MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. Russian fighters will be ineligible to participate in International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) events, a source in the federation told TASS on Monday.
Reached by a TASS correspondent earlier in the day and asked whether Russian fighters would be allowed to compete internationally, the source in the IMMAF replied that "no such decision is planned for 2023."
The IMMAF introduced a ban on Russia’s participation in its tournaments in March of last year citing the country’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.
Commenting on the news, Vadim Finkelstein, the honorary president of the IMMAF, said the federation refused to bring Russian fighters back to the international arena fearing a possible reaction from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
"I am a member of the IMMAF administration and I have been saying for a long time that it is high time to bring back Russian athletes," he told TASS.
"On the whole, there are no objections against the Russians. But they [the IMMAF] want to be recognized by the IOC and are afraid that this could complicate things," Finkelstein said.
President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Dana White announced on October 8 that his federation allowed all fighters, including from Russia, to compete under the national flags of their countries.
"We’re bringing flags back. It drove me crazy," White stated. "There’s a lot of things that go on in a company this big…. Sometimes things are done for the intentions of the right reasons, or whatever. Everybody in this room knows the way that I feel about a lot of things."
Previously, the UFC decided to ban the Russian flag at its events in the spring of 2022.
The UFC (the Ultimate Fighting Championship) is the largest MMA (mixed martial arts) organization in the world, featuring the world’s most elite fighters. A number of Russians have stepped into the octagon at UFC events.
IOC’s ban on Russia’s international participation
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
At its session on January 25, 2023, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.