MMA makes its debut at Asian Games, but is it fighting a losing battle for recognition?

Athletes compete in open space across six weight classes in Japan, with different rules and enhanced safety features such as shin pads

With minimal razzmatazz, an absence of semi-clad women carrying boards, or childish pre-fight hype, little evidence of claret on canvas and certainly no cages, this is not the MMA you know – and that is exactly the way officials want it.

The sport made its debut at the Asian Games this week, an important step in a journey it hopes will lead to inclusion in other continental multi-sport events and eventually a place on the biggest stage of all, ideally at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 if all goes well.

Athletes competed in open space across six weight classes in Japan, and among those taking gold was Singapore’s Tiffany Teo, who beat Kazakhstan’s Khilola Sobirova, already a well-known professional fighter, in the women’s traditional 60kg category.

For some, the unedifying spectacle of grown men and women beating each other senseless in cages, with flying elbows and kicks to all areas, as fans bay for blood belongs within the confines of the commercial boundaries already set.