The History of Mixed Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts is a combat sport involving many techniques. Some of the disciplines involved in the sport include wrestling, karate, judo, Thai boxing, jujitsu and boxing. This exciting sport is one of the fastest-growing around the world. It is currently practised in almost every country in the world.

Origin

This game originated from Greece. It was during the Olympics conducted in the country. It came from a close combat game which was called pankration in Greece. This Greek competition only had two rules. Competitors were allowed to do anything apart from biting their opponents or gouging their eyes. The participants of this game were regarded as heroes.

This later spread to India through Alexander the Great. The sport then moved to China. This was due to a Chinese monk who travelled through India. The Chinese monk picked up some of the aspects of pankration game. He moved on to spread that knowledge in China. This brought about the Asian martial arts, which include kung fu, karate and judo. New martial arts styles were born as people continued moving around the world, spreading their knowledge on this combat sport.

These many varieties gave birth to mixed-style competitions. These matches were mainly formed due to sportsmen challenging each other to see who was a better fighter. These trials occurred between opponents of different fighting techniques. The winners of these competitions always got bragging rights.

As the years went by, people started learning from other techniques to boost their chances of winning a challenging fight. This has really helped to improve Mixed Martial Arts around the world. This is because fighters have to be familiar with different disciplines when fighting another opponent who is familiar with a specific combat technique. Currently, competitions are carried between opponents who are familiar with more than one combat discipline.