Is MMA an Olympic event?

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 12: (L-R) Conor McGregor of Ireland crouches in his corner while staring down Jose Aldo of Brazil before their featherweight championship bout during the UFC 194 event inside MGM Grand Garden Arena on December 12, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) /

With the rapid rise of MMA, the sport should have its chance to prove Olympic worthy.

Wrestling, judo, boxing and taekwondo are all lined up for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but no mixed martial arts is on the docket, which is a little weird since each one of those events help to make up the many disciplines that is MMA as we have come to know it. So why would an Olympic committee that has seemed so preoccupied with money in the past not capitalize off of the budding growth of the entertaining sport?

A quick look at the industry standard bearer shows that the interest would at least be there.

Casual fans may only know the UFC for Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey or the $4 billion sale to the WME-IMG group that was reported as the biggest deal in sports history. However the organization is not only broadcasted on pay-per-view, it is a television fixture in over 129 countries and across almost all of the Fox television properties.

Live events are being held in every country from the United States and Canada to Brazil, Ireland, Japan and Mexico. Add in the 51 different territories on the UFC roster and the sport exceeds the qualification that the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs told FOXSports.com in 2012:

"“To get into the Olympics we have to have at least 50 countries that are doing it,” Marc Ratner said. “We’re talking a long-range plan that’s not happening overnight. It’s not going to happen for a while, but the pieces are being put in place.”"

Four years later and those long-range plans appear to be covered. The sport is huge, the names are becoming household and something like representing her country may be the only thing that motivates Rousey to take on Cris “Cyborg” Justino in a fight outside of her weight class.

The only two questions are can the fighters’ bodies survive a three-round, 16-fighter elimination tournament in the 16-day span of the Olympics and can any of them pass the USADA drug testing regimen that has been the industry’s downfall in the past few months.

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