this level, and these rules are used for leading promotions such as the UFC.