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Better support first, the ones we already have that have been left abandoned for years – if not for decades.
That would be a good start and not before time.
I don’t think the lad attitude towards other sports should be an excuse to exclude MMA. When MMA gets us medals in the various Olympic martial arts will we provide funding then? Or maybe when croke parks fills out for a super card with the UFC? There are roughly 100 mma clubs in Ireland now we cannot let this go unoticed
MMA is not going to get us medals in various Olympic martial arts. That’s just delusional.
I can count 6 Olympic medal owners in the UFC at the moment. There are 2 at least in Bellator & I know of 1 in One FC. Some MMA gyms also train fighters for the Olympics & many fighters take time off to go for a run in their favoured martial art. It’s just delusional the brush off a perfectly good point, especially when even if my point was delusional the sports council have an obligation to help all sports that promote a healthy lifestyle, social inclusion & mindfulness. The MMA gym I go to runs yoga classes & has mental health seminars with experts in their field.
I can count 3 currently on the ufc roster. And not one of them went from mma Into wrestling or judo etc. They were alll wrestlers or judoka before they went into mma. So what’s your point? Name one person who trained purely mma before gokng into olympic level wrestling or judo. You won’t be able to because there are none. Your mma gym has some shrinks. So what? You’re mma gym runs yoga classes. So what? It charges money for all of those things. It’s a business.
Yoel Romero fought in MMA at an amateur level before his Olympic career. That’s not my point anyway. My point is Olympic standard athletes train in mma gyms whether it’s for mma or for a single martial art. You say so what? I say why not. Mental health is a massive issue in sport and the more sports that cover this angle the better. This sport deserves irish sports council funding as it’s like all other sports in Ireland. How about you name me a good reason why it doesn’t deserve funding? (I’ll reply with something better than so what)
Who cares about Olympic medals ?
This is a disciplined form of exercise a lot of young people are interested in. Surely that’s a good thing? Promote it.
That’s a complete fabrication . Romero is Cuban. He’s be doing wrestling through state sponsored wrestling programmes since he could barely walk. He’s pushing 40 so it’s doubtful MMA even existed in Cuba when he was growing up.
.’ My point is Olympic standard athletes train in mma gyms whether it’s for mma or for a single martial art.’
Your point is irrelevant really. None of those olympic level athletes train for those disciplines in MMA gyms. They train for them in wrestling academies, judo dojos etc.
‘How about you name me a good reason why it doesn’t deserve funding? (I’ll reply with something better than so what)’
I replied ‘so what’ because of the irrelevancy of the point. They don’t allocate funding on the basis of mental health or yoga classes.
As has already being stated, there’s a finite amount of funding so it has to be used carefully. So sports such as boxing were we have a decent chance of medalling in Olympics or those that are of national importance like GAA etc. are going to receive the lion’s share.
MMA is not an olympic sport, and as you already stated there are now over 100 gyms, so it’s doing okay without government funding.
‘
Maybe you should do some research on the sport before pretending to know everything about it. There’s more gyms due to the national interest in the sport & to suggest all these gyms are doing well for themselves goes to show you’ve no idea why the mma community is looking for funding.
I never suggested they were all doing well. In any field you can think of not every entity is going to be doing well. To suggest otherwise would be insane That’s life. Some business sink, some swim.
As for your suggestion, I;m quietly confident I’ve been taking part in martial arts and being a fan of MMA for longer they you. But at no time did I claim to know everything about it.
This is a professional sport and therefore should seek funding from private sources…
There is both professional and amateur sides to mma (like Boxing) so I don’t see a problem on funding the amateur side (like boxing)
And that tweet was for that tossed Ellis you goone
Shockin’ excuse for a sport and if you fund that why not the travelers bare knuckle or O’Connell Street Saturday Fight Nights. #FundItMeArse
One biggest sports in the world right now and biggest sport that the Irish are known for now. I will be very surprised if it is not funded..its easily one of biggest upcoming sports in ireland right now. There are small minority people who don’t see skill that’s involved and thinks it’s just people scrapping therfore dislike it but they can moan all they want while sport grows around the world and the Irish are at the front.
It is not a sport.When you have to drought blood from another hymen been
MMA is utterly barbaric. How it can be viewed as a sport is beyond comprehension. If you saw the same happening in the street, you would call the Guards.
If I slid tackled a Garda I’d be arrested..
If i hammer fisted a mugger i would be a hero
Yes, just as you would if you saw a group of 18st men on grafton street charging at each other with a ball and driving each other to the ground. Context is everything.
Henry, I always think the “if it happened on the street” argument is a bit pointless. if you saw somebody execute a high speed rugby tackle on the street you would call the Guards.
Your point still stands though. While I don’t wish to denigrate what is a very technical sport, you have to wonder should the state sponsor people to beat the living crap out of each other in a (virtually) no holes barred fashion? Yes, the Sports Council does sponsor boxing, but amateur boxing only, which has numerous safety controls.
Its really not much different from any combat sport, The injuries are minimum compared to any balls sport, especially rugby. The people competing are usually very respectful, which you don’t see in football either.
but i could ramble on and compare it with other sports all day but whats best is if you go and educate yourself on the topic, then return with an actual argument
Although every MMA fighting organization has its own specific rules, some universal no-no’s do exist. They’re listed in the Unified Rules of MMA, but here’s a quick look at what’s not allowed:
No groin attacks.
No knees to the head on a grounded opponent.
No strikes to the back of the head or the spine.
No head butts. (Sorry, soccer fans.)
No eye gouging.
No fish hooking.
No fingers in an opponent’s orifices. (Eww!)
No biting.
No hair pulling. (Besides, that’s so second grade.)
No strikes or grabbing of the throat.
No manipulation of the fingers or toes.
No intentional grabbing of the ring or cage.
No intentional throwing of your opponent outside of the ring or cage. (That stuff belongs in professional wrestling.)
This is only a sample of the numerous rules in place
“No head butts. (Sorry, soccer fans.)”
Since when is headbutting allowed in Soccer?!?
Adam was attempting humour there, it didn’t work with any of his one liners
lot of effort for few green thumbs
@Assel….or arrested in this country!
You are an idiot.
The Irish Sports Council should provide funding for MMA…and ball room dancing. If you want to tackle the obesity epidemic, then we have to encourage more people to play sport and provide them with the facilities. The big sports: GAA, Soccar and Rugby are well reosurceed already. Its time to cater for the folk who aren’t into field sports.
Let MMA become an Olympic sport before we even think of funding it. There are countless sports looking for funding for years where Ireland could win a medal. Lets fund sports that are in the Olympics before we put money into sports the Olympics have not recognized. Gambling and television already put a lot of money into MMA lets put the states money into sports where it is needed and can provide Ireland with more gold medals.
Let’s stop funding the gaa then, till it gets into the Olympics
Since when did being an Olympic sport become the measure of how worthy a sport is for funding?
In that case why don’t we stop funding Gaelic football, hurling, 15 a side rugby.
It is fast becoming the new Queensbury Rules for the 21st Century.
We already have brilliant infrastructure and some extremely devoted participants who can go on to teach it to the next generation. It wouldn’t be a waste of government money to promote it if Ireland wants to continue performing on a world stage.
Hold on now. MMA stands for ‘Mixed’ Martial Arts. This means they have combined Boxing, Judo, May Thai, Karate & many more. I’D say MMA funding would provide help to several Olympic disciplines if not nearly a dozen. MMA funding can get Ireland multiple medals in various individual martial arts
Be flippin’ sweet if the GAA was in the Olympics, it’d be a guaranteed bronze medal.
There’s MMa and olympic level Tae Kwan Do, Judo, boxing and wrestling. That’s the 4 olympic sports that mma incorporates amongst other non olympic ones. Karate and muay thai are not olympic sports. I haven’t a clue a dozen from. However funding MMA which is completely different to any of those sports individually is not going to help you win medals in the Olympics. That’s just a complete ly misleading argument.
If you go to MMA gyms they train individual martial arts more so than the combination. I’m not saying mma is the go to place for an Olympic medal but I think it’s very negative to rule out the possibility. Who’s to say Ben Askren or Dan Henderson isn’t teaching a star wrestler destined for the Olympics in their respective gyms right now?
They train individual martial arts with techniques tailored for use in an MMA fight. They don’t train wrestling or tae kwan do techniques that are useless in an MMA fight.
So your argument is we should allocate MMA national funding on the basis of something that might happen here, where the spot is very young, even though it’s never happened in places Japan, Brazil and USA where the sport is far older?
‘Who’s to say Ben Askren or Dan Henderson isn’t teaching a star wrestler destined for the Olympics in their respective gyms right now?’
I’m going to say it. Because I can tell you right now the next star wrestler is being bred in a high school wrestling programme , just like evey other wrestler who medalled in the Olympics that came out of the States.
Are we still funding the GAA or is it self funding? The GAA is a bit different as its cultural, dating back to the formation of the state for GAA and a lot older for the hurling. Fifteen a side rugby is already an Olympic sport.
Since MMA contains multiple parts of the sports that have eligibility for Olympic medals then lets put money into those sports so at least we have some hope of getting a medal. Once MMA is eligible for an olympic medal then we can start to fund it in the same way as other sports.
I’m sorry Ellis but yes they do. I did a Judo class yesterday where it was tailored for judo, no mention of mma nor any techniques used were for mma. As I’ve said on this threat already you should do some research/ get some experience before splurring out shite
Thread*
So you went into an MMA gym, put on a gi and started training Judo techniques that have no use in MMA.
Please post the name of the gym so people know to avoid it. And I say that as someone who practiced Judo.
‘As I’ve said on this threat already you should do some research/ get some experience before splurring out shite’
Splurring shite is claiming that funding mma gyms can help us win an olympic medal in Tae Kwan Do, but you’ve seem to have that line of argument and resorted to Ad Hominems instead.
@ brian boru admittedly I don’t know the breakdown of the funding if any the GAA receive but I can categorically tell you 15 a side rugby is not an Olympic sport and hasn’t been since 1924 and Rugby 7s is only being introduced for the first time at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
How much funding does the GAA?
UFC isn’t a sport, it’s a self governing entertainment brand much like the WWE. It’s of no relevance to a sports council.
Right you are Rochelle; UFC is not a sport. Mixed martial arts (MMA) however, is a sport.
Seen as the poll question is concerned with mixed martial arts your mentioning of the UFC is irrelevant.
Every sport is a self governing entertainment brand. Not a good argument at all.
It’s not self-governed, the UFC adheres to the rules of the state athletic commissions which is under direct control of the the US government. The UFC does self-regulate their shows outside the US though, but they adopt the athletic commission regulations to a tee for these shows.
If Ireland wishes mma to be safer then they should appoint a commission via the sports council ( and provide some funding of course)
Looks to be doing perfectly fine by itself, thank you very much.
The gyms struggle big time for costs. Yes there’s sbg with the mcgregor pay cheques to look forward to but many across dublin are being forced further and further away from spiraling rents. My nearest gym is 7km away and there’s dozens of mma practicioners in my area.
Agree with Colm – introducing politics to mma would add a whole layer of lobbying and inappropriate appointments (Successful gym owners like John Kavanagh would be having to beg from the likes of Kieran Mulvey and Bernard Allen on the sports council). Take boxing, even though it is our most reliable Olympic sport, clubs and gyms are struggling with recycled punchbags while the sports council are sitting on good wages and divying out cash to those clubs that lick up to Michael Ring.
As it stands, the gyms that run MMA/BJJ are able to train a huge amount of people who are willing to contribute membership fees, and while clubs like SBG are obviously the better ones, given time they will all start producing championship quality fighters. Without politics.
Only after we pay for Wrestle Mania
Irish sports council recognises martial arts sports such as karate so should be no reason why they cant recognise which combines the martial arts.
Yes Jax, but they don’t sponsor full contact unprotected mortal kombat Karate.
Well actually karate is a full contact striking sport, quiet similar to MMA, that is why I used it as an example. Its pointed similar to amateur boxing so the point isn’t to hurt your opponent just score so I suppose MMA is more like Pro Boxing in that regard. Once everyone is fully trained to a high level what’s the problem?
“Unprotected”? How so? Boxers sustain more head trauma due to the lengthy nature of their fights and the force produced from the heavily padded gloves they use. Worst injury ever recorded in the UFC was a leg break.
People have died in mma rings. UFC is just one organisation of many.
UFC is also a good example of safe rules & regulations. Just about every sport has recorded a death, most of the time from dodgy practises from cowboy promotions. There has been no death in the main 2 European promotions, never a death in the irish promotions & never a death in WSF or Bellator which are the two biggest behind the UFC.
More people die playing golf and tennis than all full contact sports combined
People have died in every sport, the more legitimatised the sport the more clear education so people can decide whether they want to participate or not.
Bloodsport Association of Ireland, BAI
That would be fox hunting or bull fighting, yeno where humans enact cruelty for entertainment. If you can name 1 single mma fight where the fighter was there against their will then ill accept ur odd claim.
No mma is a blood sport in the guise of Bloodsport the 1988 American martial arts
I think it should get about the same as what the Irish curling association gets.
Ah Dessie, what about the “Irish Tag Rugby Association”, I mean it’s like Rugby except there’s no contact, definitely worthy of tax payer funding! ;)
No, definitely not!!
Provide the proper funding to the Martial arts which will develop the athletes for the Olympics and European Games etc..
An utterly ridiculous suggestion to fund this contact sport which resembles a brawl outside a chipper on a Saturday night!
Al-Right logic – fund boxing, fund judo = great. Fund boxing in combination with Judo = chipper brawl….
Yes, No2ff/fg/lab, and your point is?
My point is your point makes no sense. If you cannot comprehend the excellent combination of martial arts and it’s decades of development then stick to watching your chipper brawls
Well if it will save me having to fly to Las Vegas every couple of months, or purchase PPV Tv and stay up until 4am then i’ll go with the cheaper option and watch CCTV footage on Youtube from outside pubs and chippers…
Or just watch “Crimecall” on RTE…
You go do that Al right. I’ll continue to watch my favourite sport ignoring the trolls
Just cos someone disagree’s with your opinion doesn’t make them a troll!
Anyways, the ISC can barely fund traditional established sports, so why fund this niche combat sport is just a ridiculous notion!
Because it brings money in to this country. You think Conor doesn’t pay tax? You think people booking flights didn’t use Aer Lingus? If the funding increases success then it’s a good thing all round
F**k MMA. Sort out the Boxing first.
Don’t worry MMA is already sorting out boxing.
Rubbish. Don’t associate amateur boxing in this country with that trash MMA circus.
Where did Conor start? Oh yeah, amateur boxing, in this country no less
Fact is that MMA is not “sorting out boxing” in this country and never will. They’re miles apart.
Boxing is beyond sorting. Too many people with too much money and no need to actually fight which leads to them avoiding fights that people actually want to see
Funding, though it may be a few years off, is a great idea.
MMA teaches much more to a person then just the skills needed to fight, it teaches personal development, social skills and respect not to mention the positive affects on mental heath it can bring.
A true sport, for sportsmen and women
While I am a big advocate of the sport improves mental health argument, in MMA it is probably negated by repeated blows to the head!
On a highly competitive level, your right 100%, blows to the head over years can add up alright :L
But on a lower level, for kids and teens in an armature environment, head gear and pads etc it can help.
It helped me anyway!
Most kids who go to MMA gyms take part in jiu jitsu Competitions or no head shot sparring leagues. It’s all safe & in does wonders to the kids physically, mentally & socially.
In fairness it would probably make more sense for Jiu Jitsu / Muay thai to be funded rather than MMA. Any benefits would reach a wider base or practitioners while definitely helping MMA in Ireland as a by-product.
Who regulates these gyms. Are they Garda veted. Do they have trained child welfare officers. Do they have a proper recognised code of conduct.
Why would they be any different to any other sport?
Boxing is more likely to cause brain damage because the bigger gloves allow someone to get their brain rattled more times before going down.
They should be helping any sport regardless of popularity. Anything that especially helps kids, adults, the elderly keep active is a wise investment and will 100% have a positive long term impact
Let Dana fund it. The government does not fund private business,……Oh wait .. The government should not make a habit of funding private businesses.
UFC = private business MMA = combining several martial arts to create a new sport. There are irish MMA fighters in South African promotions, irish fighters in Japanese promotions. Of course there are many irish and European promotions also.
I think the key word there is promotions. The government don’t fund the IBA,WBA,WBO etc. If mma people want to found their own AMATEUR association then I would have no problem with them seeking funds. Anywho,I’m of to found the WPRC ,(The World Pig Racing Corporation) and I don’t want government funding,I already have a very large offer from a Caribbean gentleman to secure the TV rights,all I have to do is send him on my bank account details. Later serfs.
This debate is about funding mma not the ufc. The ufc is a business, mma is the sport played on the ufc. MMA gyms in Ireland need funding. They have amateur leagues and competitions all the time without any financial support. You can compete amateur, compete professionally, compete in a single martial art or simply do it as a hobby.
Is there an amateur association with clearly set out rules,charter,code of conduct etc. If so then they are free to apply for funding the same as GAA,IRFU,FAI,IABA,COMMUNITY GAMES etc. I for one would have no objection to them getting funding,but if there is no association then they get nothing.
Doesn’t the state have an obligation to encourage the set up of such an organisation? There’s roughly 100 mma gyms in Ireland many of whom have never been in contact with the other. Such an undertaking to set up a body would require state help
Th state had no role in setting up any of the organisations I mentioned above why would it have an “obligation” to set one up for mma. If there is enough interest in one people will get together and form one.
Most of the people interested in MMA in this country are the McGregor fans who have no interest in participation and just enjoy the circus and bs. They’d rather be down their football, Gaa or rugby club. Amateur boxing is light years ahead of MMA in terms of participation and its grossly underfunded. Any spare cash should go to them.
No way, let Dana support it! Sure it isn’t even a recognized sport! There is no world govern body over it, Dana White is just a Don King, he is there to make money n thats it!! One man shouldn’t run any sport.
This is missing the point Malcolm. This isn’t about funding the UFC as we all know they’re perfectly capable of doing that themselves. This is about funding the grassroots element of the sport in Ireland. Like it or not, MMA is hugely popular now in Ireland and there are countless new students showing up to the 100+ MMA clubs in the country.
There are lots of small shows in GAA halls across the country and it’s more about funding those so the athletes can compete in as safe and regulated an environment as possible.
And by the way, the sport of MMA does in fact have governing bodies.
Who governs MMA in Ireland? How any registered and insured MMA clubs are there in the country? What is the combined membership of these clubs? What health and community benefits does MMA offer? Are there drugs in the sport and is it tested for drug use? Compare the sport to others based on the above and that will help answer if it deserves funding and Olympic status (other countries would have to be included for this).
If it gets recognised as a Sport by the ISC then the fighters will be subject to random drug testing all year round. I’m not sure they would like that ;)
It’s a sport where you can choke your opponent until they are unconscious. Classy.
Only if they let you
Under no circumstances, this is at best a fake show, and at worst a show of thuggery. Support sport at all costs, but this cannot be called sport.
Then you don’t know what sport is Eugene.
Yes. The GAA which is well funded as it is gets millions from them so why not a lesser known, but increasingly popular, sport like MMA?
MMA is a business, the coaches,the club owners, the tournament organizer’s are all their for profit. I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think their is a governing body for MMA at amateur level?..
But you cant just start funding this and not other sports.
Boxing example, in Ireland you might think it is well funded, but it isn’t…At top elite level yes their is plenty of funding their,but the normal boxing clubs around the country, their is not alot of funding to be found, all people involved are their voluntary, and believe it or not corruption is all over the place with judges and officials…..
So if funding was to be put into MMA, its alot less organized in ireland than what boxing is, its a recipe for disaster…. Complete mis-matches, along with with people who are in it for profit and no governing body would lead to more corruption than what is I boxing in Ireland at the moment.
Any sport that keeps kids healthy, shows them how to train and have a healthy outlook on life should be funded by “our” government. Shouldn’t be up to a bunch of civil servants to say yes/no. Just have a look at good all these gyms are doing all over the country. Reminds me of the boxing clubs 15-20 yrs ago, they were full.
Yes but who regulates it. You can’t go giving funding to any muppet with access to the back room in the parish hall,a punch bag and a set of weights. MMA needs to get its house in order first.
There’s only one way to settle this pole……… Step into the octagon!!!
Imagine saying your the best fighter ever and then tapping out pathetic the ref would of stopped it before he got seriously hurt I think it’s wwe time for him
Sure let’s get the sports council to support bare knuckle boxing on street corners while we’re at it. Clearly these guys are as fit as any athlete and to call this barbaric cage fighting a sport is one thing, to support or encourage it would be another! It’s a disgusting spectacle more akin to a something in a mad max movie than a disciplined sport
UFC need to sort out the doping problem before we can even think of funding it. Conor has said that PEDs are being used. Biological passport testing is only starting. Vitor Belfort got a TUE (therapeutic use exemption) for TRT (testosterone replacement therapy). That’s completely ridiculous if I were Dana White and Vitor Belfort came to me with that I’d say “you’re out, bye bye”. A fighter like Belfort has NO reason for testosterone replacement therapy EXCEPT performance enhancement.
Your news is dated, TRT is now banned and has been for some time, and fighters are tested by USADA in and out of competition.
No sports should get any money. Just get sponsors. I really don’t know why we pump money int sports and arts when we have a clear poverty problem in ireland
The way some countries do it is if martial artists win medals at an international level then they receive funding. I know there’s so many different types they could not find them all but if somebody gets to the tip of their game and is bringing international recognition and represents their country, they deserve funding.
Who the fupp votes in a poll just to vote Im not sure?
Any sport or activity that gives youth a chance & hope of being like their hero deserves funding. Is that not what being young is about? Anything that gives our youth a chance from not becoming the next generation of junkies or alcoholics is a positive thing. It’s not about winning medals. It’s about giving more options to those little people coming behind us & their kids. Would it really be a bad idea to approach the likes of John Kavanagh, Graham Boylan or Tom Lamont to name a few & give them 1 million to start a government funded base to build on what they have already started? Or will we happily sit back & let our leaders tell us there is no money left again.
have your say