Fighting and entertainment have been together since humans realised it’s really fun watching people beat each other up. MMA’s been a part of the combat sport scene and the entertainment sector for a while now, but how did it really begin? What is the origin of MMA? We’re gonna look into the movement of MMA throughout history, from its predecessor in ancient China to its modern evolution.
Ancient Combat: The Birth of Human Survival in Combat
Look, MMA is mixed martial arts. Pretty self explanatory and while most folks think it’s a recent phenomenon, you think no other culture before decided to mix different fighting styles for entertainment? The roots of mixed martial arts go back pretty far if you know where to look
Ancient China
Now, the field of fighting there wasn’t really called MMA but it can be considered an origin of MMA because it follows the philosophies and ideas of its modern iteration. They called it Lei tai
And it was a no-holds-barred match where you mix up Chinese martial arts, wrestling and boxing. Sound familiar?
Now, I’m not gonna look you in the eye and say that’s where your favourite sport came from, but it’s a sign that humans, throughout history, craved entertainment, wanted battle and felt the need to prove themselves by unlocking their survival instincts in combat.
Ancient Greece
Greed had its own version in the past, too. Except it also had a different name, called Pankration but it holds a lot of similarity to what we have today. Wrestling was big in Greece but some folks wanted to move to the next level of combat entertainment and decided to mix in some boxing too.
You can see the roots of mixed martial arts here, but it was too brutal, unrefined. It was less of a match between champions to test their limits and more of a bloodbath. All kinds of strikes and holds were allowed, and biting and clawing were given the go-ahead. It might have been fun to see but you wouldn’t be enjoying the fighters for long.
Partly because there wasn’t really a referee situation there. The fight went on until your opponent gave up or called it in by raising their index finger. There weren’t multiple rounds. It was one bout to decide it all. Still, even at that early stage, it was popular, it was liked, and soon it was one of the most popular sports in Greece. It’s a sign, see? We crave action, the spectacle, the thrill of battle.
It wasn’t just China and Greece; there was ancient Egypt, Japan, India, and more besides. But what we had then wasn’t complete. It was a start, but we need to move to something better, to something worthwhile, to something that can allow these warriors to improve with every battle.
Related: Boxing: The Move From Barbaric Showdowns To Combat Sports Spectacles
The Modern Precursor
The 19th century is where we see a lot of the evolution of mixed martial arts. Every culture has its own idea of how it works, and while we see MMA as the modern gladiator, that doesn’t mean these older iterations didn’t help move us to what we have now.
Each of them fit under the term MMA as they were a mixture of different martial art styles, but they didn’t popularise the entertainment world of MMA, nor give it that oomph of popularity and interest in development. Still, these can clearly be described as the origins of MMA.
Savate
Savate started gaining traction in the combat sports circle. It’s a French style where you mix in boxing and kicking, to put it bluntly. French savate fighters wanted to go all in on the field and even challenged English boxers in 1852 to see how they would fare.
The results were…mixed, but savate still sees a lot of action even now, but not to the level of popularity we see with other sports. It was a nice move to something more modern, but it was…lacking a certain something, though other sports tried to fill that void of mixed styles.
Catch Wrestling
Popping up late in the 19th century, catch wrestling lives up to its name as a catch-all wrestling style using moves from Indian Pehlwani and English wrestling. It had a massive impact on the history of MMA as it was a recent example of mixing styles to make something greater than the sum of its parts. The showmanship, the way they tested their might against other fighters to see how it holds, is a part of the reason we have the MMA modern gladiator.
A Constant Process
The idea of mixing styles kept happening, like with Sambo from Russia in the 1920s, which started to rise as the popularity of catch wrestling waned. It was a combo of wrestling, judo and striking all rolled into a unique style that’s still practised to this day.
But it wasn’t yet revolutionary. It didn’t become a global sensation; there were still kinks in the process, something about it wasn’t hitting with the locals, and so the move to true MMA continued. There was the Kajukenbo, a style made by five martial arts masters who tested and practiced different techniques until they blended them to become the first American mixed martial arts style.
Bruce Lee: The Father Of Mixed Martial Arts
With every year and every major period in time, humans have found new ways to fight, to survive, to thrive in extreme circumstances. And while there are a lot of fighters out there in the world, all of them pay their respects to one man in particular. A man who brought the world of martial arts to the big screen in a way no one else could. One could say he’s the one who holds the true modern gladiator spirit: Bruce Lee.
What folks may not know is that he’s also a pivotal reason MMA is the way it is now. Bruce Lee has been on record saying that “the best fighter is not a boxer, karate or judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt to any style, to be formless, to adopt an individual’s own style and not follow the system of styles.” That philosophy is one of the core roots of mixed martial arts.
He popularised the system of MMA with his Jeet Kune Do, and helped pave the way for MMA’s popularity through his celebrity status. It’s why, in 2004, UFC President Dana White considered Bruce Lee the father of mixed martial arts.
Related: Bruce Lee And MMA – The Invisible Iron Bond
MMA: Its Coinage in Global Sports
While we hear a lot about mixed martial arts, what are the origins of that term? It didn’t always exist. Well, luckily, we have some documentation. In 1993, the first documented use of the name mixed martial arts was made by television critic Howard Rosenberg. It started gaining traction with the rise of the internet. The UFC later adopted the term themselves and shortened it to MMA, though who actually came up with the name is still a bit of a debate. Still, by giving it an actual name, it began the move to define what it actually is and the journey to what we see now.
The Modern Gladiator: MMA as a Professional, Global Sport
The first official MMA match happened in Biloxi, Mississippi, on August 23, 1996, with IFC’s Mayhem sanctioning it. This was it. The first time an official combat match was held, the use of mixed martial arts was encouraged. The rules were still rough, there were no round systems, and it was just modified kickboxing rules, but it was the first time fouls were defined, the use of modern cages, and fighting surfaces. This was the beginning of the move to modern MMA.
Promos for MMA were slowly allowed to spread the word in different states, with its popularity rising as every soul imagined the strength and power of these champions and the glory of witnessing true skill and talent.
By 2001, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board (NJSACB) gathered to discuss regulations for MMA in both its promotion, the organizations that can hold, and the future rules for its matches. These rules soon became the de facto standard set of rules for professional mixed martial arts across North America.
The world of MMA as we know it today spread from there, reaching more states until countries like Canada decriminalized the sport, allowing the combat sports evolution to continue with the support of the entire world. It was the move to what we have now.
Related: Master the Suplex: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Dominate MMA
FAQ’s
MMA is a field of combat sports that the world has come to love and cherish as the next generation of combat. Many think of them as their modern gladiator, fighting for glory, riches, and a chance to prove their might. It wasn’t always so clean or focused as so many points in history had their own version of the sport, but it was only by moving forward, testing themselves, improving on what was built that we have MMA as we know it now.
