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Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a term for the combat sport in which two competitors attempt to achieve dominance over one another by utilizing three general tactics: striking, finishing holds, and control. The rules allow the combatants to use a variety of martial arts techniques, including punches, kicks, joint-locks, chokes, and takedowns. Victory is normally gained through knock-out, submission (one fighter concedes victory to the other by tapping the mat or his opponent with his hand), or referee stoppage. The sport gained most of its visibility and popularity in the United States in 1993 when the Ultimate Fighting Championship was started as a proving ground to determine the effectiveness of a wide variety of martial arts, where they could compete against one another with minimal rules.
As a result of these sporting events, martial arts training and the understanding of the combat effectiveness of various strategies have changed dramatically over the last ten years. While the early years included the widest possible variety of styles (everything from Sumo to Karate), modern fighters often train in a mixture of only three styles: Freestyle wrestling (focusing on clinches and takedowns), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (focusing on submissions and positioning on the ground), and Muay Thai Kickboxing (focusing on striking). These three distinct styles coincide with the "phases of combat" theory, which states that fights can be broken into three distinct phases, each requiring completely different skill sets: stand-up fighting, clinch fighting, and ground fighting. According to the theory, a fighters best strategy is to determine the phase in which he has the greatest advantage over his opponent and then to force the fight to take place in that phase. It currently appears that this is mainly correct, in the sense that if you are equally skilled in all phases of combat, you are prepared to take advantage of any weaknesses in your opponent.
MMA is also used to describe any modern style of martial arts which incorporates techniques and theories from several traditional martial arts. This especially applies to MMA styles which incorporate a mixture of ground fighting, stand-up striking, and takedowns in their training. This main goal of this article is to provide information about MMA as "Realistic Few Rules Full Contact Fight Sport" rather then describe hybrid martial arts that do not proved their value in realistic environment.
The commom argument between Traditional martial artists and MMA followers is that MMA fight are unrealistic and very different from actual streed fight and self defense situation. The truth is that the previous sentense is right. MMA fight is a way easier then street fight beacuse it is held under controlled environment with rules, refrees and doctors. But the conclusion is that even if person's interest is a handling of self-defense situation it is not very wise to invest time and money to schools/instructors that could not prove their techniques and strategies under easier then real environment.
Well-known examples of MMA organizations are the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pride Fighting Championships.
In the early 1990s, two styles stood out for their effectiveness: Wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). Jiu-Jitsu had the early advantage, since wrestlers were not equipped with a way to defeat them standing or on the ground. However, when wrestlers started training in striking, pure Jiu-Jitsu stylists ran into difficulties since they had a hard time taking the fight to the ground and away from their stand-up weaknesses. This represented the first step of evolution towards cross-training. Wrestling eventually branched into two styles described below: "Ground-and-Pound" (wrestlers who prefer fight on the ground) and "Clinch-and-Pound" (wrestlers who prefer fight standing up).
The kickboxers were next to evolve and added grappling skills to their arsenal. In the early days, they could not compete with the grapplers, since they could not avoid the takedowns and had no defense on the ground. After adding ground techniqes to their training, they scored some major upsets, and showed that fighters specializing in striking could be effective in the sport.
Due to its early dominance, BJJ was the last to evolve. Led by the Brazilian Top Team, Wrestling and Muay Thai were added to their training, and Jiu-Jitsu fighters returned to the top ranks of the sport.
The following is a breakdown of the different striking styles of modern MMA, their roots and general effectiveness in MMA.
These are strikers who have trained in both wrestling and submissions to allow them to avoid the fight on the ground and keep the fight standing. It was this style of fighter that began to even the balance in MMA between strikers and grapplers. Although they train in both wrestling and submission, it is highly unlikely that a Sprawl-and-Brawler will look for either a takedown or a submission. Instead, they’ll use their knowledge of grappling for defense, either to defend a takedown or a submission. Typically a Sprawl-and-Brawler will be well-versed in the defensive guard to prevent a grappler from gaining superior position. Most important are the sprawl to avoid takedowns and the ability to explode from the bottom once on the ground to get back to the feet. While these fighters score a lot of knockouts, they need to hold back more than the “Shock-and-Awe” fighters, since they don’t want to leave themselves vulnerable to takedowns. This style of fighter was made out of necessity; MMA was initially dominated almost exclusively by wrestlers and submission artists. Maurice Smith is the undisputed forefather of this style of MMA, and he displayed every essential aspect of it in becoming the heavyweight champion of both Extreme Fighting and Ultimate Fighting.
Examples: Maurice Smith, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Chuck Liddell, Pedro Rizzo
These are wrestlers that have added in components of the striking game (typically boxing). Although their base is in wrestling and ground control, they are rarely reluctant to throw some leather on the feet. Often, wrestlers that have added the striking game are partial to strikes from within the clinch (particularly Greco Roman wrestlers who have developed a strong clinch game already). Although their striking is noticeably less polished than other varieties of strikers, a Clinch-And-Pounder can typically punch with a good deal of power and has a solid chin to boot. In the case that an exchange on the feet does not go in their favor, they can bring the fight to the ground quickly as their true expertise lies in wrestling, so they are ultimately less timid about trading blows. The striking wrestler came about as a result of the pure wrestler’s relative inability to actually finish a fight. For example, Dan Severn in his first UFC dominated position and controlled all of his fights but always had a great deal of difficulty when it came to actually finishing his opponent. Don Frye was among the first wrestlers to add versatile strikes to his arsenal, but it was Randy Couture’s stunning performance, in which he used dirty boxing to out-strike a superior boxer in Vitor Belfort, that was the true birth of this style of fighter. He was the first to demonstrate that Stand-up and Ground were not the only phases of combat. Through the use of Greco-Roman clinching techniques, he showed that a third phase, the Clinch, was not well understood and could be used to devastate ill-prepared opponents.
Examples: Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Don Frye
This style is for wrestlers well-versed in defending submissions. They take every fight to the ground, maintain a solid top position, and hammer away until their opponent gives up or the judges give them the decision. Although not traditionally considered a conventional method of striking, the effectiveness and reliability (as well as recently-developing science) of this style cannot be denied. Originally most fighters who relied on striking on the ground were wrestlers, but considering how many fights end up on the ground and how increasingly competitive today’s MMA is, strikes on the ground are becoming more and more scientific and technical and essential to a fighter’s training. Mark Coleman ushered in the era of Ground-and-Pound with his brutal takedowns and powerful fists and headbutts. However, modern MMA camps such as Miletich Fighting Systems and AMC Pankration have developed intricate strategies for attacking while on the ground. In recent years fighters who rely on strikes on the ground have adopted techniques such as guard passing and ground control to reach positions more conducive to unleashing punishment. With ground-striking, a fighter can safely deliver damage with far less risk of being reversed or swept than that which accompanies a submission attempt.
Examples: Mark Coleman, Fedor Emelianenko, Takanori Gomi, Matt Hughes, Mark Kerr, Tito Ortiz
This style has evolved since the early days and has added takedowns from freestyle wrestling, as well as kickboxing (usually Muay Thai) or boxing. The Brazilian Top Team and Chute Boxe lead the way, with Jiu-Jitsu blackbelts who are excellent strikers as well. While Chute Boxe focuses more on striking and the Brazilian Top Team focus more on submissions, members of either team can finish the fight standing or on the ground. Fighters like Wanderlei Silva, who started out as kickboxers, can be distinguished from Sprawl-and-Brawlers because of the lack of concern about being taken down. Vitor Belfort was the first in the UFC to demonstrate how devastating a Jiu-Jitsu fighter could be, if trained in striking.
Examples: Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira, Murillo Bustamante, Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort, B.J. Penn
The techniques and strategies of Freestyle wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai are usually not used as in the original art/sport but they are modified to fulfill needs of MMA competition. For example Freestyle wrestlers do not need to deal with striking during takedown attempt, Muay Thai bout is broken by referee if fighter fall down after kick that missed the targed... This is very different from situation in MMA competition therefore techniques/strategies have to reflect this new alternatives. It is possible to even see that some fighters substitute one or more of the basic styles mentioned above with Judo, Sambo, Greco-Roman Wrestling or Boxing. But according the "phases of combat" theory all phases should be covered to stay competitive and only styles proven in actual competition should be used. This is a reason why it is quite difficult to find "exotic" styles in fighter's bios now.
The very unfortunate situation is that there is not one set of rules like in boxing. The situation now is more like in the kickboxing where there are many very simmilar but not identical rules. Therefore it is possible do describe the least common deliminer of the rules.
NOTES: There exists restrictions that depend on the organization then holds the event. As an example there is a list of differences for some well-known or interesting organizations.
UFC
PRIDE
ZST
It appears that these styles are converging. Sprawl-and-Brawlers are looking more and more like Dirty Boxers. This appears to suggest that the style of the future is one in which Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, and Kickboxing are all equally stressed. A fighter with no preference towards any of the three could choose his attack based solely on the weaknesses of the opponent.
Fighters who most typify this evolution are B.J. "The Prodigy" Penn and Fedor Emelianenko. Currently, Penn is arguably the best pound for pound MMA fighter in the world, and has shown one of the most well rounded games in the sport, while Fedor is the most feared heavyweight in the world, with a ground game as dangerous as his heavy hands.
Major events of importance:
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