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Andrew Whitelaw

A unifying international governing federation for mixed martial arts will be launched on December 1, senior officials announced on Thursday at a press briefing.
The new body aims to bring greater unity to the sport’s amateur structures and boost its case for Olympic inclusion.
The Federation of Mixed Martial Arts (Fimma) was created in response to calls from athletes and national federations for a single cohesive body, said Gordon Tang, president of the Asian Mixed Martial Arts Association (Amma). Tang is a founding partner and major backer of Fimma.
“We are ready to collaborate with any organisation that shares a commitment to protecting and promoting the interests of MMA and its athletes,” he said.
At present, different international bodies such as the Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts and the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation run their own world and continental championships, set rules for amateur competitions and work with national federations at grass-roots level.
Conversations with these bodies were ongoing, with the intention of building a collaborative framework.

“Our aim is to unify everybody so that we can put up a united front to the IOC,” Galastein Tan, Amma’s director general, said.
Officials confirmed that early discussions with the IOC had taken place and described the response as positive. Tang said that while the timeline for Olympic recognition rested with the IOC and future host committees, Fimma would “work very hard” to advance the process.
To gain Olympic recognition, Fimma officials said they would have to show the IOC that the sport had a unified global governance model and would work with Olympic committees at a national level, improve athlete safety standards and expand global participation.
Tan said the federation’s vision drew from developments in Asia, where MMA was recently included in the Asian Youth Games and would appear in both the Asian Games and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2026.
He described this progress as an important step towards meeting the criteria required for eventual Olympic inclusion.
In its bid to increase safety standards, Tan said, Fimma would adopt Amma’s ruleset, which removes the cage and prohibits certain high-risk techniques such as head strikes on grounded opponents. He believed this would maintain the appeal of MMA while meeting safety expectations for multi-sport environments.
Regarding Olympic-style tournament formats, Tan said Amma currently held three-day events with one bout per athlete per day and would continue refining scheduling with its technical and medical committees to ensure proper recovery time.
Officials said they expected the creation of national federations to be essential, particularly in countries where MMA was still governed under another combat sport body. Tan said that once a sport was included in major multi-sport events, national federations often received government support, helping to develop grass-roots participation.


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Martial arts

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Sport

Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts

Federation of Mixed Martial Arts has held early discussions with the IOC and plans to ‘work very hard’ to advance process


Federation of Mixed Martial Arts has held early discussions with the IOC and plans to ‘work very hard’ to advance process.


International MMA body formed to unify amateur governance, target Olympic inclusion

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Federation of Mixed Martial Arts has held early discussions with the IOC and plans to ‘work very hard’ to advance process

Federation of Mixed Martial Arts has held early discussions with the IOC and plans to ‘work very hard’ to advance process