The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) revealed in April that a partnership had been born with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s leading professional MMA promotion, in a move to further promote and enhance the governance and growth of safe, clean mixed martial arts at the amateur level on a global scale.
During the lead up to UFC Fight Night in Krakow, Poland, I caught up with David Allen, the UFC’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) to further discuss the UFC’s relationship with the IMMAF and how they can help one another in the development of MMA.
“We’ve been supporters of IMMAF for about two and a half years now, since their inception,” explained Allen to MMA Plus, “and one of the things we want to ensure is that there is governance put in place around the sport, all around the world. Not just here in Europe but in every single country where there is a federation. We want to make sure that the sport grows and prospers and the way to do that is by having federations like we do here in Poland, like we have in the UK, over in Ireland as well – the Irish Amateur Pankration Association; they’ve just become members of IMMAF.
“The whole goal is to make sure that there is a standard for the sport, make sure that there’s governance in place and legislation, and it’ll help grow and make people aware and educated about what the sport is.”
Over 40 countries are represented as member federations of IMMAF across five continents, and nations will gather later this year when the IMMAF host the second annual World Championships of Amateur MMA in Las Vegas, USA. The championships kick off from July 6 and will be available to view online via UFC Fight Pass, and furthermore, the championships will culminate at the UFC Fan Expo at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, July 10-11.
Allen continued; “I think the biggest help we (UFC) can give is from the work we do around branding, around the business side of things, around helping them during International Fight Week. We’re actually going to be partnering with [IMMAF] on International Fight Week to hold the World Amateur Championships out in Las Vegas during the Expo that goes on during International Fight Week.
“Things like that is where we help one-another, if you look at our reach as an example on Facebook, we’ve got 16 million followers on Facebook, if we need to tell the world something that’s going on in the sport, we can help by pushing messages and help with branding.”
For mixed martial arts and the UFC to flourish with future generations, the healthy and fundamental development of amateur athletes will need to championed, and the IMMAF are pioneering the governance of amateur MMA on a global scale. Many steps have been taken by the IMMAF this year, from the introduction of additional nations, to an anti-doping policy based on the World Anti-Doping Code and Standards, and the launch of a Progression Scheme & Education Academy based in Paris.
“The beautiful thing about taking on this partnership with them is that we work very, very closely with all governing bodies in all of the different countries. We want to make sure that we have governance in place, we want to make sure that we’ve got legislation in place. We’ll also work closely on how we put the new doping policies in place in all the different countries.”
Photo by Jorden Curran
