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View Article Project Details Title: The history of MMA(mixed martial arts) Category: Reference and Education Keywords: MMA,UFC,NHB,JiuJitsu,Royce Gracie Word count: 2000 Earnings: $23.1 Creative Brief Target Audience: Knowledge Seekers Comprehension level : Newbies. Target demographic : Academic, Adults 18 25, Adults 25 40, Adults 40 60, Children, Industry Specialists, Men, Seniors, Teens, Tweens, Women, Young Adults. For everyone Objective: Inform and Educate. This will be published in an website as a reference. Tone of Writing: Everyday Informal. Professional and easy to understand for everyone. I would like this article to be a reference for those who are interested in knowing about MMA origin/history. Please use subheadings to make it clear for readers to know what each part is all about instead of a long continuous article. Things to Avoid:Please do not just paraphrase wiki information. It's too obvious when I read it. Please make it unique as much as possible and take much time to write. Article Title The Evolutionary Road From MMA TO UFC Written By: CynDeS Premium Article Body Word Count 2082 Keyword Density 2.11% MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA) CONCEPT TO CONCEPTION Mixed Martial Arts rst made its appearance in the United States when it was introduced by Mike Viola and Frank Caliguri in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 20th 1980. The business partners came up with the idea of having a contest for the average Joe to try their hand in the ring with the big boys in an "Anything Goes" contest. The idea came from a hypothetical debate about who would win in a ght between Ali and Bruce Lee; They wanted to settle the long time argument about "which style ghting is best". This three day event was called the "Tough Guy" Contest and it sold out all three days. They had two groups of tournaments, the lightweight and heavyweight. There were rounds that consisted of two or three minutes each, with the winner progressing forward to the next round until there was only one man standing who would earn the title of "Toughest Guy Around" and received a One Thousand dollar prize. Dave Jones and Mike Murray kicked o the competition with a lightweight round where Jones won by a TKO, becoming the rst to win a match and so became the birth of the sport. Viola and Caliguri immediately got to work preparing and promoting new shows and expanding out of local Pittsburgh to go nationwide and put MMA on the map. As the new entertainment drew attention all over the country it's popularity kept rising; however this was transitory because with that much attention comes negative attention and so the company started to see negativity from people concerned that the sport was too violent and crass. It wasn't long before the call to ban the sport came from city ocials and state governments, calling it "legal street ghting" The legal struggles would keep MMA from being considered a real sport and soon the call for a ban had spread. Viola responded to the criticism by writing a regulation book that pertained to almost any form of martial arts being used and also covered ground attack rules, submission rules, assigned weight class, rounds and timing, uniforms, etc. This book is still used to this day in the regulated UFC and other MMA promotions. ANCIENT MARTIAL ARTS AND EARLIEST STYLES AND TECHNIQUES Mixed Martial Arts is fairly new to the sports category; but it has actually been around dating back to the ancient Olympics of Greece around 648 BCE. The hand to hand combat was preformed as a sport when it started getting noticed as a military advantage. In ancient Greek times this form of MMA was originated and called Pankration. Pankration derives from the Greek words Pan and Kratos; and translates to "All Powers". Historians believe Pankration goes back even further than Ancient Greece, and can be dated back to as early as 2000 BCE. It is still practiced today in its original form, but is most popular and well known as Modern day MMA. Pankration used in Greek Olympics was described as a combination between boxing and wrestling; it also allowed kicking; making it the rst documented from of Mixed Martial Arts. In Greek mythology, this form of combat was said to be rst conceptualized and used by Hercules himself; in his battle against the Ne-mean Lion. After Hercules defeated the Ne-mean Lion with Pankration, it was said that Theseus used this style combat in his battle with the Minotaur. MMA was used by leaders such as Alexander The Great as a war technique. Alexander would recruit athletes of this time and turn them into soldiers; because they were strong and had the combat knowledge. He would take them from Greece on his travels to India. Spartan Hop-lite and the infamous Macedonian Phalanx were trained in hand to hand combat battling each other until it was the Macedonians who concurred by using "A mixture of Ancient Martial Arts". India had Ancient Arts involving a mixture of close combat skills that was similar to what had been brought by Alexander The Great; this way of combat was called "Kalaripayattu" Kalaripayattu can date back to 1000 BCE and still practiced today. It can be stated as the oldest discipline at over 3000 years old found in the Vedas (Knowledge texts from ancient India). In India, Legend says it was constructed by Parasurama, the sixth avatar of the Hindu Deity Vishnu; who inuenced the well known Shaolin Kungfu. Even further back and quite older than pankration you can add the ancient Chinese who had their styles of martial arts dating back to 2697 BCE. This "Chinese Wrestling" was called Shuai Siao and the most ancient of China's Martial Arts. It's rst use dated back to 2697 BCE when the Yellow emperor fought Chih Yiu. First known by the name Jiao Ti, it evolved into China's modern combat wrestling system. The Qin Dynasty made it more popular popular later on and the name changed to Jian Li. The Zhou Dynasty was responsible for increasing military eorts when Jian Li was systematized for the military during their reign between 1122 - 256 BCE. Among the earliest styles martial arts of course, comes boxing and is most likely early humans rst development of martial arts. Boxing is still a popular sport Aaron's the main styles for the base of martial arts today it was also introduced to the Olympics in 688 BCE what is a consistent popular sport for Greece. Historians haven't been able to pin down the exact origin where boxing came from, but there is evidence to support the spark coming from a Sumerian relief around 3000 BCE. This was one of the very rst civilizations known to man, other of these early ancient civilizations also carried art with boxing in the pictures. Another well-known style and techniques used in ancient times was wrestling. Along with boxing, it was used to make up the components of pankration, the rst known form of mixed martial arts. The earliest depiction of wrestling was actually from Egypt around 2,000 BC. although there are statues that date further back that resemble wrestling moves. However you dene martial arts, wrestling is one of the oldest if not the oldest combat technique used with martial arts. Historians estimate that wrestling could be dated back as early as the days of humanity themselves as statues were found older than any Egyptian images that were interpreted as two men wrestling. HISTORY OF MMA AND EVOLUTION OF UFC: Mike Viola and Frank Caliguri were business partners that put together the rst televised MMA event in March of 1980, from there, the promotional company CV productions was born. This was also the start of the World Martial Arts Fighting Association of which Viola and Caliguri also founded. These matches were called "Super Fights" and gained huge traction right out of the gate. MMA has been the fastest rising sport in the world and its popularity still grows as people start to better understand the technique and has become regulated. This was the beginning of MMA in the United States and eventually sparked the birth of UFC, although the rst UFC ocial ght wasn't until 1993. Viola and Caliguri are known as "The Godfathers of MMA" and they debated in a Denny's diner over who would win a match between Muhammad Ali or Bruce Lee when the idea for MMA came to them. The sport stayed relevant for those 13 years by pushing through the criticism of people and the governments shutting the whole thing down. The late Senator John McCain of Arizona had stated that the ghts are comparable to "human cock- ghting", and that the sport only attracted societies lowest of the low. The New York government had banned MMA ghting unexpectedly with a sold out show imminent, so the original president David Isaacs arranged for the whole show to be moved to Dothan, Alabama; he accomplished this in just one day. "Super Fighter", (the sport they had called MMA for the rst 13 years) in the early years, progressed as best it could and despite push back from the State Government and local city ocials CV productions sought to make MMA ghting a legal, regulated sport. The production was short lived when a senate law was passed and a nationwide ban was placed in 1983. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, is the promotion that showcases MMA with their "ght Nights" that consist of tournaments, eliminators, nals, and nales.