What Are Your Thoughts On MMA Becoming An Olympic Sport?

I have caught glimpses of this year's Olympics.  Some of the sports that I've seen make me wonder what exactly qualify it as a sport (honestly, water polo is not something that I see as a sport).  So that being said, who all thinks that MMA should be an Olympics Sport?


All the reasons are there for MMA to become an Olympic Sport according to Dana White.

A TMZ reporter caught up with White and asked him about his thoughts on MMA being in the Olympics.

"It should be [an Olympic sport]," said White. "If you think about it now, in boxing you get punched in the head and body, judo you can do throws and submissions, taekwondo you can kick and punch and in wrestling you can do takedowns and throws. All those things are what the UFC is— Mixed Martial Arts. You're just putting them all together."

When the reporter hinted if White would try to have the sport added to the Olympics, White made it clear that he has a full-time job as UFC President.

"It's not my job," said White. "I'm not heading out the whole … I got enough sh*t to do."

Credit: TMZ

I don't think it'd work. You'd need a universal body over it. There'd be rules changes and it'd need to be, for a lack of a better analogy, watered down in order to be accepted as an Olympic sport.

I don't think it'd work and I wouldn't be to upset if it didn't. Sports in the Olympics that I know of is a pure sport. What happens when you get someone like Ben Askren representing their country, or even worse, winning!  If by some crazy chance though mma does become an Olympic sport, I want it to be amateur like in boxing.

i dont think it will work. you would have to be padded up just to make sure you didnt get to cut up. other then that if they did something like this it would be sweet.

There's no need.  The Olympics are used to bring the best athletes in the world to compete against each other.  The UFC already does that.

i think the UFC has the best fighters but i want to see a group of fighter together from all promotions fight to find out who the best is. that would be sweet.

speaking of none sports my other half has just got back from london after watching the dressage (horse dancing)

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pankration with modern saftey rules would probably become very close to unified rules. I dont see the olympics going for a cage any time in the near future. 

The universal body over it is called the IMMAF. They are in London right now trying to have MMA as an Olympic sport in the near future.

IMMAF article
FoxSports article

Right now only 12 countries are under this IMMAF (including Canada), imo the first step if to get more members all around the world.

Everything is already in place in Canada. We have a point system within each province and at the end of each year we have a tournament to determine the Canadian winners in each weight classes. Those winners would be sent to the Olympics and turn pro after the games.

MMA as an Olympic sport is a mistake...it sounds great, but in reality it would end up needing replacement after replacement as winners in each round get hurt and can't continue on. I'd be surprised if Dana would even let the guys they have under contract compete. I'd be for BJJ being made an Olympic sport, but it would be dominated by Brazilians at first kind of like basketball and the US for so long.

I've actually though about BJJ as an Olympic sport for a long time, but my only hesitation would be the complete domination by the Brazilians for a couple of years.  Still, it might be handy for getting more people into the sport, and subsequently MMA when they realize how frustrating it is to not be able to punch the guy in the face who's trying to rip your arm off.  :P  The bottom line is that the UFC is the most talent-filled organization in the world, whether you want to admit it or not.  The best fighters from the entire world come together to compete, and having them and the few other major promotions that still survive, namely Strikeforce and Bellator, would be pointless because they're simply not on the same level.  Remember Hector Lombard?  I'm not saying that there are no fighters from other promotions that can beat some UFC fighters, but I'm saying that they usually end up in the UFC anyway.  There's a reason it's the largest promotion in the world.

EDIT:  Good post wiflet, there's a lot of interesting stuff in there.

* Edited at 08.06.2012, 1:05 PM ET *

@Tin How about the new sport Eddie Bravo is pushing Combat Jiu Jitsu over BJJ at least then there is some striking on the ground

MMA at the Olympics would be for amateur fighters. No need to talk about the UFC or other pro promotions...

It could be a good way to get MMA known, get new fans and discover new young talents.

In 2004 I discovered a Canadian boxer, Jean Pascal, at the Olympics. One year later he made his pro boxing debut and I watched all of his fights since.

AMMA would work great in the Olympics, deserves more of a place than Jiu-Jitsu that's for damn sure. AMMA at the Olympics should be contested Quebec-style, shin pads, boxing gloves, in a ring, no sparring helmets, no ground elbows, knees or kicks and fought with 3 2 minute rounds.

Jiu-Jitsu seems like a sport that would work at the Olympics but it wouldn't work at all, no way. The sport is dominated by one nation, it would just be an event to give extra medals to Brazil.


@wake99 Pascal is awesome, it's a shame that he's been losing recently.

@SoccerKick  I've always been an Eddie Bravo fan (rubber guard <3) but alot of people wouldn't want to compete in a modified version of the original sport.  That'd be like doing...well...I was gonna use freestyle wrestling instead of Greco-Roman as an example, but they have that in the Olympics anyway......

I can't believe people are looking at Combat Jiu-Jitsu as a real sport/martial art...sigh. Combat Jiu-Jitsu is grappling for fighters with aspiring MMA careers, that's it that's all.

Combat Jiu Jitsu is as real as AMMA...they're both avenues to a fighting professionally

I would love to see it, but will never happen. If only for the fact that the UFC would hold fighters back from going there in fear of injuries.

Also I don't know how well it would go over with the crowd. When I was in grammar school the UFC was a VHS tape I rented from a store. It took this long to grow and nurture itself onto Fox. Maybe we will be having this discussion again in 10 years, but right now it just isn't possible. It's very sad, but true.

combat BJJ is sambo then right?