Last week, the UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organisation, announced their involvement in the 2015 European Judo Championships, which will take place in Glasgow, UK in April, as they continue to support the development of combat sports around the world.

According to Bloodyelbow.com, the deal is off:

The European Judo Union (EJU) has allegedly threatened to cancel the European Championships if the competition remained affiliated with the UFC.

David Allen, Senior Vice President and General Manager UFC EMEA spoke of his disappointment at having to end the sponsorship

“We love to see sport thrive and athletes prosper, which is why the UFC prides itself on supporting all combat sports both mixed and individual disciplines. Our aim was to help Judo reach a new audience, increase promotion, help to sell tickets and create a buzz around the European judo Championships. It is disappointing to see that the European Judo Union cannot see the benefits of collaboration and celebration of all sports.”

 

While the EJU hasn’t made a public statement about their reason for calling off the deal, there are many speculations that Judo politics regarding fear of losing top athletes to the UFC.

This comes as no surprise following the comments of Jean-Luc Rouge, General Secretary of the IJF and President of the French Judo Federation (FFJDA), who in an interview with L’Equipe TV  said :

“These new combat sports (MMA) seem like they come out of a video game. These guys are stupid enough to kill each other in front of everyone in a cage and they are well paid, so they would accept. Sport is not war! We must be able to shake hands and go have a beer together in the end, “he said

A few months ago, The IJF – International Judo Federation shared an official statement on their facebook page addressing the recent scandal of not allowing international Judo competitors to compete in other grappling sports before they quickly DELETED their facebook post and DELETED their website page with this letter because they were getting so much  backlash.

In the letter, IJF president Marcus Vizer talked about preserving Judo and not ‘spiritually contaminating’ Judo with Migration to other sports.

This comes a few months after IJF (International Judo Federation) was reported to be preparing a project deemed “confidential”. The French Judo Federation and Associated Disciplines (FFJDA) is the 4th biggest National Sports Federation in France with over 570,000 licensees, and plans to create a new sport, “Mixed Jujitsu Arts.” In other words, MJA. An acronym that makes you think of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), the most popular combat sport of the moment, which allows for ground strikes in addition to boxing techniques, wrestling, judo and grappling. This is obviously not a coincidence.