Professional Fighters League CEO Peter Murray explains why he believes MMA should be added as an Olympic sport.
Tuesday 13 July 2021 17:59, UK
Martial arts were part of the ancient Olympics and will feature prominently in Tokyo. But is it time for mixed martial arts to become an Olympic Sport?
CEO of the Professional Fighters League, Peter Murray, is unequivocal: "Absolutely. You've got five combat sports in the Olympics. I'm excited that this is the first year karate has been introduced into the Olympic Games. And it's a given that MMA with 550-million-plus fans should be there," he told Sky Sports.
Murray's conviction about MMA being entered to the programme comes from two perspectives - that of supporters of MMA and that of the practitioners.
"There's an underserved fan base," Murray added. "And there's an underserved fighter base. Around the world in 160 countries there are athletes in MMA and they are underrepresented.
"They deserve that global stage at The Olympics, so we are a big advocate to grow and advance the sport and we think that The Olympic movement will play a part in that for sure."
"From the fighters' standpoint, Murray says MMA is more likely to offer a fruitful professional career than sports like taekwondo, wrestling and judo - so why not include MMA in the grand summit of amateur sport?
"We have Kayla Harrison, a two-time gold medallist in judo, boxer Claressa Shields and we have many wrestlers and more to come. Certainly MMA is an outlet for many Olympic athletes as they look to go pro. But this is a sport certainly deserving of the Olympic space and we believe we have the format to deliver MMA to the Olympics and we're having conversations with federations."
It remains to be seen whether MMA makes it to the Olympics, but Murray has his agenda currently full with the 2021 PFL season approaching the playoffs. The concept of a season while standardised in many sports is a relatively new framework in the combat world that's generally structured as a rolling series of one-off fight nights, but Murray says it's been a gamechanger in terms of bringing clarity and certainty to those two key groups - fighters and fans.
"The true differentiator is we're the only MMA organisation to present the sport that way where individual fighters have the opportunity to compete in a regular season, playoff and a championship. And they earn their way," Murray said.
"It's built on meritocracy. It's a proven format for all major sports from the Premier League, The NFL and NBA. We set out on this journey in 2017. We launched the league in 2018 and it's really taking hold with fans and it's easy to program, easy to follow."
The structure does bring welcome certainty to combat sports fans perennially frustrated by big matchups not materialising due to promotional or financial complications - see Anthony Joshua versus Tyson Fury in boxing and Francis NGannou v Jon Jones in the UFC. But it also centres the fighters' focus on fighting not developing a social media following - PFL competitors earn opportunities via performances and results alone.
"Most importantly, it's all in the fighters' hands. Fighters earn their way. It's not about trash talk, so you do your talking in the cage and the fans are assured the best are going to fight against the best in the post season and you've got a million-dollar bag on the line for the championship."
