History of Mixed Martial Arts

Mixed martial arts, also known as ultimate fighting, is a combat sport that allows full contact fighting techniques that involve multiple martial arts. The martial arts include hand to hand punching and kicking, this term is known as striking. Striking consists of martial arts such as boxing, kick boxing, and muay thai. Mixed martial arts also include a variety of ground fighting moves, also known as grappling moves, that include martial arts such as Brazilian jiu jitsu, judo, sambo, and wrestling.

History and Evolution of the Sport

The sport of mixed martial arts dates back to the ancient Greece era. It has been reported that an ancient Olympic combat sport called Pankration was a form of mixed martial arts. This Olympic sport was combination martial arts that involved stand up striking and ground fighting.

The word pankration is described as the two Greek words, pan and kratos, which mean "all powers." This describes Pankration because of all the martial arts that are involved in the competition. All power forms of striking, wrestling, and grappling techniques are involved with Panration. The sport only had two rules which included no biting or eye gouging. The matches had no time limit and could only be end by knockout or submission. It has been reported that the average match would last for several hours.

Modern Day Mixed Martial Arts

Pankration began to decline and eventually was abolished from Greece Olympic competition. Other forms of martial arts began to evolve. Following the Greece era, in the late 1800's, wrestlers began to organized tournaments in Europe to determine what the best fighting styles were. In the early 1900's mixed martial arts competitions began forming all throughout Europe, Japan, and parts of Asia. Mixed martial arts began creating more rules that included time limits and point systems. By the mid 1900's more mixed martial arts competitions began to unfold throughout the world. Popular competitions, disciplines, and tournaments were introduced by martial artist Bruce Lee and the Gracie family. Lee introduced a popular hybrid martial art called Jeet Kune Doon. The Gracie family formed the martial art Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, a ground fighting grappling.

Early 1990's

In the early 1990's North America began to get involved with the sport of mixed martial arts. The Ultimate Fighting Championship was formed in 1993 by the company Semaphore Entertainment Group. The UFC hosted no holds barred mixed martial arts tournaments. Most of the tournaments involved fighters with various martial arts backgrounds. The company SEG promoted the UFC in a bad form. SEG wanted to market the UFC as a blood sport and not a martial art. The negative marketing led to a lot of bad publicity for MMA and the UFC in the United States. The UFC continued to grow more popular in the USA, but eventually was banned from pay per view in 1997. Pride Fighting Championship also formed in the early 1990's. Pride was founded in Japan and hosted mixed martial arts tournaments in large arenas.

Late 1990's

In the late 1990's the UFC, to become more mainstream, started to promote the sport in a more positive way. The UFC created safer rules, hired judges for matches, incorporated time limits, weight classes, and rounds. The changes helped the UFC get back on pay per view and become sanctioned by several organizations in North America. Pride Fighting Championships continued to grow in popularity in Japan and throughout the world.

2000's and Present

SEG, due to financial problems, sold the UFC to Zuffa. Zuffa was led by Dana White and the Fertitta brothers. When Zuffa purchased the UFC, they invested millions of dollars into the company. Zuffa organized great matches for the UFC and held matches in Canada, Japan, Brazil, Europe, and North America. Zuffa marketed the UFC as martial art competition. Eventually the UFC continued to gain popularity worldwide and bought out its rival MMA company Pride Fighting Championships. The UFC is currently considered the most popular MMA company in the world.

Source: http://entertainment.ezinemark.com/history-of-mixed-martial-arts-7d3372145e71.html

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