MMA a legitimate Sport?

Darkwarrior

Hi Guys,

Before i start what will hopefully be an interesting thread to everyone who regularly visits this forum i'd just like to clarify that YES I know MMA is a Sport as I do train in MMA(try to anyway) and YES .... I know everyone is sick of the Sport or Human Cockfighting debates (me included) so I hope this thread doesn't turn into one, I think most of the people who'll read this are MMA fans anyway so without further ado.......

My question to all who visit this forum MMA and non MMA people alike is:

Do you think the sport of Mixed Martial Arts would benefit from a world governing body (Like FIFA in football) and a unified set of rules for the sport??

The reason I ask is because many people (Martial Artists included) that i meet don't understand or just don't agree with the fact that in MMA, rules vary from promotion to promotion.
(I.E. UFC allow elbows, Pride don't, but allow you kick or stamp a guy's head when he is downed)

I've thought about this a lot and I think it would help a great deal because:

A. As far as i know most professional sports have a standard set of rules that all organizations promoting those sports must adhere to i.e. The WBC in Boxing uses the same rules as the WBO or the IBF don't they? (Correct me if i'm wrong).

B. With MMA being one of the fastest growing sports in the world both in terms of practitioners and spectators, the people pushing the sport since day one have almost won the battle to have it recognized as a credible sport. Surely now is the time for promoters and fighters to agree on a standard set of rules for all promotions to abide by and finally put to rest the sport or human cockfighting debate.

C. Hopefully it would lead to better pay and overall treatment for professional fighters. There hopefully wouldn't be as many of the Chris Brennan Vs Dana White or Tito Vs Dana White arguments over pay and the fans would likely get to see many of the fights that we've missed out on because of similar arguments. Maybe Pride Vs UFC could actually happen. Fedor Vs Arlovski for the undisputed HW world title anyone?? An MMA World Cup???
IMHO it aint gonna happen without a unified set of rules!

Please respond to this with whatever ou're thoughts on the subject are and if YOU were to choose the set rules for professional MMA as a sport....

...what would YOUR rules be???

Thanks to anyone who bothered to read all of this and thanks in advance to anyone who posts an opinion:D , I wanna know what people have to say on this one.

MaxBax

The WBC in Boxing uses the same rules as the WBO or the IBF don't they? (Correct me if i'm wrong).

don;t think so. slightly different afaik.

in answer to your question, - would "MMA" benefit by being governed by a single body and having a single set of rules?

In theory, yes, Sure why not. in practice, n0.

Colm_OReilly

In practice, no, why Max?

Most sports that have a unified governing body are Olympic sports, applicant Olympic sports, or at the very least conform to WADA guidelines.

At the moment MMA is way too young a sport. There's so many associations around and promotions but none with the authority or financial power big enough to impose a ruleset on the others. Also, establishing a governing body would take a massive amount of time and money, not to mention the politics.

When the IRB (Rugby) was set up it was a huge struggle, as England wouldn't go along with it. In the end they had to have more members on the council than the other founding nations.

Yes, it would benefit, as all sports do. Do I see it happening anytime soon? No.

MaxBax

we're not talking about just the ufc and pride. there are numerous other organisations. secondly, different fighters make different uses of different rule sets. why would shogun and silva want to fight ufc rules when they're better at pride rules. why would a muay thai practioneer fight san shou rules?

mma is like pro boxing, it's a sport, but it's all about the money. maybe someone would say, soccer is all about the money. but you have to remember joe bloggs plays soccer, joe pro boxer fan, probably doesn't box at the weekends. i don't think there is room for promoters to stay loyal to fighters that don't entertain. ah. nevermind.

Niall Keane

not an mma man myself but I think Max is right, my own experience is in san shou, (and all the waring organisations that entails) how do you establish which organisation is the official one and only, ufc or pride? and who's rules to apply, even if both organisations were to merge and adopt a single set of rules people would only leave and set up something else to replace the losing rule set. Like Max says about San Shou and Muay Thai, I spend half my training time on throws, I'd be a bit pissed if they suddenly became redundant. Can understand your frustration though, sometimes I never know until arriving at a comp whether there's head gear or not, whether elbows and knees are allowed or whether hand wraps or bandages are allowed or prohibited (it seems to depend on the promoters insurance) but isn't it all part of the fun????

dlofnep

There will never be a governing body and I'll explain why. Not all countries need one. There will be conflicts between organisations between differences of rules. While the cage might appeal to thosei n the states, the ring might be better suited to those in Japan. Also, the round length and knees/stomps take away the arsenal of some if they were ti switch organisations.

It's an idea to have a world body but it's not practical giving the differences between each organisation. I don't think there will ever be one. Not in the near future anyway.

fianna.5u.com

It is 110% legit. It would benifit from a governing body or at least unified titles.

Peace

Roper

Unified titles are defo the way to go. Do you think a lot of the undercard fighters on UFC would get on well in Pride?

Darkwarrior

Niall Keane wrote:

how do you establish which organisation is the official one and only, ufc or pride? and who's rules to apply, :

Answer: You don't establish either UFC, Pride or any other organisation as the one and only. If a governing body for the sport were in place then all the promotions would abide by their rules i.e. the same rules for Pride, UFC, Shooto etc. Each organisation would still have their own titles and champions and perhaps once every two or three or four years like in other sports, MMA's governing body could stage a world cup type event with the top seeds from every promotion fighting it out for undisputed world champion titles!
Yeah it may not happen anytime soon but if the heads of MMA promotions could get around a table then its definitely very feasible, although I agree it might not happen for ages or not at all.

Also, I've never heard Wand or Shogun moan about there being no elbows in Pride. Wand has also fought UFC rules aswell and full Vale Tudo rules.

If MMA continues with differing rules for every promotion, then officially people could say they are all different sports!

Clive

MMA needs to follow the example of boxing, IMHO. You'll never get competing professional organisations to come together and agree rules, titles etc.

However, unified amateur rules, NGBs for amateurs and an amateur International Federation are a (distant) possibility, as boxing has.

I also think that people are approaching this from the wrong direction (top down from Pride, UFC etc). Such an organisation would have to start at a grassroots level, with individual clubs, athletes and organisations coming together to form, join and support a National Governing Body. Only when several countries reach this level could any sort of International Federation be considered, and all the bargaining that would go with it. Once that was in place, countries with a developing scene would have a framework to work within.

Roper

Clive is correct.

Colm_OReilly

Clive is always correct

Roper

Not this time. This time he's wrong.

Oh sh1t no wait he's correct.