Fight Fans In France Soon Can See A Live Action
The minister of sport Roxana Maracineanu announced on Monday that MMA would be legalized in the nation of France starting from Jan. 1, 2020.
“As of January 1, 2020, MMA will officially exist as a professional and amateur sports practice in France within the framework of defined by [Ministry of Sports] in harmony with the international landscape of this discipline,” Maracineanu wrote.
Au 1er Janvier 2020, le #MMA existera donc officiellement en tant que pratique sportive professionnelle et amateur en France dans le cadre de défini par @Sports_gouv en harmonie avec le paysage international de cette discipline.
— Roxana Maracineanu (@RoxaMaracineanu) June 24, 2019
Currently, the MMA is banned in the country, and it can only be overturned if the responsible party French athletic federations send the proposal by Sept. 27 and the final verdict will be made by December 31.
UFC noted the news and promotion’s senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein said they’ll assist France in the process of legalization.
“UFC welcomes today’s announcement by the Ministry of Sports, which is the first step in officially recognizing MMA and integrating the sport into the French sports ecosystem,” Epstein said in a statement (h/t ESPN). “We will closely follow the progress of the consultation period and pay particular attention to the respect of the integrity of MMA and preservation of its rules by the host federation.
“We put our global MMA expertise at the disposal of the authorities to make this process a collective construction.”
There’re notable MMA fighters who hail from France like Bellator, and UFC vet Cheick Kongo and heavyweight Francis Ngannou also started his MMA training in Paris reacted to the news.
MMA will officially be legalized in France in January 2020.
Thank you to our sport minister @RoxaMaracineanu https://t.co/Kl5w0mA88B— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) June 25, 2019
Ngannou is currently slated to take on Junior dos Santos at UFC Minneapolis this weekend.