Dana White, President of UFC, says he wants to see MMA added as a sport in the Olympics. “We’ve probably been working on that for like three or four or five years,” he said on ESPN SportsCenter tonight. “But we should be, I mean we absolutely should be. I mean, they have judo which uses submissions and choke holds. They have boxing which you can punch to the body and head. The have tae kwon do where you can use kicks and punches. So everything we do is already an Olympic sport, so it makes sense.”
Keller’s Analysis: Sure, why not? He makes the case that all of these separate disciplines are in the Olympics, and MMA is a combination of all of them. It would likely help ratings and raise the profile of the sport. I can only imagine the outcry among the older sports reporters that this brutal blood sport is being added to the “pristine” Olympic mix. I don’t think it’ll happen soon, but as the younger generation that has grown up with MMA as part of the sports landscape, I could see the majority opinion changing in favor.
[Thanks to Robert Vallejos for sending in the above quote.]
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