Welcome to the martial world, MMA has been one of the fastest growing sports in the world for most of the past two decades. In modern times it is a sport, which enjoys a huge following of millions of people all over the world on all continents. Modern MMA came to prominence in the early 1990s when the UFC was established in the United States, inviting the best fighters in the world to compete in the Octagon to determine who reigned supreme.
But the sport has been around much longer than that and shares its origins during the early history of man. At its core, MMA is a fusion of all combat disciplines, harmoniously combined to form a unified and continuous system. Some say it's the purest form of unarmed combat because it takes the biggest elements of various martial arts and blends them together.
The martial world was about analyzing the concepts of MMA throughout history and examining how the sport came about, where it all started and where it is going. Although it is said that MMA was born in the late 19th century, there are records of certain martial arts that contained MMA concepts, dating back to ancient civilization. The concept of bringing together multiple forms of struggle is certainly not new and can be traced back to the beginning of man's history.
One of the earliest forms of MMA originated from the Han dynasty in ancient China, developed by the Chinese military as a form of hand-to-hand combat to be used in warfare. The art was called Shuai Jiao, and it combined styles like wrestling and kung fu. It was one of the first martial arts to combine striking techniques, including kicks, punches, throws, and various joint locks.
Ancient Greece also had its own adaptation called Pancrazio, combining elements of striking and grappling that were very similar to modern MMA. Pancracio brought together the arts of wrestling and boxing and introduced the sport as early as the 33rd Olympiad in 648 BC. In Pancrazio, all blows were allowed with a few exceptions which included biting and gouging out the eyes.
Bouts were fought between two fighters and continued until one fighter could no longer continue or was submitted. Later, the Pancratium was passed on to other cultures, such as the ancient Romans. Over the years, more and more countries began to experiment with their own martial arts, and the concept of mixing fighting styles was becoming commonplace.
MMA soon spread rapidly around the world, including Europe and the West. In the mid-nineteenth century, practitioners of Savate (French martial art), challenged fighters who practiced other martial arts, in order to test their combat techniques. A tournament was held in 1852 between French Savate wrestlers and English boxers.
The fascination with testing martial arts versus martial arts continued over the next few years, and soon, the concept of MMA began to catch on in the rest of the world. The first martial art known to combine European fighting styles with Asian martial arts is called Bartitsu, founded in London in 1899 by Edward William Barton-Wright. He merged various elements from Judo, Western Boxing, Savate and Jiu-Jitsu.
Naturally, with the rise in popularity of MMA concepts, history has seen many mixed style tournaments take place. During the 1920s, a martial art and combat sport called sambo appeared in the Soviet Union, combining elements of wrestling, judo and striking. In the middle of the same decade , Vale tudo appeared in Brazil, the nature of this combat was to have no rules, you could grab your opponent and take him to the ground, or use a precise sweep to execute a takedown, add all kinds of punches.
, kicks and submission technique to your combat arsenal. In 1963, legendary judoka and “Judo” fighter Gene Lebell, who years later would coach popular MMA fighter Ronda Rousey, faced professional boxer Milo Savage in a no-holds-barred fight . Lebell defeated Savage with a rear naked choke to knock him unconscious.
It was the first televised mixed style match in the United States. In the same year, three Kyokushin Karate practitioners from Japan traveled to Thailand and fought at the prestigious Lumpinee Boxing Stadium against three Muay Thai fighters. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, martial artist turned Hollywood actor Bruce Lee, nicknamed "The Drgon", became world famous for his incredible martial arts skill.
He had developed his own unique style called Jeet Kune Do, which again carried the MMA concept by blending everything that worked in all martial arts to form a single cohesive fighting style. Many experts consider Jeet Kune Do the forerunner of the sport we know today, and Bruce Lee is considered by many to be the “Father of Modern MMA”. The development in martial arts that led to the establishment of the American and Japanese MMA scene is one that saw the rise of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Things started in the early 1900s when Carlos and Helio Gracie, founding fathers of the renowned Gracie family of fighters that invented Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, launched the “Gracie Challenge”, which was held at various academies. Fighters from all over the world traveled to Brazil to accept the Gracie challenge, but often lost because they had never experienced this high-level fighting technique before. This legend planted the seed of thought that would later manifest itself in modern MMA.
In 1993, the UFC was established, with the promotion holding its first event on November 12 of that year at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. With an audience of almost 8,000 people, the UFC held a one-day, eight-man tournament with no weight divisions, no rounds and no breaks in fights, as well as no judges. The only two rules were no biting and no eye gouging.
The fights could only end by submission, knockout or stoppage from a corner by means of a towel throw. The tournament was won by Royce Gracie, son of Helio, who received $50,000 for his victory. Two decades later, MMA, as we know it today, is one of the biggest sports in the world.
In addition to the UFC, there are now also many large global MMA organizations such as ONE Championship in Asia and Bellator MMA in the United States. Mixed martial arts techniques include striking (such as kicks, knees, and punches) and grappling (such as clinches, pins, submissions, sweeps, takedowns, and throws). MMA competitors train in a variety of styles to counter their opponents' techniques.
While mixed martial arts were initially practiced almost exclusively by competitive fighters, this is no longer the case. As the sport became more popular and more widely taught, it became accessible to a wider range of practitioners of all ages. Despite a large number of historical influences, modern MMA is considered to be derived from Brazilian jiu-jitsu and vale tudo.
MMA events continued to develop over the decades until 1993, when the first official global MMA event – UFC 1 – was held in Denver, Colorado. This is the official “birth year” of MMA and one of the most important events in the evolution of mixed and hybrid combat sports. UFC 1 was televised and it was in a review by critic Howard Rosenberg that the term “mixed martial arts” first appeared.
Over 30 years, MMA has evolved from a fringe television event to a global phenomenon in which huge amounts of money are invested. MMA's popularity continues to increase and the sport has yet to reach its peak. Today, after many rule changes and iterations, MMA is a highly regulated sport with a robust set of rules that has made the sport safer for competitive athletes while retaining the raw emotion and spirit of mixed-style combat.
How far it can go is very difficult to say, but MMA will continue to grow as more people get attached to spectacular fights and events. If you liked it, like, subscribe, comment, share and turn on notifications and see you next time.
