The History of Mixed Martial Arts
If you want to become an expert in everything to do with MMA, then it’s a great idea to get clued up on how this sport evolved into what it is today. Whether you’re a competitor yourself, or you just have an interest in MMA, it can be important and useful to know how this sport came to exist in its modern form.
It began, in fact, as an ancient Olympic combat event known as Pankration, which went on to become popular with the Romans. From very earliest times people would place bets on who they thought might win. In the late 1880′s, before modern MMA rules and regulations were enforced, many ‘no-holds-barred’ events would take place where wrestlers would exhibit a diverse range of fighting styles.
In the early 1900s, mixed fighting-style contests, such as boxing vs. jujutsu, became popular throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim. However, it wasn’t until the late 1960s that Bruce Lee, and his philosophy of Jeet Kune Do, popularised the concept of combining various elements of martial arts in the west.
In 1993, MMA competitions were introduced in the United States with the first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which gained much publicity and international exposure. Soon after, in 1999, The International Sport Combat Federation (ISCF) was created as the world’s first MMA Sanctioning body.
Since then, the increasing number of competitors and organized training camps has meant that the understanding of the combat-effectiveness of MMA strategies has been able to enjoy many improvements. In competition, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, amateur wrestling and submission wrestling all stood out as being more effective, over traditional styles like sumo wrestling and kickboxing. Although this sport continues to evolve today, the advantages to be found in these techniques have remained very much at the forefront of the MMA arena.
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