This is the first in a two-part series about why the NCAA should add MMA as an officially sanctioned sport.
Mixed martial arts has been dubbed the “fastest growing sport in the world.”
It is a sport with ancient roots, dating back to the art of Pankration practiced by ancient Greek warriors.
In its modern form MMA started to reach high level publicity in 1993, with the creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Its debut saw practitioners of different martial arts compete against each other in “no holds barred fighting” to prove once and for all which martial art is the most effective in real life combat.
Boxers battled wrestlers, karate black belts squared off against judo black belts and even sumo wrestlers tried their hands (and bellies) at the brand new idea in combat sports.
Eventually fighters competing in MMA began to evolve, cross training in different styles. Boxers learned how to wrestle and wrestlers learned how to box.
It came to the point where MMA was no longer an expo to see which style of fighting was superior, but a legitimate sport where equal athletes went to battle with one another.
Twenty years since its inception, the sport can be seen on Pay-Per-View, on TV networks such as FOX and in regional events near your hometown. More and more athletes are choosing to train in MMA rather than venture into traditional American sports like baseball, basketball and football.
It is time for colleges in America to capitalize on this sport’s surging popularity and make MMA an NCAA sanctioned sport. I am willing to offer three valid reasons that the NCAA should make MMA an official sport under their banner.
For one, as already stated, the sport is rapidly gaining popularity. It is growing both by the number of athletes who participate in the sport, and the number of spectators.
The main audience comes from the 18-34 age range, which is perfect since college students are mostly in this demographic.
If you need proof of this statement of popularity, go up to 10 American male teenagers and ask them who Anderson Silva or Georges St-Pierre are. Chances are the majority of them will tell you that they are two of the baddest men walking the face of God’s green earth.
While the obvious gender target is males, MMA is becoming more and more popular with females. In fact the UFC’s most recent Pay-Per-View event featured the first ever women’s championship fight in the main event.
Also the sport is spreading across the maps, as it is currently sanctioned by 46 states, with the remaining states pushing for change in legislation. In addition to America,
MMA is extremely popular in Brazil, Japan and Canada, and is even starting to spread into Europe and India.
On another note the sport is not only growing, but becoming more profitable.
UFC 148: Silva vs Sonnen II, was the UFC’s biggest event of 2012, raking in around 1 million Pay-Per-View buys. This kind of interest and money could do great things for colleges that instated MMA programs.
Cheyene Miller is a journalism freshman and MMA fighter. Email opinions@kykernel.com.
This is perhaps the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. I’ve been an MMA fan since the 1990s and follow this stuff religiously. Still, I know having MMA in college is a bad idea. First and foremost, people get hurt. Hurt people requires medical attention/expenses. Hurt people requires time to recover. Hurt people means expensive doctor bills, absences from class, and injuries that could plague someone from now on. MMA is something best left to the professionals. Just because this stuff is everyone nowadays does not mean every guy walking down the street is some sort of bad ass and should give it a try. People wind up with life altering injuries (e.g., facial features change, joints/bones are never the same, etc.) and none of this bodes well for someone looking for a career in which they use their brain. Taking shots to the head will not make you smarter. This works in juxtapose to the entire purpose of going to college. For the NCAA to sanction something that is completely at odds with the entire purposes of higher education to begin with would be absolutely ridiculous. That said, your argument makes no sense among those of reasonable intelligence, and quite frankly, it demonstrates a very immature and naive perspective in that just because something is popular/trendy we should do it. That is absurd.
I totally agree with this idea and feel it would provide a wonderful forum for legitimate athletes to compete in this sport. As far as injuries, the statistics for life-altering injuries are much higher for those that play football and soccer, and there will be injuries in any contact sport. Having noted that, this doesn’t stop universities and colleges from providing the wide range of sports activities that make college life so much more interesting, for both the participant and the spectator. Because of the growing interest in MMA, there are children and teenagers who are becoming proficient in wrestling, boxing, and martial arts of various forms who have no avenue for obtaining scholarships for these skills when they are combined to create an MMA fighter. Their years of sacrifice and dedication should be rewarded by an opportunity to continue competeting in the sport that they so love…with scholarship money to boot!
Well, as a huge fan of MMA I would love to see it adopted as a collegiate sport. The athletes that are in this sport have to be well-trained in many areas and it takes an enormous amount of skill, practice, and patience to become an MMA fighter. I would enjoy seeing high school students who are martial artists have the same opportunities for collegiate level competitions, and scholarships as other athletes are given. I think this could be an exciting addition to the collegiate sports scene.
Great idea for MMA fighters to finally get the recognition that they deserve at an earlier stage in the game. Injuries are going to occur in any sport. I love watching these super athletes perform and compete. And yes, since universities are always looking at ways of bringimg revenue to their schools…this would work.
I have to cover my eyes when I read comments from “longtime MMA Fans” who claim to be experts. We were profiled in Januarys ESPN Magazine, Interviewed on Head Line News in February, HBO’s Bryant Gumbels show, Real Talk just filmed two of our shows and interviewed a bunch of parents and kids. Amateur MMA is called Pankration. You can NOT hit the head, so there are not “knockouts”-no head trauma. You can’t hit behind the centerline of the body, (middle of rib cage towards back) so there is no kidney, liver, major internal organs, trauma. The highest head trauma sport, Girls soccer. Remember Nick Buoniconti’s son who was injured and became a paraplegic? He was playing football. MMA for Kids or REAL Amateurs? Injuries are sprained knees, accidental bloody nose from a shoulder, I see WAYYYYYY more blood at kids wrestling tournaments, and I’ve been a USA Wrestling Referee for ovr 20 years. Kids Pankration, or Pankration in College? Absolutely, with International rules, much safer than baseball (Head/Eye), Cheer Leading (wild basket toss injuries) Girls soccer (leading sport for head trauma in the US) Don’t believe me? Do some research, under a real organization with real rules, not gym “smokers” or bar matches, safety is the first rule. And yes, I am a real authority speaking, not an expert “fan”. Ok, I guess I am a fan, who is an expert.
I apologize, did not want to quote my organizations name for fear of someone saying I was trying to gain publicity, but it was pointed out, knowedge can never be a bad thing. I am with US Fight League. Our videos, rules, etc can be accessed at fightleague.org We are sanctioning the US Police and Fire Championships in San Diego, come May, and the World Police and Fire Championships in Virginia later this year. In May, we are also sanctioning, the US Military MMA (Amateur Pankration Championships) at Camp Pendleton, California. We get all branches of the Armed Forces from all over the world competing in this event. And also in May, in Louisiana, we are supporting the World Team Trials and the National Pankration Championships. I did mention that I was a fan, and an expert. I am the Vice President of US Fight League, and a Chief Referee.