MMA more and more popular in France

A fence to protect the curious, a few punching bags and around twenty students warming up on the tatami: welcome at the Free Fight Academy in Vitry-sur-Seine. Here, there are no broken noses or two-meter-high mirrored cabinets, but varied profiles, such as Julien, 30, manager during the day and apprentice fighter in the evening: “It allows me to get out of the daily grind a bit. It’s a way to feel alive. These moments, the adrenaline, the fight… We’re in the present moment. There’s no more nothing that matters. Because if you think about something else, bim, it’s over.”

Shin guards, boxing gloves… the fight starts standing with your fists and can end on the ground with your legs. Because MMA is a mixture of several martial arts. And since the authorization of competitions in France and the creation of the French MMA Federation in 2020, there are 200 clubs in the country and 1,200 licensees. The French Ciryl Gane could even become world champion on Saturday January 22 in Las Vegas.

But before giving your first blow, you have to assimilate the rules of this very complete combat sport according to Luciano, 16, who is just starting MMA. “Honestly, it’s very hard to learn the holds, he confides. But it’s also good for classes, it helps to work the brain.”

Mathieu Nicourt, the founder of the Free Fight Academy and himself an MMA champion, has seen the number of students increase since the legalization of fighting in January 2020: “Now, we have more and more mixed audiences. We have audiences who come from the suburbs, but we also have students. And that’s what brings richness to the discipline.”

“It’s not the first sport you would enroll your children in. And that, I hope, is already changing and that we are showing that MMA is a sport that everyone can do.”

Mathieu Nicourt, MMA champion

at franceinfo

A sport that can be practiced by everyone, and therefore especially by women, like Nora, a professional in this discipline and the only woman that day. “MMA brings a lot of self-confidence, especially for women, says Nora. We are a little quieter, I think, when we know that we know how to defend ourselves. We see today that there is a lot of harassment in the street, in the metro and so I think it can be not bad.

Professionals in the discipline are counting on the growing popularity of the French championships to attract more and more female fighters.