The Rise of Amateur MMA in Asia

This is Thanksgiving week and I am taking things easy, so I just wanted to talk about something I am really grateful for and that is the rise of Amature MMA in Asia.

For people who compete exclusively on the Asian MMA stage, there isn't really a depth of promotions for young fighters to get experience early on. And really, until a few years ago we were not seeing many professionally run amateur MMA events in Southeast Asia.

I can recall a few that were nothing more than guys showing up to fight in a parking garage at a university with no medical staff and several fights that were clearly works.

And while some of those are still around, they are not the norm, events Like Kuala Lumpur based MIMMA and Bangkok Based OneShin Cup has really raised the bar for amateur MMA and given Asian MMA the grassroots it needs to develop new fighters and really grow, especially in Southeast Asia.

I’ve even talked about in the past well-established pro promotions filling their undercard with amateur fights because the talent pool is deep there at the lower weight classes and they make exciting fights.

For their part IMMAF has played a bit role in this, the president of IMMAF Kerith Brown is a common sight at Asian MMA events and he is a powerful voice in the amateur regulation and the move to get MMA into the Olympics.

A lot of the push forward with the amateur scene in Southeast Asia has been due to him working so closely with the governing bodies as well as

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