How It All Began
Martial arts have been running through many civilizations with a unique characteristic of moves and names adopted by each part of the world. What started as just a skill to enhance self protection, became a sport with leagues and competitions being organized in various parts of the world to enable participation of martial experts to showcase their talents and spread their fame. Some of the examples are Aikido, Judo etc (Japanese Martial Arts) which have exclusive moves and which narrowed down the members taking part to be among the same kind of martial art. This requirement was then eradicated by the introduction of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).
MMA is a concoction of many martial arts mixed together founded by Jeff Blatnick. Mr. Blatnick was a Greco-Roman wrestler who was also an Olympic gold medalist, which then became eminent after the naissance of Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993. MMA enabled unarmed full contact combat which let the artists to grapple and strike with nominal rules when the opponent was standing and on the ground. The modern martial arts took a real toll in the early 1900s throughout the Euro-Asian continent. Some of the competitions can be traced through Brazil, Japan (from 1900 till now).
Inspired by history, traces of different forms of MMA dated back to Greek Pankration which found a home in the Olympic Games in 648 B.C. Further the brutal Etruscan (a sport which was encouraged in the Roman Empire). Pankratiasts were well esteemed and statues were erected throughout the empire to honor them.
Tags: aikido, greco roman wrestling, history, jeff blatnick, judo, mma
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