Wikipedia:WikiProject Mixed martial arts

Welcome to WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts. This is a Wikiproject formed to encourage a community of cohesive editing for Mixed martial arts articles. If you wish to join us, please add your name to the list on the participants page and please say hello on the talk page. Guidelines for creating and formatting MMA articles are below.

Scope
This WikiProject aims to describe a template for new articles about Mixed martial artists, unify currently existing articles and improve the overall quality of mixed martial arts related pages.

Goals
The goal of this project is to provide a unified structure, a toolkit of templates and a central discussion area for the creation and improvement of articles relating to Mixed Martial Arts; the ultimate goal being for Wikipedia to contain an authoritative set of articles of Good or Featured quality relating to all significant aspects of MMA and to contain an article for all fighters that are notable.

Notability of fighters
See MMA notability

Notability of fighters is one of the biggest issues for the project. WP:MMANOT is a summary of what many of the experienced users for the project believe to be notable organisations and the definition of a notable fighter. Should a fighter not fulfil this criteria, it is unlikely that they warrant an article on Wikipedia.

Discussion is always welcome at the MMA notability page, linked above (or WT:MMANOT for the discussion page), as we attempt to establish a wider consensus for who or what is notable.

Work-tracking lists

 * List of fighters that need full articles
 * List of promotions that need full articles
 * List of fight teams that need full articles
 * List of events that need full articles

Ongoing work
See talk page for suggested additions.

Project templates
In addition to the below-mentioned   and    template group, the following templates are suggested for use on MMA articles.

Barnstar
Please show another productive editor some love! To add, place: on their talkpage. Template:MMA Barnstar

Biographical stubs (e.g. fighters, promoters, referees)
Please use   instead of   , as this will create an appropriate categorization and banner that will direct editors to this project.

Non-biographical stubs (e.g. fight promotions, events)
Please use   instead of   , as this will create an appropriate categorization and banner that will direct editors to this project.

Banner for use on article talk pages
Please add WikiProject Mixed martial arts to the top of talk pages of MMA articles, to help direct new editors to the project. Using   underneath that on talk pages will create an editable to do list as we have at the top of this page, which you can leave notes for yourself or other editors in. By default if no article class is specified, it will automatically be placed in Category:Unassessed mixed martial arts articles.

Userbox
Members of the project are welcome to use the project userbox by adding   to their pages:

Statsbox

 * Template:Infobox_martial_artist

Template for MMA Training Associations

 * Template:MMA Training Associations

Template for MMA organizations

 * Template:MMA organizations

Article structure
The articles about mixed martial arts fighters should follow the structure outlined below to ensure a consistent structure. An easy way to start a new article is to copy the source of the quickbio template.

Infobox martial artist
All articles should begin with an Infobox martial artist (click for example).

Syntax


 * Do not add flag icons in the infobox. Flag icons should not be used to emphasize nationality and they are redundant with a written location. They are unnecessarily distracting and give undue prominence to one field among many. For more details, please read Manual of Style (icons).
 * Do not use the style parameter from the Infobox martial artist in MMA biographical articles. Modern MMA requires training several fighting styles, which means that no mixed martial artist uses a single style when fighting. References that describe martial arts ranks (i.e. black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) and/or martial arts training (i.e. training boxing) are not evidence of fighting style and are not valid to justify a fighting style in an infobox. Do not add your own interpretation of a fighting style. The style parameter should only be used in MMA fighters that have participated professionally or in international competitions in other combat sports (i.e. boxing or kickboxing) and who are notable in said sports and deserve an article for their merits in these other sports (i.e. Antônio Rogério Nogueira, Alistair Overeem). It is suggested to MMA editors that they actively remove the style parameter in infoboxes of MMA fighters that do not meet these criteria.
 * When using the team parameter, it is suggested to add all teams/gyms used by a fighter through his/her fighting career, as long as they can be referenced with reliable sources. If a team can't be referenced, do not add it. Add the time period in which a fighter was part of said teams and sort them in a descending chronological order, e.g.:
 * Roufusport (2008-present)
 * AKA (2006-2008)
 * ATT (2005-2006)


 * In the weightclass field, try to include the name of the division. Per this discussion, there is a consensus against including the numerical ranges of each division. Example:


 * If a fighter has competed in a promotion that doesn't follow the ranges given by the Unified Rules, add a note with the name of the promotion. Example:


 * If a fighter has competed in several weight classes, add all of them using the tag  after each other. Include a note if the promotion doesn't follow the Unified Rules weight classes. Example:


 * If a fighter has competed in weight classes that are no longer in use, add the name of the promotion and the period where the rules were in effect. Example:


 * If possible, use footnotes for promotion related information

Lead section
Lead section should include the basic information about the fighter and an overview of notable accomplishments. For example:
 * Joe Riggs (born September 23, 1982) is an American mixed martial arts fighter. He currently fights as a welterweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Do not add notable victories/wins in the lead section as that does not represent a concise overview of the article, it does not present a neutral point of view and there is no objective way to determine what makes a victory notable. If you believe that a single notable victory should be added for a specific fighter, first discuss it in the article's talk page or in the talk page of this WikiProject to determine by consensus whether or not that information should go in the lead section.

Early life or Background
Early life or Background section should begin with a == Early life == or == Background == title to outline the fighters' life before MMA. Including the details of the fighters childhood: place of birth, sibling information, parents occupation is optional. Further details can include the information on the fighters other careers, his marriage(s), children, pets, etc. Training can be included here, or below, in the martial arts training section.

For example:
 * Fedor Emelianenko was born in 1976 in the Rubezhnoe town in Luhansk region, presently a part of Ukraine (part of the Soviet Union at the time).  Fedor's family moved to Stary Oskol, Russia in 1978.  His mother, Olga Feodorovna, is a teacher.  His father, Vladimir Alexandrovich, is a gas-electric welder.  Fedor is the second child in the family and has an older sister, Marina, and two younger brothers, Aleksander (born 1981) and Ivan (born 1988).  Aleksander is also an MMA fighter in PRIDE and Ivan is currently in training.


 * Fedor finished high school in 1991 and graduated with honors from a professional trade school in 1994. In 1999 he married his wife, Oksana. Fedor's daughter, Masha, was also born in 1999.

Martial arts training
The Early life section can also include a subsection on the fighter's martial arts background & training regimen.

Example:
 * Emelianenko's enthusiasm for fighting began with Sambo and Judo. He initially trained under Vasiliy Ivanovich Gavrilov, and later under his current coach, Vladimir Mihailovich Voronov. Voronov remembers that ten-year-old Fedor was relatively weak physically and did not have an innate grappling talent; instead, Fedor's biggest strength was his perseverance and strong will.


 * In 1997, Emelianenko received the official certification of a "Master of Sports" in Sambo and Judo. Fedor earned bronze medal in 1998 Russian Judo Championsip. In 2000, he started studying striking with arms and legs under coach Alexander Vasilievich Michkov.


 * Fedor used to weight train extensively, but in 1999 he almost completely substituted his weight exercises with sport-specific training in grappling, boxing and kick-boxing. His strength training consists of daily pull-ups, push ups on parallel bars, and crunches. Emelianenko also runs 12-15 kilometers (7.5 - 9.3 miles) every day. Fedor is a proponent of high altitude training and he travels to Kislovodsk, Russia with his team once or twice a year to train in high altitude.

Mixed martial arts career

 * 1) Write down his/her early career.
 * 2) Write down recent events.
 * 3) If a fighter is officially scheduled to fight in the near future (less than a year), future bouts can be mentioned in a short sentence at the end of this section, provided that they are backed up with reliable sources. Use simple sentences that can be easily modified when the bout has passed. For example, "XXXX will face YYYY on ZZZZ" would be changed to "XXXX faced YYYY on ZZZZ", adding - "which he lost/won.....". This makes it easier for editors to update the information and also comment when a notable fight is cancelled.

Record
His/her fight records. It does not have to be about only MMA record. If they have taken part in any Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling or kickboxing etc. matches, you can create a section for each discipline and add that information.

Mixed martial arts
A typical subsection would include a list of any titles won, followed by this 2 part record table. Both parts, the collapsible "Professional record breakdown" and the more detailed fight table (second part) use a template. Both parts should be included, in the order shown below.

Example input:
 * MMArecordbox

Example Input:
 * MMA record start


 * The record column (shown above) should be added to the record table for clarity. As we get many unregistered users updating fight records, many of them neglect to update the record box numbers, which creates errors. By including the record column, these errors are ironed out and readers know the actual record of the specific fighter.
 * Never add future bouts. The purpose of the record table is to provide a quick account of a fighter's past career, not to speculate about his/her future. Upcoming bouts that have been officially announced can only be mentioned within the body text at the end of the Mixed martial arts career section, provided that they are notable (covered by reliable third-party sources.)
 * In the column Results, only use "Win", "Loss", "Draw" or "NC".
 * In the column Record, uses dashes (–), not hyphens (-), to separate wins, losses and draws.
 * In the column Opponent, do not add flag icons before the name of the opponent. Per MOS:ICON, the consensus in Wikipedia is that flag icons should not be used to emphasize nationality without good reason. Flag icons for sportspeople should only be used in a sporting sense, that is, only when they are representing a national squad/team or for representative nationality in a competition, not legal nationality. There is no international sport governing body in MMA and MMA events are mainly handled by individual promotions. As such, MMA fighters do not represent their countries in a sporting sense, so flag icons do not serve an encyclopedic purpose. Flag icons should not be added only because they look good, because aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder: one reader's harmless decoration may be another reader's distraction
 * In the column Method, per Manual of Style (capital letters), do not capitalize the text within parentheses. For example, use "TKO (corner stoppage)" instead of "TKO (Corner Stoppage)"
 * In the column Method, do not use your personal interpretation of a fight result in the record. Using a reliable source is important. The official website or Sherdog may be useful.
 * In the column Method, do not wikify the finishing method. That should be done within the body text only.
 * In the column Event, if an event has its own article in Wikipedia, use the name of the article and do not add extra text or stylization. For example, use UFC 60 instead of UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie, use Dream 11 instead of DREAM.11 Featherweight Grand Prix 2009 Final.
 * In the column Event, do not use hyphens or dashes when referring to the subtitle of an event, for example, don't use "Deep – Gladiator", use instead normal English punctuation, "Deep: Gladiator". In the same way, make sure that events have not redundant subtitles, for example, do not use "XFS 2: Xtreme Fight Series 2", just leave "Xtreme Fight Series 2" or "XFS 2".
 * In the column Event, only wikify events that have an article at Wikipedia, not organizations. Organizations should only be wikified once within the body text of the article.
 * In the column Location, do not add flag icons as they are redundant since the country must be mentioned in the text and their usage in such conditions is against Manual of Style (icons), they increase server load and can be annoying for people with slow connections or text-based browsers.
 * In the column Location, try to include, whenever possible, city and country according to how they are names in their respective articles in Wikipedia. For example, "Las Vegas, Nevada, United States" or "Tokyo, Japan". In some countries, like the U.S., the name of the cities may be the same in different local regions, such as Hollywood, Florida and Hollywood, Alabama, so, in order to avoid confusion, include the full city name as it is titled in its Wikipedia article. To maintain a similar format for all cities in the location column, try to include the similar existing redirects for cities that do not include the local region after the city name in their Wikipedia articles. For example, use the redirect Osaka, Osaka instead of Osaka.
 * The column Notes is meant to be used for information related to the bout, including but not limited to special rules, awards earned, failure to make weight and similar. Do not use it to put irrelevant text such as "MMA Debut", "UFC debut", "Cut from the UFC" or similar text not directly related to the bout.

Categories
Please add categories as appropriate &mdash; there are generally categories for the sports and martial arts that fighters may have practiced, and please always select the correct nationality from Category:Mixed martial artists by nationality.

*adding a link to a category adds the article to the category - this page does not belong in that category!

Other categories to be included are:

Parentage
The parents of this WikiProject are WikiProject Sports and WikiProject Martial Arts.

Descendant Wikiprojects
No descendant WikiProjects have been defined.

Similar Wikiprojects

 * WikiProject Martial arts/Kickboxing task force
 * WikiProject Martial arts
 * WikiProject Boxing