Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2010
Journal Title
Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal
ISSN
1061-6578
Abstract
The past fifteen years have seen the emergence of a new sport in America and around the world: mixed martial arts (“MMA”). MMA is an interdisciplinary combat sport whose participants engage in and combine a variety of fighting disciplines (e.g., kickboxing, wrestling, karate, jiu-jitsu, and so on) within one match.
In this Article, I examine and analyze the sport’s evolution, articulate a theory of sporting legitimacy, supply a conceptual taxonomy of regulation, and highlight potential reform. More specifically, my foundational treatment proceeds as follows. I first explain the modern history and development of MMA, tracing it from its shaggy, brutish beginnings to its current incarnation. I next offer a pragmatic justification for the legitimacy and propriety of MMA, consider objections, and compare it to other sports and entertainment accepted as part of modern American life. I then review the state-based and administrative nature of MMA regulation, and identify the three conceptual categories of existing MMA regulation that are most useful in understanding the connection between legitimacy and regulatory oversight. I conclude by briefly highlighting two reform possibilities - federalization and unionization - that are of interest to industry players, reformers, and scholars.
First Page
209
Last Page
245
Num Pages
37
Volume Number
32
Issue Number
2
Publisher
University of California Hastings College of Law
Recommended Citation
Brendan S. Maher,
Understanding and Regulating the Sport of Mixed Martial Arts,
32
Hastings Comm. & Ent. L.J.
209
(2010).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1418