Mixed Martial Arts is the fastest growing sport in the United States. There are over 10,000 active participants in events that range from the local to the international level in the USA alone. MMA fighters pay can range from $100 or so for a local fight to literally millions when combining large venues and endorsement deals.
So, then, why can’t it be offered as a college degree?
There are a lot of worthless majors out there: communications, philosophy, art history, jazz studies, English literature (f***!). There are degrees that sound interesting in theory and have fun classes, but are lacking in real world application.
Bear in mind that there are professional fighters with advanced levels of education. Rich Franklin has a Masters degree in Math. Rosi Sexton has a PH.D. in Math. Both Rashad Evans and Jeff Monson have Masters in Psychology.
Forget for a moment that no professional sport is offered as a degree (that is a different, however connected subject, see the article: Open Mic: They're Athletes and the NCAA Should Pay Them) and look at the facts and potential that lay in legitimizing MMA as a field of study.
MMA is fighting (no pun intended) for legitimacy in the world of professional sports. It is a sport still relatively new to the United States, so there is still a very large talent pool of varying levels of skill.
Here is what an MMA degree would help to create: fewer and better fighters. Going to any local MMA event will typically reveal exactly how bad some fighters can be. There are often at least a few fighters in the ring or cage that look as though they have never taken a single martial arts class or spent a minute in a gym.
An MMA degree would help to broaden the knowledge of fighters, creating an even wider gap between the amateur armchair fighter and the fighter that is destined for a successful career.
By studying subjects that would vary from international studies to sport specific training to the history of fighting and warfare, the average meat head that thinks he is a good fighter might think twice before stepping into a cage against opponents that have spent two to four years of intensive training preparing to throw leather.
It would have the potential to create more well rounded fighters by having sport specific classes that deal with BJJ, wrestling, kickboxing, boxing, sambo, judo and other arts. Not only the actual practice of the arts, but also the study of the history of these arts will broaden knowledge and help the fighter to find the techniques that most effectively mesh to the individual.
This would also serve to legitimize the major by having classes like Brazilian, Russian and Asian studies to take an in-depth look at the history of the arts. Even physics, physiology and anatomy classes could be involved to make the fighters more effective.
Students taking these classes could also take a law or business angle to look into the fields of becoming agents and fight organizers. The agents would have a better understanding of skill and set up better fights. The fight organizers could also become better judges of talent and set up the most entertaining fight cards.





16 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment
brandon mcclinton 7 months ago
VERY interesting article. I don't know about MMA as a college major; I think it'd definitely be an excellent master's, master of arts, or bachelor of arts program. You lay out a good argument, but...
It's a little offensive and illogical to say "communications, philosophy, art history, jazz studies, English literature" are pretty much worthless and have no real world application, especially considering Bruce Lee, whom many MMA fans and fighters peg as the first mixed marital artist, majored in philosophy in college and that it's his philosophy that has propelled MMA and martial arts in general to such surmountable heights. Before Bruce Lee, Gung-Fu was an art for Chinese people that was severely skeptical of "foreigners."
Also, it's his philosophy that provides a fantastic argument for MMA as it exists: it gives depth to martial arts and helps to eradicate the unbalanced western perspective of martial arts as more martial and violent than it is an aesthetic, intellectually founded art.
And just to flip the argument, what real world application does MMA have besides entertainment for the masses? If America (and I'm assuming you're American) was a nation like Israel where everyone serves in the Israeli army and learns Krav Maga, from basic to advanced skills, it would have serious real world applications. People major in communications, philosophy, jazz studies, art history, and literature because they're interested and then (much like myself) discover deeper issues like class strife, global relations, economic disparity, etc.
I can see your point with this article, and yeah, I agree that the talent pool in MMA needs to be drained a lil bit so we can see more quality fights.
Last thing: I can definitely relate to what you're saying. I work as an actor and love it, but it's something you have to know you want to do and know how to do well if you want to make any money. Sanford Meisner, the Bruce Lee of Acting, said he wished acting was like tight-rope walking so all the a**holes would fall off. I would never be that brusque, but I think you two would get along alright.
good article, very thought provoking.
Edit Comment Cancel
Jon Grilz 7 months ago
Thanks Brandon, but I am confused about something. So you think that philosophy is a valid degree, but eng lit, art hist, and the others are still worthless?
I suppose. Not only did Bruce Lee take a philosophy that he already had and publish it, but don't forget that Patrick Swayze had one in Road House.
And to answer your question, I'm as American as a syphilis blanket.
Edit Comment Cancel
brandon mcclinton 7 months ago
first, i like your style boo-coo, you've got a great sense of humor.
as for the other degrees, i think they're totally valid. I've got a degree in English, and let me tell you, just knowing correct grammar has opened doors for me that otherwise would've been closed. As for Bruce's philosophy, his degree had a lot to do with it. The books he read in school helped to hone and clarify exactly what he wanted to say, and if you go back and do secondary reading work on his philosophy, you can trace his ideas back to post-modernist theory, structuralism, existentialism, Hegelian and Jungian thought, orientalism, some work from Marcuse and the simulacra, and a touch of enlightenment work. I'm also sure he had some strict Eastern philosophy in there, but I haven't had a real chance to delve into that kind of work.
I guess it really boils down to how well you apply yourself and make your thoughts valid and applicable.
Edit Comment Cancel
Racan Alhoch 7 months ago
Great article!
Although I would love to switch from a Public Relations/Politcal science major to an MMA major I dont think it will work out. The sport is so popular and growing so fast that everyone and their mother would want to become MMA majors. The world would become jam packed with fighters and still the majority of them would probably be jobless because the study of a martial art is not enough, you must have at least a little bit of personal ability. What else could you do with an MMA major? If you could use that degree to become a fight promoter, fight agent or even start your own fight company...cool, but still it would be a ridiculously competetive market.
Thinking back when I was in highschool, every wrestler, most football players, all the kids that wanted to be mechanics and alot of the rich spoiled kids who had something to prove would end up becoming MMA majors soley because "its cool and tough" and I'm sure they wouldnt weigh the fact that they would have to take, business, international relations, physics, anatomy and physiology and communicatioins classes.
Maybe we could make the core cirriculum really hard so that we could weed out the dumb people and the undedicated?
Well you can start working on how to make this happen and let me know ASAP so I can talk to my counselor. haha
Good read!
Edit Comment Cancel
Jon Grilz 7 months ago
Thanks Racan. I figure that if kids can go to college for football and major in forest rangering, why not get to go for MMA. They are already there wrestling and it seems like a natural transition to the octagon and ring these days.
Edit Comment Cancel
CJ Daconta 7 months ago
Lol if I could get a scholarship In MMA I would be fighting ever week just to try and nab one.
Does boxing get scholarships to colleges too?
Edit Comment Cancel
Jon Grilz 7 months ago
I'm pretty sure that Oxford used to, and I think some American colleges did, maybe they still do.
Edit Comment Cancel
Todd Jackson 7 months ago
I like the concept. On the history of the arts alone you could put some classes together, much less the business side of things. I wonder though if it could work functioning solely around MMA as a base. There is only so much opportunity out there for someone to make a career of it, but as a general course it may work for a broader spectrum. Great read, I love these articles that arent predictable. YOu know, the fight coming up gets beat to death, this is original thought and content and very enjoyable. Take care.
Edit Comment Cancel
Jon Grilz 7 months ago
Thanks Todd, I was trying to think outside the box so as not to step on anyone's toes. Plus, I figure that we could just eliminate the middleman of college wrestling and just send them straight to MMA.
Edit Comment Cancel
Jeremy Botter 7 months ago
While I don't see the idea of an actual degree covering MMA ever becoming a reality, I do think that it'll eventually be a college sport. It may be twenty years from now, but eventually kids will go to college on mixed martial arts scholarships. When that happens, the new crop of young fighters coming up through the system will be scary, scary good.
I'll be interesting to see how the sport evolves, that's for sure.
Edit Comment Cancel
Jon Grilz 7 months ago
I agree Jeremy. Martial arts clubs are already popular in colleges around the nation. Most are karate, kickboxing, TKD or BJJ, however I think that a lot of them are inspired by MMA, it would just make sense.
Edit Comment Cancel
Brian Oswald 7 months ago
Great thought provoking article - you definitely put alot of thought into it yourself. I would probably agree with Jeremy - it could certainly be a legitimate college sport alongside NCAA wrestling. That is where the future of the sport would be built.
What is interesting to think about to me is how many kids it would siphon away from wrestling and boxing (at the collegiate level) as well as from football, basketball and other conventional sports. It is already happening but having as a collegiate sport would be dramatic.
Could it eventually render one dimensional combat sports (like wrestling and boxing) near obsolete?
Edit Comment Cancel
Jeremy Botter 7 months ago
It could easily kill wrestling. For high school and college wrestlers, there is nowhere to go after your amateur career is finished, at least not with real competition. There's nowhere for them to go once they've reached that pinnacle and there's no way to support a family. With boxing, you can turn pro and make millions even with the sport in a slump, so I think it'll stick around. But wrestling could easily find itself overshadowed in the next 10 years by kids who decide they want to focus on mixed martial arts instead of just wrestling.
Edit Comment Cancel
Jon Grilz 7 months ago
I was thinking about that after I published the article. There are a lot of college wrestlers out there from the junior college level through D-I, D-II and D-III. The best of those will probably still stick with it in hopes of a national title, Olympics aspirations or future coaching jobs, but with the number of national champs that seem to be flooding into MMA, why not just cut to the chase?
Edit Comment Cancel
Pete Dudek 7 months ago
Being an English/Communications major w/ emphasis on PR/Advertising/Journalism and a writing minor, a little offended, but I'll look past that.
An interesting concept. I was reading a news article the other day where a high school has a school sponsored MMA Club. While I don't see it becoming a major anytime soon, I could easily see it becoming an intramural or club program and maybe a few years down the road growing into a college sport with the same respect as a basketball or football program.
Edit Comment Cancel
John Campbell 6 months ago
I know your probably joking, but communications has been noted as one of the top degrees to get a job with right out of college...
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.