Fertitta: MMA will eventually be part of the Olympics
Lorenzo Fertitta: “If someone had told the Olympic committee 20 years ago that their number one program would be snowboarding and half pipe, they would probably think they were crazy.”
The first ancient Olympic Games was held in 776 BC. It began with a single event, the stade, a 200-yard foot race. This was the only event for the first 13 Games.
In the 18th Olympiad, in 708 BC, wrestling (pale) was added. In 648 BC mixed martial arts (pankration) was added.
With various additions, the Olympics continued for over 1,000 years, until in 394 AD, when it was banned by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, as part of his campaign to impose Christianity in Rome.
When the Olympics were reborn in Athens in 1896, pankration was missing, because while boxing and wrestling had flourished, through some quirk of history, mixed martial arts had not. However, that has changed.
Boxing, judo and taekwondo are in the 2016 Rio Olympics? already. UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta spoke recently with BBC World Service? about MMA becoming an Olympic sport. It is not nearly as far fetched as it sounds.
“The Olympics are a business and they want to attract younger viewers for all these big television deals,” said Fertitta, as transcribed by GCO New.
“Where we’re going with UFC, eventually we will be part of the Olympics.”
“There is actually a body called the IMMAF, the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, which has been created.”
“They have around 50-60 countries now part of that association and they are pushing to try and get Mixed Martial Arts involved in the Pan American Games and eventually the Olympics.
“If someone had told the Olympic committee 20 years ago that their number one program would be snowboarding and half pipe, they would probably think they were crazy, but that’s where we are today because that’s what the kids want to watch – and that’s where we are going.”