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MMA (United States)

Mixed Martial Arts is a pseudo style that is a new way of thinking about old martial arts. Its are gleaned from techniques that are used effectively by different practitioners in open, non-style-specific sparring or competition that is designed to have as few rules as possible while still ensuring safety against death or server or permanent injury.

Probably the first MMA was pankration, a combination of striking and grappling that was introduced in the Olympic Games in 648 BC. However, for the most part, martial arts were individualistic and specialized in only one or two aspects of fighting, such as kicking, punching, locks, throws, etc.

Sport MMA. Mixed Martial Arts used for sporting competition, such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Pride Fighting Championship, or Vale Tudo style fighting matches. These matches usually have two unarmed persons with the core rules being: no biting, no eye-gouging (with fingers or chin), no fish-hooking (inserting body parts such as the fingers into bodily crevices such as the mouth or nose), and no groin attacks (striking or squeezing the groin). Rules are pretty much what the promoters make up. More restrictive promotions of MMA include old Pancrase, Shoot-fighting, or RINGS rules. These rule sets often ban striking on the ground, closed-fist striking, or both. In general, boxing (kickboxing/Muay Thai included), wrestling (freestyle, Greco-Roman, and to a lesser extent Judo), and Brazilian Jijutsu  are the three styles that comprise the core of nearly all modern MMA training.

Street MMA. Mixed Martial Arts as applied for non-sport situations. Many, though not all, of its practitioners come from a Jeet-kune-do background, and sometimesthey call what they do Jeet-kune-do, e.g. Matt Thornton, Erik Paulson. Their work is somewhat different from the Jeet-kune-do mainstream in calling for large amounts of few-rules sparring, and they encourage their students to do sport MMA sparring and competition. Most Street MMA practitioners believe that Sport MMA merely needs some changes in strategy (less emphasis on staying on the ground, more weapons awareness) and the addition of some techniques to become highly effective for the Street. By far the most common addition to Street MMA is Filipino Martial Art(FMA) training, due to its emphasis on, and practical use of weaponry, primarily the stick and knife.

The sport developed in the 1990's, with the main centers of development being Brazil, the United States, and Japan. Techniques were taken from the martial arts and sports of Brazil, Japan, England, America, Thailand, Holland, France, and Russia, along with smaller amounts from other nations. Early MMA was internationally popularized by the broadcast of the Ultimate Fighting Championship I in November of 1993.

The first documented Mixed Martial Arts style competitions, and certainly the conceptual ancestor of today's MMA, were the Pankration events of Classical Greece, where different styles of Greek wrestling and boxing were used. Their concentration was on representing the athletes' cities and each city's native styles were considered to be closely held secrets. Other forms of MMA have existed throughout history, such as French Brancaille.

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship was the brainchild of Art Davie and Rorian Gracie. Originally to be called War of the Worlds, it ended up featuring a sumo wrestler, a boxer, a savateur, two kick boxers, a Kenpo man, a shoot-fighter, and a Brazilian Jiujutsu fighter named Royce Gracie. Gracie won the tournament and two of the next three tournaments (Gracie could not continue due to heat stroke in UFC III). By the time of UFC III, the referee was allowed to stop fights. After UFC IV, Rorian Gracie pulled out of the UFC, and, after UFC 6, similar but smaller MMA events began popping up all over the country.

In the first few UFC tournaments, when the rules were limited to the core three, a large variety of stylists competed. However, few fared well. Boxers tended to dominate the striking, wrestlers (freestyle, Greco-Roman, and to a lesser extent Judo) dominated the takedowns, and Brazilian Jiujutsu dominated on the ground. As a result, people began focusing on these three. Most Sport MMA fighters fall into one of three general categories: the ground fighter, the wrestler, or the striker, although each uses techniques of the other and some are proficient in all categories.

Primary Fighting Styles

Starting in the late 1800s, wrestlers using a variety of fighting styles, including Jujitsu, catch-as-catch-can, collar-and-elbow, and Greco-Roman, met in tournaments and challenge matches throughout Europe. These contests evolved into the "shoot," in which the fighters actually competed, and the "show," which is today’s choreographed, theatrical professional wrestling.

Amongst the shoot styles, two stood out for their effectiveness, wrestling and Brazilian Jiujutsu (BJJ). Jiujutsu practitioners had the early advantage since wrestlers were not trained in striking techniques. Once wrestlers started training in striking, the advantage disappeared. This was one of the first usages of cross-training and lead to the development of mixed martial arts (MMA). Wrestling based MMAs evolved into two styles, the ground-and-pound (takedown and then punch relentlessly) and the clinch-and-pound (tie-up while standing and punch relentlessly).

In early MMA competitions, strikers (karate fighters, kick boxers, and boxers) regularly lost since they had no grappling skills. After they add ground fighting to their training, they scored major upsets over BJJ fighters, and showed that strikers could be effective in the sport. BJJ saw the error in its ways and added wrestling and Muay Thai to its training, and became competitive again.

Modern MMA practitioners train in all fighting disciplines but they tend to base their overall strategy on one particular style of fighting and become associated with it. The primary styles of modern MMA are as follows:

Sprawl-and-Brawl

Sprawl-and-brawlers are a strikers who have trained in ground fighting to avoid takedowns but try to keep the fight standing. If taken to the ground, they try to tie-up their opponents and survive until they can get back to standing or until the referee restarts the fight. Maurice Smith is credited with introducing this style by becoming a successful kick boxer in a time when ground fighters were dominating the sport. Examples of sprawl-and-brawlers are Chuck Liddel, Pedro Rizzo, and Wanderlei Silva.

Clinch-and-Pound

Clinch-and-pounders are wrestlers who have added striking to their training. Since wrestlers are good at clinching, they prefer to strikes from within the clinch. If the fight goes to the ground, their wrestling skills come into play. Don Frye was among the first wrestlers to add strikes to his arsenal, but it was Randy Couture's fight against Vitor Belfort in which he used close range boxing to out-strike a reputedly superior boxer that was the true birth of this style. He demonstrated that standing and ground were not the only phases of combat. Using Greco-Roman clinching techniques, he showed that the clinch could be used effectively. Examples of clinch-and-pounders are Dan Henderson, Quinton Jackson, and Hens Pulver,

Ground-and-Pound

Ground-and-pounders are wrestlers or other fighters skilled in defending submissions and skilled at takedowns. They take every fight to the ground, maintain a solid top position, and pound away until their opponents submit, are knocked out, or are cut so badly that the referees stop the fights. Since most MMA fights go to the ground at some point, strikes on the ground are essential to a fighter's training. Dan Severn was the first proficient fighter to use ground-and-pound, combining his takedowns with fists, forearm shots, elbows, and knees on the ground. Examples of ground-and-pounders are Mark Coleman, Matt Hughes, and Tito Ortiz.

Submission Wrestling

Submission wrestlers use joint locks, chokes, and compression holds to force their opponents to give up. Examples of submission wrestlers are Frank Shamrock, Royce Gracies, and Genki Sudo.

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