Manama, Bahrain, August 26, 2025: The presentation on Prevention of Competition Manipulation (PMC) struck a special chord on the second day of the 1st OCA-AMMA Development Programme for Coaches and Referees on Tuesday, August 26.
For focused on every word from Jamyang Namgyal, Manager, OCA Athletes Department, was an attentive Galastein Tan, Director General of the Asian Mixed Martial Arts Association, who later revealed that the continental governing body for the sport had still to establish a PMC unit.
“We are a new body, set up only in 2022, but I know it is important that we have a Prevention of Competition Manipulation unit in place soon, especially with the sport making its debut in a number of multi-sports Games in Asia soon,” Tan noted.
MMA will make its debut at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Riyadh 2026, and the Asian Youth Games in Bahrain this October.
The PMC presentation along with Safeguarding – presented on the opening day - and Anti-Doping is part of the OCA’s ‘Guarding the Asian Games’ initiative included in the package at this three-day seminar for MMA coaches and referees.
While all 107 participants from 20 Asian National Olympic Committee’s listened with interest to Namgyal, Tan was hanging onto every word, as he knows the importance of raising awareness of match-fixing – another word for competition manipulation.
“While no cases of match-fixing have come to light, it does not mean it is not there,” Tan said. “As they say, prevention is better than cure, and it is vital that we have our own PMC unit up-and-running.
“This presentation is good as it opens the eyes of everyone. It is good to have such presentations made at a development camp like this where key people in the sport, like coaches and referees, are involved,” he added.
The OCA’s Jamyang took his audience through a powerpoint presentation mixed with video clips of athletes who were caught manipulating, telling their sad stories of how they were sucked into corruption, and the huge price they had paid for their moments of weakness.
With the underground global sports betting market estimated at US$100 billion presently – and set to rise to an astronomical US$160 billion by 2030 – Jamyang warned that the reprehensible tentacles of criminals reached into every sport.
“I want all of you to remember and take back home the IOC’s Code of Conduct on match-fixing: ‘Don’t Fix, Don’t Bet, Don’t Share (information); and Speak-up (always report)’,” Jamyang reminded.
