UFC President Dana White wants to see the sport of MMA take the next step in becoming a global enterprise and an Olympic sport.
White and the UFC are just days away from hosting one of the year’s biggest cards overseas in Singapore. UFC 275 will be headlined by a light heavyweight title matchup between Glover Teixeira and Ji?í Procházka.
As the world turns a corner with the COVID-19 pandemic, White wants to return to more-regular international events for the UFC. The promotion is scheduled to return to London later this summer and make its first trip to Paris.
While MMA is arguably one of the top sports in the world as is, White feels that making MMA an Olympic sport would help both sides of the conversation.
“I think it should be an Olympic sport already,” White said. “It’s not my job. It’s not what I’m looking to do. I’m not pushing to turn this thing into an Olympic sport. I agree with whoever said that, yes. And not to mention the fact that one of the big problems the Olympics is having right now, is viewership. You want viewers? Put MMA in the Olympics.” (h/t MMA Junkie)
This isn’t the first time that White or other UFC personalities have spoken out in favor of making MMA an Olympic entity. In 2020, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov shared his goal to make MMA part of the Olympic Games by 2028.
The endorsements from White and Nurmagomedov could help propel MMA to the Olympic stage sooner rather than later.
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