The Mixed Martial Arts or MMA is a very new sport. In fact the first UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship event didn’t take place until 1993. Never the less, this sport is growing at an amazing rate, and fighters are joining MMA Competitions now that have backgrounds in a wide array of other Self Defense disciplines, from Muay Thai, Kempo, American Kickboxing and Wrestling. So MMA is a mix of all disciplines and is seen as a full contact combat athletic event.
Full Contact combat sports events have been recorded as early as 648 BC in the Olympic Games put on by the Greek Pankration. Eventually in the 1800′s, England started their own MMA Competitions. People use grappling and striking techniques with the Mixed Martial Arts. Also wide variety of contests between the Pacific Rim, Europe and Japan took place in the early 1900′s. Brazilians used to publicly engage in this as a form of circus act. However they didn’t get paid much and just did it because they loved the sport so much.
When Mixed Martial Arts started there was little in terms of safety rules. An example was when the Japanese started getting involved. Later additional safety rules were added so the mainstream would be more accepting to the sport. Rick Blume in 1995 was the person who originally came up with the term Mixed Martial Arts. The sport is at the other end of the scale and can be watched on Pay Per View and rivals sports like Boxing and Wrestling.
Martial Artists wanted to establish the best discipline to be used for real battle situations for when no weapons were to hand and this is how MMA began. So what turned from this request is now an International Sport and is now respectively a form of Martial Arts in and of itself. In November of 2005 even the U.S. Army Got involved. The U.S. Army Combatives School held their first annual Army Combatives Championships. The IFFCF does have specific rules to be followed in this sport, however they can vary somewhat between competitions.
