A Brief History Of Mixed Martial Arts

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While Mixed Martial Arts gets a bad name, it is generally by people who do not understand the history of this sport. Mixed marital arts, or MMA, is something that has been around for a very long time, longer than most other sports, so here to help educate, is the mixed martial arts history.

In the 1880s, there was a no-holds-barred type of fighting that used various fighting styles including Greco-Roman wrestling, boxing and more. In 1887, the first match between a boxer and a wrestler took place when heavy weight champion John L. Sullivan went up against his trainer, losing within two minutes to the wrestler.

Mixed style matches between boxers and jujutsu fighters were very popular during the early 1900s in Europe and Japan. In 1936, Kingfish Levinsky, a heavyweight boxer, went up against wrestler Ray Steele. Steele won within 35 seconds.

After World War Two, this mixed style faded away until the early 1970s when Bruce Lee brought the concept of combining elements of multiple martial arts to the West. He believed that the best fighter was not the boxer, karate or judo man, but the one who could adapt to any style, to be formless and to adapt to the opponent's own style. Bruce Lee is considered to be the father of mixed martial arts.

In 1993, the first Mixed Martial Arts competition was held and the sport quickly gained widespread publicity in the United States, helping to popularize martial arts even more.

As the 1990s progressed into the 2000s, mixed martial arts, the UFC and more began to take the sporting world by storm, effectively pushing entertainment wrestling to the back side as people became enthralled with the athleticism of the fighters in the UFC.

These days, UFC fighters and MMA fighters can make as much as major sports stars, have endorsements and have millions of fans across the planet. Many do criticize the sport, but in reality there are many rules in place to keep fighters safe and most of the fighters are in such amazing shape that serious injury is rare.

In fact, in November of 2005, the United States Army sanctioned mixed martial arts at its first annual Army Combative Championship.

When choosing a Mixed Martial Arts School in the Smyrna, Delaware area consider Delaware Combat Sports http://www.delawarecombatsports.com. Our unique programs cover all areas of combative sports and gives our students the confidence of knowing realistic fighting concepts and techniques.