agreed

I don’t know anything about amateur MMA, and your statement about headgear is very surprising to me. I think two fun questions that go along with this topic are: What do you think the chances are of a Collegiate MMA league in the future? What is the current/future state of amateur MMA, is it being used as a legitimate stepping stone to turning pro for young people, or is it more for the casual MMAist?

If you want a valid comparison, look at the NHL and Olympic hockey. NHL teams are thrown to the four corners every four years, with teammates competing against each other, and nobody comes back yelling that their NHL team is better than another because it has a gold medalist who scored against their goallie.

Adding Brazilian Jiujitsu is a good start. If you look at the history of Judo and TKD, they first became National and then International sports before they were allowed into the Oympics. MMA has not officially reach that status, but BJJ has – It is both a National and International sport.

As far as the Brazilians, who do you think they fight against in Brazil? They fight all the time. What they don’t like to do is fight memebers of their camps\teams, regardless of nationality.

I think they think it would appear far too violent to the general public. It would shock people and have an adverse effect on the Olympic image (to the general public). Yes, the general public would think it far more violent than TKD, wrestling, judo and boxing. Facts don’t count for much, perception is paramount.

About age limits in Olympic soccer, see:
http://spanish.hanban.edu.cn/english/2005/Dec/151458.htm. 2008 and forward is U-23. Prior was U-23 with 3 players allowed to be older.

The point about age limits is that, in soccer, it’s done to avoid competition with the major pro leagues. Yes, there are players under 23 in pro soccer, but the limit makes it clear that the Olympics is for ‘amateurs’ (by loose definition).

Similarly, if Olympic MMA were, for example, an u-21 event, the prospect of a Chuck/Wanderlei or other mega-fight being taken away from promoters would be removed.

I do think that an U-21 arrangement would be good for the sport. For one, the sport would get exposure on an international level. Would the fighters be the best in the world? No, but neither were/are the Ultimate Fighter contestants and we know what that program’s exposure and human interest stories did for the sport.

Also, the development of national MMA federations and a structured development path for young fighters would be helpful in building the stars of tomorrow and elevating the quality of mixed martial artists overall.

Maybe an organization with a good amount of high-quality fighters could do this? I’d buy three separate UFC pay-per-views with a “USA vs Brazil vs Japan vs Canada,” theme to them, or “North America vs South America,” or whatever. That would be incredible.

1. Amateur athletes make the games better. You have NBA player’s competing yes, but you also have the best player’s from around the world who are in the NBA as well repping’ their countries too.

2. MMA does not have an off season like a lot of other sports. Fighter’s go months between fight’s but train almost every single day. They need to be ready on moment’s notice at times.

3. Marital Arts have been around for centuries. MMA has been around for less than 20 years. There have been NHB events, Vale Tudo matches and the like around longer than that so I am technically wrong but MMA has evolved a lot over the year’s. A lot of people still do not know what to think when they see a MMA fight, some wouldn’t know what to call it or what it is. But, show them guys like Bruce Lee, Van Damme, Jackie Chan, Segal and they’ll say, “I thought they did Karate?”.

People just don’t realize just how many styles of fighting can be brought into the mix when competing in MMA.

I think it’s better when you have all the aspect’s of MMA competing like Karate, Taekwondo, wrestling. Afterwards, the athletes, when they’re ready, have something else to fall back on. Some turn out to be Champion’s ya’ know?

4. Brazil – Sam, you hit the nail on the head. Brazilian’s don’t like to fight one another a whole lot. Unless they really have to. Called it respect, honor, patroitism – whatever. When it comes to MMA, they’ll except it and do what is needed, same as jits. But for the Olympic’s – I don’t know man. However, Jiu-Jitsu in the Olympics would be an excellent addition and I’m all for that.

Is Sambo an Olympic sport, Sam? That’s it for me now. What do you think about my take here?

But let’s say you are correct about age restrictions… and I’m not trying to offend younger mixed martial artists, but how will sending nothing but fighters under the age of 21 help the sport of MMA grow? You see, you can play soccer when you’re 6, 10, 13, or 16 and all ages in between. The VAST MAJORITY of those who are involved in MMA do not start training until after high school. If you throw a bunch of green fighters out there then it’s going to look bad.

In regards to your point about boxing, you are comparing apples to oranges. For one, there are many that will disagree with your assertion that headgear makes MMA safer. I’ve competed in headgear and I can tell you that as far as MMA is concerned, headgear actually can make things more dangerous.

Even with headgear, fighters will still be taking damage. You also have to take into account submissions and ground and pound. Headgear is only going to help so much if someone is absorbing a ton of punishment caused by 4-7 ounces gloves.

Re: use of amateurs, Olympic soccer is restricted to under-23 players. This type of age restriction (maybe it’s 21 for mma) is one way to establish Olympic eligibility without significantly affecting the commercial interests.

Re: tournament format, Olympic boxing is already held in a multi-day tournament format. Yes, they use headgear, but they did not always use it – Ali, Frazier, and Foreman won their gold medals without headgear. And, no reason Olympic MMA could not use headgear and shin protectors if safety were a big concern.