greetings from Europe

Greetings from Europe. I am writing from a computer in the headquarters of FILA in Switzerland. We leave for Poland tonight for the FILA world championships of grappling, Pankration, and amateur MMA, which take place November 15-18. I am not sure how easy it will be for me to go online from Poland, but I will try. I also am trying to stick to e-mail from my BlackBerry to avoid data charges.

Anyway, I will get interviews, some photos, and more which will mostly be posted after I get home November 21.

By the way, the FILA headquarters is an amazing place. They have an exhibit on the history of wrestling and tons of pictures that are breathtaking.

I also am wrestling with a keyboard with a different layout than American ones and a French operating system, but I am managing. TTYL.

Awesome, I hope you enjoy your stay. Too bad you don´t stay until December 1st and KSW Manhoef vs Khalidov.

Very cool, man. Have a good time over there.

Lofgren wrote:Awesome, I hope you enjoy your stay. Too bad you don´t stay until December 1st and KSW Manhoef vs Khalidov.

Some extra time in Poland to see Manhoef vs. Khalidov would definitely be worth it.

Enjoy your time there Eddie.

Thanks. After this event it is back to Switzerland for two more days to meet with FILA. Stay tuned.

nhbnews wrote:Thanks. After this event it is back to Switzerland for two more days to meet with FILA. Stay tuned.

Nice. It would be nice if they push for world MMA titles through cross-promotional title fights (like WAMMA attempted). If UFC doesn't participate, orgs.; such as, ONE FC, DREAM, Bellator, KSW, M-1 GLOBAL, WSOF could hold the world titles.

Also, Unified Rules in North America and Asian Full Rules or PRIDE Rules (with soccer kicks, knees on ground, stomps, and possibly elbows (incl. 12-6 elbows)) are the way to go for rules unification. Cage works for Unified Rules, ring for Full Asian Rules.

They are only doing amateur MMA, not professional.

nhbnews wrote:They are only doing amateur MMA, not professional.

That's too bad. When they first started up it sounded like they were going to sanction pro MMA as well.

Well, hopefully they start sanctioning professional MMA soon. Pro MMA needs a single recognized sanctioning body with these types of goals.

I know it didn't work out for WAMMA but they should have focused their rankings and world champs on all the orgs. outside UFC since they would not participate.

nhbnews wrote:They are only doing amateur MMA, not professional.

Still hoping for a FIFA-type professional MMA governing body with an MMA World Cup every few years. Just like soccer with regional qualifying to make the main global international tournament. Start with a pool of a 1000 of the top independently-ranked fighters and end up with one consensus world champ every few years. Other worldwide pro sports do it. No reason MMA can't.

Mention me to the movers and shaker Eddie and I'll get it done.

Dagwood wrote:

nhbnews wrote:They are only doing amateur MMA, not professional.

Still hoping for a FIFA-type professional MMA governing body with an MMA World Cup every few years. Just like soccer with regional qualifying to make the main global international tournament. Start with a pool of a 1000 of the top independently-ranked fighters and end up with one consensus world champ every few years. Other worldwide pro sports do it. No reason MMA can't.

Mention me to the movers and shaker Eddie and I'll get it done.

I've been hoping for something along these lines for years. At least a sanctioned Super Bowl event once every two years with the two top ranked fighters in different promotions in each weight class for world titles would work. They could take the world titles back to their promotions and defend the world belt with their promotional belt each time they fight. The Super Bowl event could then alternate every two years between Unified Rules in a cage in Europe or North America followed by Full Rules in a ring in Asia or South America.

If Zuffa refused to be part of it then forgot them. The other major orgs. could house the world champs. Zuffa would still always claim they have the best and all the other BS but they wouldn't be backing up their talk with the rest of the world orgs. who were participating and crowning world champs.

Can't wait for the shows that come out of this trip.

Dagwood wrote:

nhbnews wrote:They are only doing amateur MMA, not professional.

Still hoping for a FIFA-type professional MMA governing body with an MMA World Cup every few years. Just like soccer with regional qualifying to make the main global international tournament. Start with a pool of a 1000 of the top independently-ranked fighters and end up with one consensus world champ every few years. Other worldwide pro sports do it. No reason MMA can't.

Mention me to the movers and shaker Eddie and I'll get it done.

How amazing that would be. True world champions.

Awesome stuff Eddie! Keep up the fantastic work you always do for world-wide combat sports and come home safe and sound when the job is done.

They could easily do a Grand Championship of MMA if everyone would work together, no one is holding them back. I just think a lot of organizations fear they might lose interest in their champions if they're beat soundly by someone outside of their organization.

WSOF could be the American representative, MFC for Canada, M-1 for Russia, KSW for Poland, Cage Warriors/BAMMA for England, Spirit for Korea, Legend for Hong Kong, RUFF for China, Jungle Fight for Brazil, ONE for Philippines/Malaysia/Singapore/Thailand/etc. Japan is kind of conundrum though as there are multiple organizations worthy of representation.

There's also a lot of stuff to be ironed out as well, along with certain politics, im sure.