Lebanon Bans Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Under New Regulations. Mixed Martial Arts has effectively been banned in Lebanon. ... A decree from the Lebanese Sports Ministry outlawed both the octagon cage used in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the practice of this sport and its techniques.23 Feb. 2017 – The Minister of Youth and Sports has officially taken the decision of banning the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Lebanon. He will also remove all the licenses linked to this game.This resolution was announced, February 23rd, and prohibits the organization of any public sports events or festivities that are related or similar to MMA. It revokes all activities that use a cage and violence.The resolution 52/1/2017 was stipulated in the law as following: Article 1: Resolution 67/1/2016 on 10/4/2012 regarding MMA is annulled, and so the said game becomes one of the non-practiced sports in Lebanon.Article 2: It is prohibited to any party, and under any title, to hold games, competitions and events of MMA or any similar sport in which a cage and violence are used, and that, under the risk of applying the laws in force. 
The first thing that comes to my mind is: when is a sport too violent to be considered a sport? If I can take a guess, I would say that the early days of mma where pretty violent, but it has become way more regulated and better supervised by refs  and medical professionals. Society as a whole may consider mma to still be violent, but I think that has more to do with ignorance than mma really being violent.
Let’s make mma legal in Lebanon again 

credits: arabsmma,sports961