Evolution of Fighting Styles

Mixed-martial arts contests have a long history, dating back at least to the late 1800s when wrestlers representing a huge range of fighting styles including jujitsu, catch-as-catch-can, collar-and-elbow, Graeco-Roman and many others, met in tournaments and music-hall challenge matches throughout Europe.

However, the vogue for professional wrestling died out after the First World War, only to be reborn in two major streams: "shoot", in which the fighters actually competed, and "show" which became increasingly dependent on choreography and theatrics and evolved into modern professional wrestling.

In the early 1990s, two styles stood out for their effectiveness: wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). Jiu-Jitsu artists 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 in Modern Fighting Styles:

• "Ground-and-Pound" (wrestlers who prefer fighting on the ground)
• "Clinch-and-Pound" (wrestlers who prefer fighting standing up)

Kickboxers and boxers 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 defence on the ground. After adding ground techniques to their training, they scored some major upsets, and showed that fighters specialising in striking could be effective in the sport.

Due to its early dominance, BJJ was the last to evolve. Eventually, wrestling and Muay Thai were added to their training, and Jiu-Jitsu fighters have returned to being competitive again in the sport.

MMA is also considered an evolution of pankration, a combination of striking and grappling that was introduced in the Olympic games in 648 BC. The "Pancrase" fighting promotion in Japan has strong ties to modern MMA and actually predates the first UFC by a few months.