Mixed martial arts

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Action "armbar" in a fight of mixed martial arts
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Action "armbar" in a fight of mixed martial arts

Mixed martial arts (or MMA) is a sport where two people fight to see which one is dominant. Not like other fighting sports like boxing, MMA fights have few rules and fighters can use any martial art they like in the fight. In these fights, fighters can fight standing up with punches, kicks and other strikes, fight in a clinch where fighters are grabbing each other while standing up, or fight on the ground. Each fighter will try to make the other person quit by putting them in a painful submission (that does not cause injury), or try to knock them out. Each fight can last only for a period of time, after the time ends, judges decide who is the winner. The referee in the fight will make sure no one gets hurt too badly and that rules are followed.

Contents

[edit] History of the Mixed Martial Arts

The pankration was an old style of combat without weapon. The ancient Greeks introduced this sport into the Olympic Games in the 648 BC. Some public shows of fight took place at the end of the 19th century. They represented different styles of fighting, including jujutsu, wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling and other in competitions and challenges in the whole Europe. After World War I, wrestling was born again in two main flows. The first flow was a real competition; the second flow began to depend more on the choreography and on the grand public shows that resulted in the professional wrestling.

The modern mixed martial arts have their roots in two kinds of competitions: the Vale Tudo in Brazil, and the Japanese Shootwrestling. At that time, they were connected each with other but they were separated. The Vale Tudo began about 1930, when Carlson Gracie invited every competitor to compete in a fight. That was so-called "Gracie's Challenge". Later, Hélio Gracie and Gracie's family continued this introducing. In Japan, about 1970, Antonio Inoki organized a series of fights of mixed martial arts. They were the forces that produced the Shootwrestling, and they later caused the developing of the first organization of mixed martial arts, known as Shooto. The mixed martial arts obtained great popularity in the United States in 1993, when Rorion Gracie created the first competitions of UFC. In 1997, in Japan, the interest for this sport resulted in the creation of the greater organization of mixed martial arts - Pride Fighting Championship.

The Gracie family caused the tournaments, as the UFC, to be well known. It should be noticed that the UFC is the most famous tournament, but the persons who practises Brazilian jiujitsu normally do not use blows. Undoubtedly, the Gracie family played an important role in the creation of open competitions of Vale Tudo and in causing them to be well known through the television. Nevertheless, before anyone created the UFC or Shooto, where the persons who represent every method of self-defense can fight, there had already existed such mixed martial arts as: the jeetkunedo, the kajukembo and the Karate Nisei Goju Ryu.

[edit] Gradual development of the competitors

About the year 1990, three styles were famous for their effectiveness in the competitions of the mixed martial arts: the wrestling, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and the shootwrestling. This can be because of their attention given to the combat by means of holds. Before the year 1990, the promoters organized a lacking amount of the competitions of the mixed martial arts, and some martial arts base on blows. Therefore, probably, most instructors of these arts had given too little attention to the holds.

[edit] The most important competitions of the mixed martial arts on the world

[edit] The United States

[edit] Japan

  • Pride Fighting Championship www.pridefc.com;
  • Pancrase;
  • Shooto;
  • K-1 Hero's.

[edit] Europe

[edit] Brazil

  • Meca FC;
  • Storm Samurai;
  • Jungle Fight;
  • International Vale Tudo Championship.