MMA: First, a brief history

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Juggernaut Nihilism
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MMA: First, a brief history

Post by Juggernaut Nihilism »

I've practiced jiu jitsu for years and I've been following MMA since the first UFCs, watched the sport develop through its various stages. For awhile, Pancrase had existed in Japan, vale tudo in Brazil, and all the best fighters in the world were from those two countries, but due to stylistic limitations, the sports hadn't developed as quickly as they might have in those countries. It was only with the UFC, and the bringing together of different styles, that the art of freestyle fighting really took off. It's not a stretch to say that 1v1 unarmed martial arts have developed more in the last 20 years than they had in the last 2000.

The first UFCs were the brainchild of the Gracie family of Brazil. Inventors of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and undisputed top dogs in Brazilian submission fighting and vale tudo, they wanted a showcase in the US to show people what their art could do. As their avatar for the first couple events, they selected Royce Gracie, a younger member of one of the branches of the Gracie family, not known as their strongest fighter. Part of the reason that he was selected was that he was a rail-thin 160 lbs, and they wanted to show what he could do against much bigger opponents (his older brother, Rickson, grand champion of the Gracie family and undefeated in jiu jitsu and MMA competition would have simply rolled everyone, but he looked like a Greek statue and the Gracies didn't want that... although Royce used to joke, "You guys had better not beat me... if you do, my brother gon' come..."

Part of the appeal of the first UFCs was that they pitted style against style: specialists in a particular discipline like boxing, jiu jitsu, tae kwon do, kung fu, etc who had little to no knowledge outside their own discipline. After all, martial arts schools had been marketing themselves for years as one stop shops for defeating any conceivable opponent. We found out many things in those first UFCs. The first was that most traditional martial arts are simply not built for the chaos of an actual fight. X-degree black belts were attempting to block punches from toughman-style street fighters and getting KTFO when the punch would have too much momentum and simply go through their forearm block and cave in their heads. We also found out that almost all fights eventually hit the ground, and if you don't know how to defend yourself or improve position once the fight hits the ground, you're doomed. Today, the mount is a transitionary position in MMA; people get mount all the time, use it to attack via strikes or submissions, and often lose the position or else move out of it themselves to try something else. But back then it was not uncommon for fighters not accustomed to ground fighting to simply tap out as soon as they got mounted because they assumed the fight was over and nothing could be done. And we found out that even knowing how to fight on the ground without panicking (like a wrestler) gets you nowhere if you don't know how to defend submissions.

Needless to say, little Royce won all of his fights in the first two tournaments, allowing much larger and more violent men to take him to the ground as he used all parts of his body to choke them out or threaten their joints with destruction. Occasionally he would throw a strike to get someone to defend and open up a submission attack, but for all intents and purposes he won all his fights in both the first two UFCs without throwing a punch.

After Royce retired and let the sport start to move on, we began an era where high-level wrestlers became totally dominant. Muslcebound freestyle and Greco wrestlers like Mark Coleman and Dan Severn were way too much for anyone to deal with. Nobody could stop their takedowns, and once they were on top, no one short of a Royce Gracie could get them off or submit them; but Royce had moved on and no one else had the submission skills to deal with these powerful wrestlers.

That all changed when Maurice Smith, a pure kickboxer, endured the seemingly unstoppable (at the time) Mark Coleman's ground attack long enough for Coleman to wear himself out. When they got back to their feet, Smith teed off, throwing the first effective leg kicks in UFC history, and taking a decision as Coleman stumbled around the ring trying to catch his breath and lift his arms to defend himself. It became apparent that MMA was not going to turn into a glorified wrestling tournament.

From that time on, the UFC repeated that cycle: someone would come in with something new, dominate for a time, then the sport would evolve to account for the new tricks. But mostly people were still sticking to their original disciplines and only dabbling in skills outside their primary area of expertise. Fighters like the dominant wrestler Matt Hughes come to mind: early on, he dominated with his wrestling and ground and pound, but he stayed on top because he developed a fairly formidable submission game and enough of a striking game to at least defend himself until it got to the ground. However, he began to take losses when he tried to fight a submission fight against a submission fight, or a stand up fight with a striker. Occasionally fighters like BJ Penn would emerge who were truly ahead of their time, almost equally proficient in all areas of fighting: striking, wrestling, submissions.

This continued through dark ages of MMA, when only fanatics like me watched and it was banned in most states and being attacked by politicians as human cock fighting. Once Zuffa and Dana White took control and worked with the athletic commissions to develop unified rules that states could live with, things came together again; and by this time there were a few other brilliant competing promoters, like Pride Fighting Championship in Japan which put on some of the best shows and fights ever. Some of my favorite MMA memories are staying up til 3 am to watch Pride fights with my friends (they were broadcast live from Japan) and jumping up and down as their fantastic roster of fighters did their thing. To this day, Kazushi Sakuraba is one of my favorite athletes in any sport.

More recently we have seen MMA really come into its own as a sport. For the most part, you do not see one-sided stylistic matchups: everyone knows how to fight on their feet, on the ground from the top and bottom, and how to wrestle. The style of fighting that has proven itself (so far) to be the ultimate one-on-one unarmed combat style is a mix of Muay Thai/American boxing, wrestling, and jiu jitsu. Even fighters known for being highly proficient in one discipline and leaning heavily on it for their success are at least at a level in the rest that most people would consider expert. Anderson Silva, for example, the best striker in the history of MMA probably, wins almost all of his fights with his striking, but is an accomplished black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Speaking of Anderson Silva...

A short time ago, he lost for the first time in his seven-year UFC career. A young wrestler knocked him out while Silva was clowning for the camera or taunting his opponent... with Silva you never really know. The rematch will be probably the biggest fight in UFC history, and is taking place December 28 at the MGM Grand. I'll be there, and I'll be staying in Vegas at the Mandalay Bay for a week, including New Year's. Anyone wanna come?
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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

Thanks for the generous post. You have given me an interest in watching the sport.
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Juggernaut Nihilism
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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

Post by Juggernaut Nihilism »

Nonc Hilaire wrote:Thanks for the generous post. You have given me an interest in watching the sport.
Great! It's important to look past some of the rhetoric, especially out of certain of the fighters. They know that the public is more interested in seeing fights where there is a personal element or backstory behind it, so you'll often hear them saying typical tough-guy crap about how they're here to knock someone's head off, etc... I mean, there are a few guys left who are like that but for the most part every who is not a dedicated 6-8 hour-a-day athlete has been filtered out... you just can't survive anymore by being a 'tough guy' any more than a guy could survive in the NFL who is just big and fast. (Although MMA is not yet down to that level of precision... I think in 20 years we'll look back even at the great fighters of today and they'll look like they're wearing leather helmets and plodding around.)

Personally, I think what MMA needs is the return of Japanese fighters. Japanese fighters were great for awhile, but fell off a bit when the focus shift to fighters 170 lbs and above (remember that all fighters cut weight, and if you're fighting at 170 there is a good chance you walk around normally at 195, the light heavyweight champ Jon Jones fights at 205 and walks around at 230-235). But now the lighter weights have blown up, and I want to see the Japanese come back into their own. They were always among the most entertaining and creative fighters, as well as some of the most respectful toward the sport. Some of the best at blending showmanship and legit skill. Plus Japanese fans are incredible: respectful, knowledgeable, and rabid all at the same time. At the old Pride fights, you would have tens of thousands of people packed into some place like the Saitama Super Arena, but you could hear a pin drop as the fight was going on because the crowd was silently engrossed in the action. And they would notice little nuances that all but the most hardcore American fans tend to miss: small improvements of position on the ground, very difficult to achieve, that looks to an average fan like just two guys struggling with each other, would be met by the Japanese fans with with a buildup of noise as the attempt was made, then applause when it succeeded (or failed: they would applaud the defense as well), then quickly back to silence and watching the action. And yet they were as wild and excited as any American audience. It was great.

Some more Japanese fighters in the UFC would be a great infusion of new blood and style.
"The fundamental rule of political analysis from the point of psychology is, follow the sacredness, and around it is a ring of motivated ignorance."
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Typhoon
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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

Post by Typhoon »

Seconded. A very interesting exposition. Thanks.

I did not realize that UFC had a poor reputation in the US.

As my own sport is Judo, I did not watch the Pride competition much, rather watching the All Japan championship and the IJF circuit on occasion instead.

The combination of throwing, grappling, groundwork, and striking skills required to excel at Pride/UFC matches is why I find martial arts movies so unintentionally funny.

Perhaps this style of fighting will one day be included in the Olympics.

Aside. A friend who was tangentially involved in sponsoring fighters once told me that a big difference between the audiences is that, in Japan, nearly half the spectators were women.
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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

Post by Demon of Undoing »

I was in on the early Gracie era ; a friend and I started mutating our training to be more widely varied as a result of our observations of the first three years of the sport.

As time went on, you did indeed begin to see professional fighters that trained nearly all day. I have come to hold that any art, no matter how good or well balanced or intelligently designed, comes down to how it is trained. An Oly boxer that works it eight hours a day will peel the hide off the tough guy that just got off the couch. When everybody has an effective art, works it like madmen, and competes often, well. That's a crowded field, and the buy in to even play on it is dedicating your life to it.

MMA has greatly transformed things in the real-world aspect of self defense. There is a much higher chance now that you will run up against a young tough/aggressor that has actually spent time learning how to fight. Assaults can get really involved, and a bar fight now can involve multiple young men in decent shape and with decent tools, used to fighting for rounds. Makes the use of TASERS slightly more acceptable.

The hole in MMA tactics out in the real world, though, is pressure points/soft targets. Any system of rules can be gamed for positive outcome within that artificial environment, but can also be hacked when the ruleset is taken out of the environment that it creates. None of the MMA fights take into account an eye gouge or twisting of the sack, or ( for the really adventurous that give two shits about blood-borne pathogens) biting. All three of those will tend to make a grappler break contact, and grapplers aren't used to being driven into walls or concrete pads, either.

I've lost track of who is doing what in the actual sport now. It's become ( to me) like too many other games. The athletes are superb at it, it's reached a high degree of competition, and there's definitely stuff to watch if they have it on TV somewhere I happen to be. I just don't much care for games I'm not playing. But I acknowledge that the players are performing to a very high degree. Wouldn't want to meet any of them, even the smallest, in a dark alley.
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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

Post by Typhoon »

Unusual strike:

Az_2me8pIjQ
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Demon of Undoing
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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

Post by Demon of Undoing »

Typhoon wrote:Unusual strike:

Az_2me8pIjQ
Spinning backfist was a staple technique in kickboxing. First time I ever got knocked the F out was from one. Huge power, deceptive load. If you don't see the early signs and his accuracy/ distance is good, you'll wake up looking at the ceiling fan.
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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

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Re: MMA: First, a brief history

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Image
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