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Mixed Martial Arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a combat sport in which a wide variety of fighting techniques are used, including striking and grappling. The term "Mixed martial arts" also refers to a martial arts style; see Hybrid martial arts.
Modern mixed martial arts emerged in 1993 with the Ultimate Fighting Championships, based on the concept of pitting different fighting styles against each other in competition with minimal rules, in an attempt to determine which system would be more effective in a real, unregulated combat situation. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, MMA competitions implemented additional rules for the safety of the athletes and to promote acceptance of the sport, while maintaining as much of the original no-holds-barred concept as possible. Since these changes, MMA has grown rapidly, to the point of setting pay-per-view records. The history of the modern sport can be traced to the Gracie family's vale tudo ("anything goes") martial arts tournaments in Brazil starting in the 1920s, and early mixed martial arts matches hosted by Antonio Inoki in Japan in the 1970s. MMA gained international exposure and widespread publicity in the US in 1993, when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter Royce Gracie dominated the Ultimate Fighting Championship, sparking a revolution in the martial arts, while in Japan in 1997 the continued interest in the sport resulted in the creation of the PRIDE Fighting Championships. Boxing vs. jujitsu contests were popular entertainments throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early years of the 1900s. In Japan these contests were known as Merikan, from the Japanese slang for "American (fighting)". Merikan contests were fought under a variety of rules including points decision, best of three throws or knock-downs, and knock-out/submission. Professional wrestling died out after World War I and was reborn in two streams: "shoot", in which the fighters actually competed, and "show," which evolved into modern sports entertainment professional wrestling. MMA reached a new peak of popularity in the Dec. 2006 rematch between then light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and former champion Tito Ortiz , rivaling the PPV sales of some of the biggest boxing events of all time, and helping the UFC's 2006 PPV gross surpass that of any promotion in PPV history.
The concept of combining various combat disciplines has gained some popularity in the late 1960's and early 1970's with the emergence of Bruce Lee and his theories of hybrid fighting. Lee believed that "the best fighter is not a Boxer, Karate or Judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt to any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man." Mixed martial arts gained real international exposure and widespread publicity in the US in 1993, when Royce Gracie won the first Ultimate Fighting Championship, sparking a revolution in the martial arts. In Japan in 1997, the continued interest in the sport eventually resulted in the creation of the PRIDE Fighting Championships.[4] In 2007 the owners of UFC bought PRIDE, creating strong ties between the two largest MMA promoters, and drawing comparisons to the consolidation that occurred in other sports, such as the AFL-NFL Merger in American football.
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Modern mixed martial
arts are rooted in
two interconnected
movements. First
were the vale tudo
events in Brazil,
followed by the
Japanese shoot
wrestling shows.
Vale tudo (meaning
'anything goes')
began in the 1920s
with the famous
"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,
inspiring 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.
