The times are changing. Long stigmatized as undesirable in the international sporting movement, MMA is gaining ground. There is no stopping the growth of its workforce. Above all, the opposition is showing signs of openness.
Norway and France, the last two countries where its practice was illegal, have chosen to lift their ban. The Norwegians took the plunge at the start of the year. The French should soon follow.
But the road remains long for the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF). The World Association of World Sports Federations (GAISF) still refuses recognition, claiming that it is not a signatory to the world anti-doping code. Failing to be accepted by the GAISF, the IMMAF cannot claim to be recognized by the IOC.
Present at the beginning of the month at SportAccord 2019, Kerrith Brown, president of IMMAF, answered questions from FrancsJeux.
FrancsJeux : How do you explain the refusal, year after year, of the GAISF to recognize you as an international sports federation?
Kerrith Brown : The answer is purely political. Until last year, we thought that MMA still needed to progress in its governance, its programs, its anti-doping policy, to claim recognition from the international sports movement. We worked. We followed all the instructions formulated by the GAISF one by one. Today we tick all the boxes. But nothing is moving forward. The truth is that MMA disturbs other combat sports already present in institutions. Some of their leaders hold important positions at GAISF and AMA. They are putting pressure on us to stay outside.
MMA would therefore be the victim of a form of conspiracy by other combat sports?
Quite. Facing us, their leaders are as one. They fear that we will compete with them, not only in terms of practitioners, but also commercially. We represent a danger, as interest in MMA is exploding around the world. People are addicted. Young people, in particular. If a vote were organized today among the international federations on the question of our recognition, we would leave even before the vote with a handicap of around fifteen votes.
You are sometimes criticized for a certain vagueness regarding the governance of MMA. Several international organizations claim authority…
Of course, but we are in a vicious circle. By refusing to recognize us, the GAISF favors this situation, because it gives ideas to other organizations. They say to themselves that they can in turn claim governance of the MMA. THE GAISF blames us for a situation that it encourages by its refusal to accept us.
How to get out of such an impasse?
By working even harder on our image. By continuing our lobbying effort. Even today, people too often associate amateur MMA with its professional side, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). The two worlds are, however, very far apart. At IMMAF, we have been developing education, coach training and anti-doping programs for several years… But clichés die hard.
Roxana Maracineanu, the French Minister of Sports, announced at the beginning of April her intention to legalize the practice of MMA. Did you expect this progress?
We were not aware of Roxana Maracineanu's position on MMA. But we expected its legalization in France sooner. We were hoping for it last fall. Laura Flessel, the former Minister of Sports, was in favor of it. She traveled to Canada to see how MMA is practiced and taught in clubs and gyms. She spoke with coaches. She also knew that the French were achieving good results, but that they were forced by law to fight only abroad. She wanted to put an end to the ban on MMA in France, but she resigned from her post as minister.
The process of legalizing the practice of MMA in France should go through an intermediate stage, where the discipline will be overseen by an already existing national federation. Jean-Luc Rougé, the president of the French Judo Federation, has applied. However, he has never hidden his opposition to the legalization of MMA…
It's true. But we have nothing against him, nor against the French Judo Federation. They did their job, they protected their territory. In principle, we would be very favorable to MMA being overseen by judo. The French federation is very powerful, it has an excellent training and education program. We could benefit greatly from it. But there is no question of French judo taking the opportunity to change our rules. We don't want to see MMA fought on a tatami mat.
