Mixed Martial Arts

There has always been the questions “which art is best?”, “who would win between a Karate fighter and a Kickboxer?”…

When the first Ultimate Fighting Championship was broadcast live on pay-per-view in 1993, the world watched in awe as twelve world-class martial artists, champions in Karate, Kickboxing, Western Boxing, Sumo etc, battled it out in bare-knuckle, anything-goes matches.

Amid this group of heavyweight bruisers stood a slender Brazilian named Royce Gracie. He said he was entering to prove the effectiveness of Jiu-Jitsu. Despite his quiet confidence, few gave him much of a chance. After all, at 80Kg, he looked like a reed standing among oak trees. Ring-side betters were giving five to one odds that Gracie would go down by KO in less than three minutes.

They were wrong. The Brazilian cut down opponent after opponent to capture the title of Ultimate Fighting Champion. The martial arts world went berserk! How could this kid - often fighting at a weight disadvantage of 50Kg or more (as impossible as the idea of Sugar Ray Leonard trying to box Mike Tyson!) - how could he destroy some of the world's biggest and best fighters?

Convinced it was some unexplainable fluke, the fans tuned in by the thousands to see Gracie defend his title at the UFC II. This time, there were sixteen competitors. This time, things would be different. This time, Gracie would be beaten.

They were wrong. Again. In match after match, Gracie took his opponents to the floor to remove their ability to punch and kick and forced them to submit. If the martial arts and fight fans were stunned before, they were seething now! Here was a martial artist who could actually do what all martial artists were supposed to be able to do: Here was a smaller, weaker man who could beat a larger, stronger foe.

Royce would win three individual UFC titles and become a household name among fight fans the world over, and he would find himself the focus of the greatest martial arts media feeding frenzy and revolution since the late Bruce Lee.

Mixed Martial Arts has moved on a long way since the mid-90s and is growing in popularity worldwide. Rules were introduced and adapted and 4oz gloves were made compulsory to protect the fighters and make the sport more marketable to the paying public. Fighters soon realised they needed a wide variety of techniques in their arsenal, from the groundwork and submission of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, to the knee strikes and clinch control of Thai Boxing; from the hand speed and footwork of Western Boxing to the throws of Jiu Jitsu/Judo and the takedowns and devastating slams of Wrestling.