Should MMA Be an Olympic Sport?

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Current Olympic sports include boxing, freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, Judo and Taekwondo - each of which are traditional arts used as base disciplines in modern-day mixed martial arts.

The London 2012 Olympics, which opens July 27, features 36 different sports, including several that utilize hand-to-hand combat. And with the 2016 Summer Olympics coming to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - one of the fastest-growing hotspots for MMA - now is the perfect time to start thinking about introducing mixed martial arts to the masses.

MMA Stars With Olympic Experience

With so many active MMA standouts coming from an Olympic background - Ronda Rousey, Mark Coleman, Daniel Cormier and Dan Henderson are just some of the many who come to mind - it seems like just a matter of time before the sport becomes a part of the Olympic games.

MMA gyms are popping up all over the world, and amateur athletes in countries like England and Brazil, are starting to train in the sport at a young age. Elite young athletes used to take up sports like soccer and wrestling, but we're now seeing an emergence of talent flocking to mixed martial arts.

There's no doubt that MMA is international, with world-class athletes from all over the globe.

Young, amateur talent is better than its ever been, and making MMA an Olympic sport would finally legitimize it as a "real" sport that has high-level athletes and not just barroom brawlers.

Logistics

MMA features talent from across the globe, as the sport has been featured in countries ranging from Brazil to Japan to the United States and Australia.

I believe they should take a page out of the boxing book as far as Olympic competition goes, with only amateurs being allowed to take part in the event.

I don't think current UFC and Strikeforce stars should be allowed to fight in the Olympics, and the professional promotions likely wouldn't support their athletes competing in the event even if they were allowed to.

Amateur-Only?

The UFC wouldn't want to risk one of their top-level fighters getting injured while competing in the Olympics, so it's pretty clear that it would need to be an all-amateur competition, if anything.

From a logistical standpoint, making a fighter step into the cage two or three times in a two-week span is one of the tough roadblocks that stands in the way of MMA becoming an Olympic sport.

I think they would have to go down the same route as boxing, with a single-elimination tournament and the winners advancing to the semifinals.

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Thoughts?

As long as its just amateurs, I would be on board.

I wouldn't want it to be pros, but not for the reasons mentioned above. I just never liked the idea of Olympic competion of a sport that already has an established championship heritage of it's own outside of the Olympics. It makes winning in the Olympics in your respective sport seem secondary and kind of pointless.
Will the individual members of the USA men's basketball team really feel as accomplished winning the Olympics as they would winning the NBA title with their respective NBA teams?
Will the soccer (or football; whatever) team who wins the Olympics really feel like they won something that even compares to winning the World Cup?

Neh.
Let's go with the amateurs competing. That works.

Yeah It could very clearly be an Olympic sport. The only problem would of course be an overly political IOC. These guys have dumbed-down, pussied down and watered down combative sports soooooo much they barely qualify as "combat sports".

Boxing with pillows on your hands AND head? Shooting events using pellet guns? Javelins with NO LIVE TARGETS!!!??? C'mon really do we want MMA in the Olympics?

HELL YEAH

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would tune in that event.

Huh? Javelins with live targets or Olympic MMA?

Krieger wrote:

Huh? Javelins with live targets or Olympic MMA?

you need professional help

Absolutely not.
For starters, it's an individual sport and is already international. I see no value in adding to the olympics.

But most importantly, once the olympic rules committee and judging gets their hands on anything it instantly turns into a flaming turd which is then extinguished with cat urine.

I was just going to say I didn't care until I walked past the tv and saw a bunch of grown men throwing a volleyball in the pool...and realized that was an "olympic sport"....

I'm waiting for Men's synchronized swimming....

I agree with Trigger and stock. If it ammy's I think it would be cool, plus amateurs already have shitty rules for the most part, but they do vary from state to state. Maybe, just maybe the Olympic rules comity could do some good here and create a "world wide" ammy rule book... as long as they didn't go too over board.

Anyone know what the ammy MMA rules are in their area?
Here in MN there are no strikes to the head of a downed opponent and you must wear shin guards. (Those are just a few that I know right off hand, also they maybe different than the rest of MN since those were from a Casino on a Reservation... IDK if they have a separate sanctioning body that the rest of MN)

Another problem with MMA in the olypmics is dealing with injuries. Not sure how many fights a guy could have in a few week period of time.

I would actually prefer BJJ or Submission Grappling in the Olympics.