RIO DE JANEIRO — Olympic action kicks off in earnest Saturday, with many of the sports that comprise mixed martial arts on display.

MMA is a combination of martial arts techniques, and it takes from boxing, wrestling, judo and taekwondo, among many other martial arts. Each of those sports is already a part of the Olympics.

In the 2020 Games in Tokyo, karate will join the rotation, making it five Olympic sports that are a part of MMA.

Yet, it’s a long road for MMA to get into the Olympics and even the most cockeyed optimists believe it’s going to be a long time before it happens. And that’s if it happens at all.

Densign White, the CEO of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, is doing the due diligence to try to ensure that the sport gets added to the Olympics.

It’s a complicated and expensive ordeal, but White said he’s hopeful.

“It’s quite a long process and there are sports that have been trying for years and years to get in,” said White, who is not related to UFC president Dana White. “Karate was just added to the 2020 Games in Tokyo, and they’d been trying for maybe 30, 40 years.”

UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told Yahoo Sports he believes it’s inevitable because of MMA’s appeal to young television viewers. He said organizers will probably have to reduce rounds and/or have shorter rounds, but he said he believes it can easily work.

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“There’s no question that the Olympics are a business and they have to focus on [adding] sports that are popular from a television viewing standpoint for the ratings,” Fertitta said. “We’ve proven that MMA works extremely well on television. Over time, I think they’ll take a very close look at it.”

Ronda Rousey works for a submission against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 in 2013. (Getty) More

Densign White has been laying the groundwork for MMA’s inclusion. He’s in the process of becoming a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency code, which would mean Olympic-style drug testing for all athletes who compete in IMMAF-sponsored events.

Once that is complete, the next step will be to apply for membership with SportAccord, an umbrella organization for international sports federations based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

That is necessary to earn recognition from the International Olympic Committee, which ultimately will have the decision.

When adding sports, the IOC considers a sport’s universal appeal and popularity. It wants sports in which both men and women compete, that get good media exposure and have a large television audience.

“MMA ticks a lot of those boxes,” Densign White said.

One of the issues would be the risk of injuries that would prevent winners from competing. He said the IMMAF already runs amateur tournaments with 32 competitors in a weight class, in which the finalists will fight five times in six days. There is a break, he said, between the semifinals and finals.

They use the Unified rules that govern pro MMA, with some modifications. Elbows are prohibited, rounds are shorter and gloves are seven ounces instead of four ounces like they are in the pro ranks.

“I don’t think [the injury risk] is an insurmountable issue whatsoever,” Densign White said. “We don’t have fighters getting hurt or cut and being forced to pull out [of the competition].”

UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson said he is in favor, but he’s on the side of those who worry about injuries.

Athletic commissions, which regulate MMA in the U.S., generally give suspensions following the cards that prevent fighters from coming back too quickly, before injuries have healed.

At UFC 200, which was held July 9 in Las Vegas, former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate was given a minimum suspension of 60 days, with no contact in practice for 45 days. If she doesn’t get her broken nose cleared by a doctor, she’d be suspended for 185 days.

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