The sport of MMA is one of the youngest in the world. Previously, a number of sports regulation authorities viewed it as human cockfighting, with several countries also denying its approval as a sport. But MMA is far from being the only sport that has faced such repercussions. In an old episode of the noted UFC color commentator Joe Rogan’s podcast, the famed former UFC flyweight queen, Valentina Shevchenko, revealed how karate also once had the same fate.
The union of countries that Shevchenko mentioned no longer exists today. It is the coveted Soviet Union. However, there were quite a few substantial reasons behind the ban on karate by the Soviet authorities. Apart from being a lot more brutal than the internationally popular version of Karate, its growing popularity in the Soviet Union took a huge toll on the image that the USSR carried in the field of sports.
How did the spread of Karate degrade USSR’s image in sporting activities globally?
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Nothing can be actually said about the time when Karate was introduced to the Soviet population. But the noted YouTube documentarian, Patrick Gavia, has revealed in one of his videos that Karate had already gained a massive following in the USSR by the 1970s. The same Valentina Shevchenko documentary from Gavia gave out the reasons behind the prohibition of karate in the USSR.
However, it was Rogan in the ‘JRE’ episode who turned inquisitive about the reason behind karate’s prohibition. He asked ‘Bullet’, “Why was karate prohibited?”. But it was Gavia who answered Rogan in his video. He revealed, “Karate became so popular in the Soviet Union in the 70s that too many athletes stopped training in boxing, sambo, and judo, which hurt the country in the Olympics”.
He gave out another reason that led to the prohibition of karate in the USSR. Gavia informed, “The Soviet type of karate was much more bloody and violent than the international version. It became widely used in the criminal world, and Soviet police were not equipped to fight back”.
Finally, he also revealed that the USSR authorities put a ban on martial arts in 1981. Gavia also mentioned, “You could be sentenced to five years of jail for teaching it (at that time)”. This is probably why Shevchenko took up Taekwondo as her primary genre of martial arts to train.
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When is Valentina Shevchenko fighting next?
Well, most fans may remember the controversial Noche UFC on September 17, 2023. ‘Bullet’ took on her former UFC flyweight champion rival Alexa Grasso in its main event. Almost every fan may know that Grasso snatched Shevchenko’s UFC flyweight championship in their previous bout at UFC 285. The Noche UFC presented a perfect opportunity for Shevchenko to avenge her loss.
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The fight presented a to-and-fro affair. But most fans would say that Shevchenko had probably gotten the better of Grasso in the fight. However, a controversial decision from the Octagon-side judge, Mike Bell, ended the fight in a draw. Shevchenko also took a jibe at the UFC and the judges for denying her victory. But since then, she hasn’t revealed anything about her next fight. Due to this controversy, do you think the UFC authorities can plan a third showdown between the two?
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