Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows a wide variety
of fighting techniques, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions,
to be used in Links. The rules allow the use of striking and grappling techniques,
both while standing and on the ground. Such Links allow martial artists of different
backgrounds to compete. Modern mixed martial arts competition emerged in American
popular culture in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Originally organized with the intention of finding the most effective martial arts
for real unarmed combat situations, competitors of various arts were pitted against
one another with minimal rules for safety. In the following decade, MMA promoters
adopted many additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote
mainstream acceptance of the sport. The name mixed martial arts was coined by one
of the developers of these rules, Jeff Blatnick, a former Greco-Roman wrestler and
Olympic gold medalist. Following these changes, the sport has seen increased popularity
with pay per view reach rivaling boxing and professional wrestling.
While different forms of unorganized, no-rules, unarmed combat predate history, civilization,
and even the human species itself (even apes fight hand-to-hand), the earliest documented,
organized, minimal-rules fighting event was the ancient Greek pankration, which was
introduced into the Olympic Games in 648 B.C. Greek pankration later inspired the
more violent Etruscan and Roman pancratium, an event showcased at the Roman Colosseum.
Even as late as the Early Middle Ages, statues were put up in Rome and other cities
to honour remarkable pankratiasts of Rome. No-holds-barred events reportedly took
place in the late 1800s when wrestlers representing a huge range of fighting styles,
including various catch wrestling styles, Greco-Roman wrestling and many others met
in tournaments and music-hall challenge matches throughout Europe. In the USA the
first major encounter between a boxer and a wrestler in modern times took place in
1887 when John L. Sullivan, then heavyweight world boxing champion, entered the ring
with his trainer, Greco-Roman wrestling champion William Muldoon, and was slammed
to the mat in two minutes. The next publicized encounter occurred in the late 1890s
when future heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons took on European Greco-Roman
wrestling champion Ernest Roeber. Reportedly, Roeber suffered a fractured cheekbone
in this bout, but was able to get Fitzsimmons down on the mat, where he applied an
armlock and made the boxer submit. In Europe, around the 19th century, the Italian
Giovanni Raicevich, skilled in Greco-Roman wrestling defeated Akitaro Ono, a Japanese
heavyweight fighter skilled in Jujutsu, Judo, and Sumo, throwing him on the mat by
one-arm shoulder throw. In 1936, heavyweight boxing contender Kingfish Levinsky and
veteran professional wrestler Ray Steele competed in a mixed match, which Steele
won in 35 seconds. Another early example of mixed martial arts combat was the martial
art of Bartitsu, founded in London in 1899, which was the first martial art known
to have combined Asian and European fighting styles, and which saw MMA-style contests
throughout England, pitting European and Japanese champions against representatives
of various European wrestling styles.
The history of modern MMA competition can be traced to mixed style contests throughout
Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early 1900s; the Gracie family's vale
tudo martial arts tournaments in Brazil starting in the 1920s; and early mixed martial
arts matches (known as Kakutougi in Japan) hosted by Antonio Inoki in Japan in the
1970s. The sport gained international exposure and widespread publicity in the United
States in 1993, when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter Royce Gracie handily won the first
Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament, subduing three challengers in just five
minutes, sparking a revolution in the martial arts. Meanwhile in Japan the continued
interest in the sport resulted in the creation of the Pride Fighting Championships
in 1997. The movement that led to the creation of the UFC, and Pride was rooted in
two interconnected subcultures. First were the vale tudo events in Brazil, followed
by the Japanese shoot wrestling shows. Vale tudo began in the 1920s with the "Gracie
challenge" issued by Carlos Gracie and Hélio Gracie and upheld later on by descendants
of the Gracie family. In Japan in the 1970s, a series of mixed martial arts matches
were hosted by Antonio Inoki, a former star of New Japan Pro Wrestling; this inspired
the shoot-style movement in Japanese professional wrestling, which eventually led
to the formation of the first mixed martial arts organizations, such as Shooto, which
was formed in 1985.
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