Olympic MMA?

As the Bejing Olympics ended on Sunday, people started speculating about the 2012 Olympics in London.

Could England top China's Opening Ceremony and event sites?

Could England spend anywere near the $40 billion that China supposed spent on the olympics?

Would England sentence any of its citizens to hard labor if they asked to protest?

Would softball and baseball be back for the 2012 games or would they be dropped from the Olympics?

What other sports are on the chopping block?

Will any sports be added, and if so which ones?

Could MMA become an Olympic sport? The Olympics have a long history of popular sports. Beach volleyball became an Olympic sport after the AVP established the sport's broad appeal. Snowboarding was added to the Olympics after the X-Games started being televised on network TV. BMX, another "extreme sport" just road the rising tide of the X-Games to Olympic exclusion.

There's no arguing that MMA is experiencing a meteoric rise in popularity (http://budgetmmafan.blogspot.com/search/label/general%20intro) or that Olympic MMA would help the medal counts of Brazil & Japan. And, many MMA elements are already in the Olympics (wrestling, boxing, Judo, etc.). The big question is whether or not MMA can be made Olympic friendly.

Can MMA be Olympic-ified, like boxing, so athletes can fight 5 - 6 times in a fortnight? I don't think it can be.Olympic-ifing striking disciplines like boxing and tae-kwon-do involves throwing on a bunch of pads/protective gear. Problem is you can't wrestle or use jui-jitsu if you and your opponent are covered in pads.

I'd love to see the additional free MMA of Olympic MMA in 2012, but we're more likely to get stuck with Olympic skateboarding than Olympic MMA.