MMA in the Olympics? Fighter's Unions? Herschel Walker Gives His Insight on Two Topics With No Easy Answers

Former football great Herschel Walker remains one of the most quizzically polarizing fighters currently competing under the strikeforce banner. Despite showing the utmost respect for the sport to the point of being accepted into one of its premiere camps, the American Kickboxing Academy, cynics still consider him a “freak-show” fighter. Despite donating all the money he received for his first fight in Strikeforce to charity, cynics still complain about how much he was paid. Walker seems to be taking it all in stride, and if a recent interview has anything to say, it’s that the controversial Walker has no problem addressing controversial topics.

Walker recently talked about both the Olympics and a possible fighters union in a new interview with MMA Junkie, and here are just a few of the highlights: “I don’t know why they don’t make [MMA] an Olympic sport. It’s like five sports rolled up into one… I think the fighters in the sport are just now starting to make good money… But the way the contracts are written for the UFC, sooner or later there needs to be a union… Once you become part of the union, you can get insurance. You can get certain benefits that aren’t there right now. I don’t know why that can’t happen.”

In theory, I’m all for MMA becoming an Olympic sport. It would be a remarkable accomplishment for this growing sport of ours. It would legitimize MMA in the eyes of many throughout the world, and if I may be so bold, it might even be the final salvo that needs to be fired before MMA is legalized around the world and in the entirety of the United States. It would be a major victory for everyone, from fighters to promoters to fans. In practice, however, several flaws do present themselves.

Who’ll compete at these MMA events? Would top stars take time out of their already-busy schedules in order to train for and compete in the Olympics? Wouldn’t that lead to a deluge of “Interim” champions whenever the Olympics roll around, especially if a champion takes off to the Olympics and gets injured? And if the champions and major-name stars don’t compete in the Olympic MMA events, will the medals handed out have any real meaning? The singular goal of the Olympics is to bring the best athletes in the world together and see who’s best. If the UFC or even Strikeforce refuses to send their champions so they can instead make money by putting those champions in Pay-Per-View or prime-time events, wouldn’t Olympic MMA be nothing more than a sideshow?

In regards to the fighter’s union, it’s another issue I agree with in theory, but it poses a lot of questions and potential pitfalls in practice. Make no mistake, fans and friends, I want fighters to get paid what they deserve and make their money for entertaining me. I’ve got an incredible amount of respect for what these talented men and women do, and I want to see them justly compensated. But let’s not pretend that a union is a simple thing to get organized, and let’s not pretend that all unions are free from corruption.

In the end, I don’t think these issues will be solved anytime soon since they’re still relatively new issues and they’re going to require a lot of manpower, effort, and planning before the best possible outcome is determined. But I do think more time and effort should be put into figuring out ways to make these two ideas work. At their best, they’d help the sport in considerable ways. At their worst, MMA in the Olympics would be meaningless and a fighter’s union would be corrupt. Either way, these issues won’t be going away anytime soon.

And what about you, fans and friends? What are your thoughts on Walker, MMA in the Olympics, and a possible fighter’s union?