If you haven’t heard the name, if you don’t watch Mixed Martial Arts, then you might be surprised at just who Nainoa Dung is about to become.

On Saturday June 21^st, the world might just get a chance to see history be made as the nine year old tries to unify the MMA belts in his weight division.

Wait a minute?

I didn’t know there was a division for kids to knock themselves out cold. When did this even become legal?

From www.khnl.com

"I think it would be a great accomplishment for Nainoa and his family and it would directly be the result of all the hard work him and his family are putting in," said Bryan Sanders, Nainoa's wrestling coach.

Every day Nainoa trains hard to achieve his goal, which is one reason why he's been so successful. In his young career Nainoa's undefeated in almost fifty competitions.

"He's very persistent, he enjoys the love of the sport and he'll get there because he trains very hard, I believe in him," said his mother, Rosalynn Cummings.

He’ll get where? Brain dead by the age of twenty?

MMA is already considered a controversial enough sport already without allowing children to fight, too. I know a lot of karate enthusiasts are pro-MMA and consider it the same, but mixed martial arts fights are fought until knockout or submission. Do we really want to see children been exploited in this manner?

Nainoa began training under his father while also trained at Uprighting Fight Team in Wahiawa, Hawaii. Described as a child prodigy in the field of martial arts, the young boy, weighing about 60 pounds, had his first professional fight by the age of 8.

The state Of Hawaii claims that this is only youth kickboxing, without the grappling of wrestling, but it still looks like MMA to me with the octagonal arena and the drive to knock your opponent out. Since youth kickboxing is such a new sport, there are absolutely no regulations under any state laws. These matches are geared more towards adult MMA matches than the traditional point system recognized by youth karate divisions.

Kids fighting in weight classes and going for accolades of competition that are reserved for adults puts the whole legality of youth kickboxing in question. The fact that this sport is growing and popular will only add to the controversy and someday put it under the microscope of state regulators.