Karelin refused to call MMA a sport
According to Alexander Karelin, other sports need to learn how to “present” competitions as mixed martial arts. n
Mixed martial arts are a “competition system”, not a sport. This opinion was expressed by three-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling Alexander Karelin at the opening of the children's sports center in Rubtsovsk, Altai Krai.
“I am not criticizing MMA. It's a competition system. I am saying that we must be careful in our definitions. Wrestling, boxing is a sport. And MMA is mixed martial arts. You know? Something must be mixed with something. This is a competition system, he said.
Karelin noted the high interest of society in mixed martial arts. “But I repeat once again: there are values that are understandable, applicable, traditional, and tested. And there's modern innovation. And if that's interesting, let's experiment.”.
In 2015, Karelin opposed the preparation of children's MMA sections. He noted that it is impossible to do so that “sport teaches a child who is engaged in the section to beat a bedridden one.”.
Karelin added that MMA cannot be part of initial training. “First we must prepare a wrestler, a wrestler, a wrestler in judo. And then these training systems are compared in synthetic rules. Not absolute, but synthetic, he said.
According to Karelin, other sports need to learn how to “show” competitions.
“In the language of the show, it makes a cocktail. It's the same here. I don't mind. I wonder if people are coming, it can pack, and we have a lot to learn. For example, how to serve basketball games is not to sell, but to serve. How to serve boxing fights, how judokas to show themselves better, so that it was visual, conscriptive, attractive, he concluded.
Since 2012, mixed martial arts has been an officially recognized sport in Russia.
Karelin, 59, is a three-time Olympic champion, nine-time world champion and 12-time European champion. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as an athlete who has not lost a fight in 13 years.
In the 1990s, he worked in the tax police, and since 2001 became a member of the Supreme Council of the party “United Russia”. Since 2020, Karelin has been a senator of the Federation Council.
