Do you think mix martial arts could ever become an Olympic sport?

Question

With Chicago and Rio de Janeiro in the running for the 2016 Olympics do you think one of those host city would introduce MMA as an olympic sport? Also how would they score the matches?

Answer 1

Never going to happen. Even if you held it to 16 competitors per division, you're looking at 4 fights in 2 weeks. That's not going to happen.

MMA has no governing body which can be amended but not quickly.

And it's too wide open. With the other olympic combat events, their are specific rules and judging criteria. This also does not exist in MMA.

1st point is best reason for why it won't happen though.

Answer 2

asked the same question a couple of weeks ago..heres the responses

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 3

I don't know where this myth got started where the host city gets to add a sport (the closest thing to this was Demonstration Sports, which were contested during the Olympics, but medals awarded did not count for anything (i.e. Gold Medalists were not called "Olympic Champions"), and were discontinued after the 1992 Olympics), but only the IOC determines which sports are contested during the Olympics.  The host city has absolutely no say in the matter.

MMA has several roadblocks to becoming an Olympic sport.

For starters, in order to become an IOC recognized sport, a sport must have unified rules and be united under a single International Federation (such as FIFA for Soccer, IAAF for Track and Field, etc.)

Then, the IOC must determine that the sport is played in 50 to 75 countries (50 for female sports, 75 for male sports) spread across 4 continents.

Finally, the IOC must vote to include the sport by a 2/3 majority.

MMA has not achieved any of these requirements, and is not going to for a long time.

Further, think of the differences between Boxing at the Professional and Olympic levels  MMA would have to go through the same changes, if not more.  MMA in the Olympics would require headgear, probably shin pads, and who know what other changes from the sport that we all know and love.

Also keep in mind that the IOC is made up of the same kind of prudes that call MMA Human Cockfighting, which presents a huge obstacle for inclusion.

Finally, they already have the list of sports that will be up for inclusion for the 2016 games:

Baseball, Softball (these two have been eliminated for 2012), Golf, Rugby, Squash, Roller Sports, and Karate.

Answer 4

Abu, the Olympic sport you speak of was Pankration.

It would be cool if MMA could ever be an Olympic sport, but since Wushu ( a "demo" sport this year) has struggled for years now and hasn't made it yet, it's doubtful MMA will make it in during our lifetime. We can be hopeful though!

Answer 5

I would love to see MMA as it is now introduced as an Olympic sport, but in all reality I think there is very little chance.  Look at what the Olympics has done to boxing and TKD.  They aren't the same sports / styles that you learn in training.  So if they did introduce it, I would hate to think what they would do to it to make it part of the "friendly" games.

Answer 6

no chance what so ever.even if there was the slightest chance the incident in Beijing in the tkd has certainly made sure mma wont get in.  

Answer 7

Me and my wife were just talking about that the other day. It would be awesome to have MMA in the Olympics.

I might be wrong but I think I heard somewhere that back in like ancient times there was a sport similar to MMA in the Olympics. I don't remember what they called it though.