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Norwegian Politician Grimstad Attends UFC in Stockholm

This weekend gone, the Norwegian MMA Federation (NMMAF) invited parliamentary representative Oskar Grimstad over to the UFC Fight Night event in Stockholm. The event was being sanctioned, according to Swedish law, under the Swedish MMA Federation. NMMAF President, Henning Svendsen, reports:   In Norway MMA is illegal. Or rather, you can train and have sparring-matches, but that is as far as it is permitted. Law forbids full contact that brings any risk of a KO. To counter this, education is of the utmost importance; not just educating the public and media in general, but also, more specifically, the politicians. This past weekend the Norwegian MMA Federation (NMMAF) attended “UFC Fightnight: Gustafsson vs Johnson” in Stockholm. With great help from the International MMA Federation (IMMAF) we once again had the chance to continue to educate Norwegian politicians. This time around, we brought Oskar Grimstad from Fremskrittspartiet (the Progress Party). Mr Grimstad stated he came with an open mind and was eager to learn about our beloved sport. He also said, that one of the politicians we had brought over last time, Mette Hanekamhaug, had told him in advance; “Oskar, you just HAVE to go!”. The IMMAF Vice President, George Sallfeldt, had prepared a great program and we started with a seminar about MMA. For the first half Mr Sallfeldt focused on the Swedish MMA model, as well as giving us a little insight into the fight that taken place to make MMA legal in Sweden. In the second half, IMMAF CEO Densign White continued with a great lecture about MMA in a broader context, about IMMAF, their vision, goals and progress. The seminar ended with a discussion involving all participants. Among others, Bertrand Amoussou (President, IMMAF) Johan Halldin (President, SMMAF), Densign White (CEO IMMAF),Thomas Rye Eriksen (Director of Communications, NMMAF) and myself (Henning Svendsen, President NMMAF). We went onto dinner over which we engaged in discussions about various topics. As they say in Norway, “Uten mat og drikke, duger helten ikke” – Without food and drinks, the hero does not function! We continued to the Tele2 Arena where we watched the UFC. Mr Grimstad met a few people at the stadium including Gary Cook of the UFC and Mona Sahlin. In between the rounds, he stated that he was very pleased with the trip,  saying that he had never believed the sport to be this big, or this safe! Overall, he was very positive about the whole experience, and the night concluded with a lot of laughter as well as sincere level of  respect. For more information about the NMMAF please visit: http://www.nmmaf.no/  
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