OK, here's my rant - sorry if it bores you all but it's just something i wanna get off my chest, and maybe spark some sort of debate. Please remember, this is only my opinion and not gospel! Ha. After being involved in Martial Arts to some degree all my life (32 now), i regularly follow forums and the various MA publications, etc, and i am bewildered by the sheer number of World Bodies or Promotional Companies that are popping up all over the place, each one claims to be offering legitimate Area, National, International, European, Inter-continental, World, and god knows what else titles. Using Kickboxing as an example; is it any wonder that this great sport is not recognised by prestigious bodies such as the Olympics or Sport England, etc, when you have this mish-mash of dodgy bodies claiming to offer regulated, World Titles, yet when you dissect them they are nothing more than promotions companies that seem to operate wherever they can get a promoter who will 'organise' a title they just make up - using someone like the IKF as an example- a World Body that offers Area Titles in the USA and UK, yet almost nothing outside of these Countries! Strange- if you look at Boxing, a true World Sanctioning Body does not interfere with National Titles, etc, they only sanction World Titles. Now onto K/B World Titles: The WKA, ISKA, WAKO, IKF, WKBO, WASKO, WKU, WKF, WMAF, WFK, and many others, are all claiming to offer World Titles. Which body's title should fighters choose to compete for? How do you decide? Althou i personally rate the WKA abve others, when you look at their website it is a mess- they sanction/promote different kickboxing rules; points fighting (i personally hate that sport); Light Continuous Contact; Kata/Forms; Weapons Forms, blahdy-blah. How is kickboxing in general going to push forward and gain true recognition and TV exposure when it's leading Sanctioning Body is a Jack of all trades yet Master of none? The same thing is going on in almost all Martial Arts;- Muay Thai, LCS, Semi-Contact, Kata&Forms, MMA, etc. There is far too many bodies and promotional companies out there promoting nothing more than localised, or at most, National titles, that the Arts is always going to be in the shadow of the likes of Boxing. The MMA scene, for all the love i have for this sport (as well as kickboxing), is at the point where it is pretty much only the UFC that people are seeing - the domestic scene in the UK also has so many Promo Companies offering World and European Titles, it's almost ridiculous. W.A.M.M.A. (not BAMMA) tried to unify the major bodies to establish a true World Ratings System, but has almost collapsed because the UFC wanted no part, and they are the big boys because of TV exposure and funding. I dabbled with the idea of working with a few promoters to establish an Amateur MMA scene, but nothing could be agreed because of differing beliefs in rules and direction, finances, etc, so it was knocked on the head. One promoter has even went ahead with promoting regional amateur MMA under what i believe to be too watered down rules, which won't come to anything more than a local event. So, in conclusion;- Can anyone see a way out of this mess that the Martial Arts has got itself into? How can we see sports like Kickboxing and MMA into the Olympics, or even with true recognised champions? Will there be any true sanctioning bodies that only specialise in one sport of Martial Art? Anyway, that's my rant over. Sorry for dulling your brains. I know it's a bit sloppy, but I hope some of you appreciate my viewpoint and can offer some sort of opinion.
Admittedly I don't know much about the boxing sanctioning bodies world and can't speculate on how it's affecting the prospect of things your outlining but I don't think not having 1 true sanctioning body is harming the sport of MMA in terms of popularity. Also there is co promotion going on like the dream, strikeforce, M1 merger... UFC don't wanna play ball because they've pretty much got 80% of the top talent in their promotion alone, and their PPV's sometimes beat boxing (not bad for 15yrs of business). Alot of fans and pundits agree that BJ Penn, A silva, and GSP are the 1# fighters in their weight class worldwide and they UFC champions (also it's a toss up between Shogun and Machida in the LHW division who are both in the UFC. Thinking about it (and the reason for editing) maybe having the kind of thing your proposing would stop people from having to sign away their likeness to Dana and the UFC, but I'm also concerned that it would turn into the rigged and shady world of boxing. Is your concern that the possiblity of top tier amateur competition (ie. the olympics) is suffering? (Pankration used to be in the olympics that's pretty close to MMA)
Taekwondo has probably more associations and political in-fighting than any other combat sport yet it is recognised both by the IOC and Sport England. Just the way of the world I'm afraid. I think one solution is to declare a victor as being "a" world chamion and not "the" world champion.
Hey Dudelove, You've raised some very good points. You're right in the sense that the UFC has the majority of TV coverage and the volume of top fighters.- However, only the hardcore fan gets to see the 'rising' stars in other organisations when they hear of them through the grapevine etc and seek them out on Youtube or wherever. UFC/Pride/Dream/M1/StrikeForce are defo the top players, but take for example the UK where you have many, many little organisations claiming to hold World and European champions ( i wont mention any as i dont want to slag any particular organisation off) of whom most have never heard of the fighters. The Olympics, in my eyes, would be great if it featured Kickboxing & MMA sports. I read in an article online once that it would never happen due to the state of, or rather the lack of proper International Governance of the sports. I mentioned WAMMA, which truly could've been an opening into getting MMA represented in the Olympics, but the UFC doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Shame.
Great point Van Zandt. TKD does have a bloody lot of Associations and are still represented in the Olympics. I personally would've liked to have seen the ITF version of tournament sparring as opposed to WTF- that's down to the monotonous stop/starting throughout each match, and also the lack of punches, whereas i think ITF is more fun to watch. But it does go to show that with the correct governing body & leadership, it is possible to get into the Olympics. If memory serves me correct, Kickboxing was denounced from Sport England (or whatever the body was named at the time) at some point in the early 1990's, due to the lack of a professional body. Also, don't you think that having a dozen people in any category/division all claiming to be a World Champion lacks credibility to that sport?
I agree they should bring back [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IceYmEZfpVM"]pankration![/ame] MMA dudes should organize to get it back into the olympics, I think it would be really popular now (with the rising popularity of MMA).
For my 2 cents, TKD is in because it has a clear scoring system (as does Judo). I would wonder whether the Olympics has the stomach for anything more overtly violent. Notice that boxers wear full headgear, and frankly, I assume it's in because boxing was a "big" sport when the Olympics restarted. Just my opinion, I have no evidence... But I think the Olympics wants to be all high & aloof and perhaps avoid anything so guttural as no-holds barred combat. PS. I want to see the return of the Tug-of-War as an olympic event - we're the defending champions .
Atre- Maybe you're right and that would explain why they're being so difficult about getting kickboxing and MMA into the Games... I personally feel it's the shambolic nature of the ever-increasing number of bodies out there, and no collaboration to create a united Governing Body for either sport.
Which so ironic because in the original games the most popular event was Pankration. And the purpose was to show the gods each city states prowess in war.
Olympic boxing, TKD, and Judo. All jacked up rulesets. All but one have more or less completely replaced the original. I do not want to see MMA striking scored like olympic boxing. I don't want a bunch of politically, socially and fiscally minded rules like TKD and Judo. I personally feel that the olympics would ruin MMA if they ever accepted it. But really, it doesn't matter what you do. You can usually apply it to get a world title without competing against anyone outside your state.
I think we all have different ideas of what makes a world champion. For me it is a fighter who beats the best of the rest in his or her weight division. A fighter who comes first place at a single tournament should say exactly that - "1st place/gold medal winner at xxxx event." Take me for example. I won a gold medal in the men's flyweight (-58kg) sparring at the Taekwondo World Games. I've only done that once, so I say I won a gold medal at that event. I won't say I'm a world champion until I've done it another three or four times.
There've been a few discussions on MMA in the Olympics before. I think the general consensus is that it wouldn't be able to exist in its current form. The severity of the sport, with all the knockouts, cuts, and minor fractures, makes a week-long tournament format inappropriate. I could see some modifications being made, and maybe D- or C-class Shooto would be appropriate, but it wouldn't be the stuff we see in the UFC, WEC, or Dream. As for the initial idea of determining a true "world" champ, I just don't see it happening. I'd even argue that competing organizations are a good thing. During the Pride/UFC "wars", fighters had an option of going somewhere else and restarting a career.
