Mixed martial arts rely on physical prowess and skill in all forms of the martial arts.  There are several types of MMA fighting, ground fighting, wrestling, and striking.  The ground fighter is the closest thing to a “die hard” No Holds Barred fighter there is in the MMA.  The ground fighter’s strength lies in his ability to force a fight to the ground, where they can force a submission, to end the fight, using joint locks or chokes.  The ability to perform a take down is integral to ground fighting strategies, but a well executed take down is not as important to a ground fighter as it is to a wrestler. 

The original aim of Mixed Martial Arts training was to determine which combination of skills and training would perfect the most effective fighting abilities in combat situations, and dates back to ancient civilizations.

    Boxing

    This is the skill or sport of fighting with the fists usually with padded leather gloves.  Boxing is referred to as the “sweet science,” and boxers use elaborate foot maneuvers and quick jabs for offense.

     Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

    In the mid-1920’s, Carlos Gracie opened the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He taught the skills he learned from Japanese Judo master Esai Maeda.  These skills were later modified to require less strength and to be more effective against larger opponents. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s reputation has spread largely due to the success of its practitioners in no holds barred fighting matches.

    Freestyle Wrestling

    Free style wrestling is possibly the world’s oldest sport. Contestants struggle hand to hand attempting to throw or take down their opponent without striking blows. Some of the many styles of wrestling are Freestyle, Greco-Roman, and catch as catch can.

    Jiu Jutsu

    This is an ancient Japanese martial art that encompasses throwing, joint locks, striking, and weapons training.

     Judo

    Sportive Japanese martial art founded in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Derived from Jujutsu, Judo is now an Olympic sport that emphasizes throws. Striking is not allowed in competition Judo.

     Karate

    Name used to identify many Japanese and Okinawan martial arts. While known for powerful, linear techniques, many Karate styles also incorporate softer, circular techniques. Some of the popular styles of Karate are Kyokushinkai, Shotokan, Goju-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu, and Kenpo which was the first “Americanized” version of Karate.

    Kickboxing

    Sportive martial art combining boxing punches and martial arts kicks. Many different styles with different rules exist such as Muay Thai, Full Contact Karate, and Asian Rules Fighting.

    Kung Fu

    This is also referred to as Gung Fu, Chinese Boxing, and Wu Shu. There are hundreds of Kung Fu styles. Many are patterned after the movements of animals. Some well known styles of Kung Fu are Wing Chun, Praying Mantis, Pau Kua, Tai-Chi-Ch’uan, and Shuai Chiao.

    Tae Kwon Do

    One of the most practiced martial arts in the world, Tae Kwon Do is a Korean style known for its flashy kicking techniques.

    Wrestling

    This is possibly the world’s oldest sport. Contestants struggle hand to hand attempting to throw or take down their opponent without striking blows. Some of the many styles of wrestling are Freestyle, Greco-Roman, and catch as catch can.

Pride Fighting Championships has rules similar to those of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the United States.  Unlike the UFC, where matches take place inside an octagon shaped cage, Pride Fighting Championship holds its bouts in a square, roped ring.
   
    Other notable differences between PRIDE FC and the UFC are:
    Kicking and kneeing the head of a downed opponent, and stomping a downed opponent, are allowed in Pride Fighting Championships, but not in the Ultimate Fighting Championships.  Elbows to the head and face are allowed in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, but not in the Pride Fighting Championships.
 
    Weight Classes
    It should be noted that PRIDE Fighting Championships doesn’t divide their fighters with weight divisions, a fighter may be booked to fight an opponent of any weight class. Weight divisions are only used for championship title bouts to crown a champion among that weight class.
    Middleweights: At least 93kg. Or  205 lb.
    Welterweights: Less than 83 kg or 183 lb.
    Lightweights: less than 73kg or 160 lb.
   
Match length
Pride matches are three rounds long.  The first round lasts ten minutes, the second and third last five minutes each, with two-minute intermissions between each round.
   
    Matches are won by:
    Submission: A fighter taps either his opponent or the mat three times or submits verbally.
    Knockout: A fighter falls from a legal blow, and is either unconscious or unable to continue immediately.
    Technical Knock Out: The referee stops the match when he sees one fighter is completely dominant to the point that his opponent will be injured.
    Physician Stops the Fight: If a fighter is injured in a fair fight, and can’t continue his match, the ring doctor will determine if the fighter can continue or not.  If he cannot, the opponent will be declared the winner.  If a player is deemed unfit to continue by the ring physician, due to an illegal method, the offender will be disqualified.
    Forfeited Matches: A fighter’s corner throws in the towel, and calls an end to the fight.
   
    Three judges decide who the winner is based on the match going the distance, and the effort made to finish the fight by knock out or submission, damage to the opponent, standing combinations, ground control, takedown, takedown defense, aggressiveness and weight.                              

Disqualifications: Yellow cards, or warnings, are given, along with a 10% deduction in the purse when a fighter commits an illegal action, or fails to follow the referee’s instructions.  Three warnings result in a disqualification. 
   
    No Contest: In the event both sides commit a rule violation, the bout is considered No Contest.
   
    Fouls:
    -No head butting, eye gouging, hair pulling, biting or fish hooking.
    -No attacking the groin
    -No strikes (kicks, elbows, punching) to the back of the head; which includes the occipital region and the spine. The sides of the head and the area around the ears are not considered the back of the head.
    -No small joint manipulation (control of four or more fingers/toes is necessary).
    -No elbow strikes to the head and face.
    -No intentionally throwing your opponent out of the ring.
    -No running out of the ring.
    -No purposely holding the ropes. Fighters cannot purposely hang an arm or leg on the ropes. Hanging on the ropes will result in an immediate warning.
    -No kicks or knees to the head or the face of an opponent who falls face down.
    -No application of oil, ointment, spray, Vaseline, massaging cream, hair  cream, or any other substances are permitted to any part of the fighter’s body before and during the fights. The discovery of any of these substances will result in a disqualification.

PRIDE Fighting Championships (PRIDE or PRIDE FC for short) is a major Mixed Martial Arts organization based in Japan.  Currently promoted by Dream Stage Entertainment, the first event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997
  
 More people attend Pride Fighting Championships than any other branch of Mixed Martial Arts organizations in the world. More than 67,450 people attended the Pride Final Conflict in 2003, With the audience record being 91,107 people on the PRIDE and K-1 co-production Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August of 2002.  The first PRIDE event held in the United States was The Real Deal.  It was held in October of 2006 at the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Las Vegas in Nevada. Pride Fighting Championships hold several series of events in addition to its main events. In both 2000 and each year since 2003, Pride Fighting Championships holds the series of World Grand Prix events, in which a group of sixteen men, during two or three events, is narrowed down to one champion. In 2003, Pride Fighting Championships began the Bushido series, which features light weight fighters in addition to the middleweights and heavyweights it usually features.  “PRIDE The Best,” a short-lived series, lasted for a year in 2002 and featured an eight-sided ring.
  
 PRIDE was initially conceived as an opportunity in 1997 to match top-ranked Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada with Rickson Gracie, champion of the Gracie family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners.  He made a name for himself in Japan as a kakutougi (mixed martial arts) legend in Vale Tudo Japan events.  The success of the first event led promoters to do a regular series of mixed martial arts events, and a year later in 1998, promote a rematch between Takada and Gracie. Gracie won both matches easily. In June of 2006, due to a breach of contract with Dream Stage Entertainment, Fuji Network terminated their television contract with PRIDE Fighting Championships. This left PRIDE with only one pay-per-view carrier in Japan.  DSE has been surrounded by speculation in the Japanese media, especially in Japanese tabloid Shukan Gendai, that it may be a front by a notorious yakuza group. 
   
PRIDE announced it would cooperate with the Ultimate Fighting Championship,America’s largest Mixed Martial Arts organization, and would be show casting their fighters, including Wanderlei Silva and Kazuyuki Fujita, at a UFC event in November 2006, However, Dana White, president of the UFC, has said, in several interviews, that an announced bout between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva may not happen, she finds the Japanese difficult to do business with.  Beside the point that since Wanderlei Silva was actually knocked out in his last fight, due to Nevada State Athletic Commission rules, he would not be allowed to compete so soon in the UFC.

The thing that makes the Ultimate Fighting Championship different from other mixed martial arts are the elite levels of the competitor also known as an “Ultimate Fighter,” and the commitment of the owners to promote safe, quality entertainment, both live and televised, while maintaining and implementing rules and regulations in place to guard the safety of the fighters.

The UFC brings together the most talented martial arts experts in the world. UFC fighters come from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Japan, Russia, Holland, England, and all over the world. All UFC fighters are required to have previous combat sports experience, and many are world or Olympic champions. The UFC athletes train up to six, or more, hours a day in preparation for an event. 

Almost all have studied martial arts all their lives, and are college educated.  In addition to their UFC careers, many of the competitors are business owners.  They are also students, professionals, or managers, working in various fields.  It is, however, the success, discipline and focus of the Ultimate Fighter that makes him different from any other competitor in the field of mixed martial arts.
   
    The UFC’s dedication to the absolute consistency in following rules, the presence of officials, judges, the various weight divisions, rounds, time limits, and other safety precautions also set the UFC apart from other branches of Mixed Martial Arts competitions.

UFC Mandatory Equipment
     One thing that sets the new UFC apart from other branches of Mixed Martial Arts are the rules that are put in place to ensure the competitors’ safety.  In the New UFC, competitors may only use UFC and commission approved 4-6 oz gloves, designed to protect the hand, but not large enough to improve the striking surface or force of the punch.
   
    UFC Commission approved Mixed Martial Arts shorts and kickboxing trunks are the only uniforms allowed. Shirts, gis and shoes, present problems because they allow for grabbing and are not allowed.
   
    The UFC organization has an established reputation for providing the maximum safety to the fighters with commission approved ring structures, canvas, and all safety padding and fences.

The New UFC, unlike some other branches of mixed martial arts, requires absolute adherence to commission mandated rules:
-Commission approved gloves
-Weight classes
-Time limits and rounds
-Mandatory drug testing
-No head butting or kicking to the downed opponent
-No knees to the head of a downed opponent
-No downward point of the elbow strikes
-No strikes to the spine or the back of the head
-No groin or throat strikes
-State Athletic Commission approval in states such as New Jersey, Nevada, Florida & Louisiana.

The New Ultimate Fighting Championship is the world’s leading mixed martial arts sports association.  It was formed in January, 2001 by Zuffa, LLC. The New Ultimate Fighting Championship has very strong leadership, who bring to the new UFC a wide base of experience in management, across a variety of live sporting events, television productions, and business developments.  The new UFC has established itself as the standard to be met for the evolving, and exciting, sport of mixed martial arts.

What is Mixed Martial Arts?
    Mixed martial arts (MMA) is an intense and combat sport in which competitors use a mixture of forms of fighting that include jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and others, to their strategic and tactical advantage, in supervised matches.  Scoring for mixed martial arts events in Nevada, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Florida is based on definitions and rules for striking athletic-commission approved blows with the hands, feet, knees, or elbows, and grappling, submission, choke holds, throws, or take downs. No single martial arts discipline.

What is Ultimate Fighting in the UFC?
    Ultimate Fighting is the proprietary term of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is an inclusive mixed martial arts competition between skilled, professional fighters who use jiu-jitsu, karate, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and other forms of skilled martial arts, in UFC events.  UFC competitors, or “Ultimate Fighters,” are among the best-trained and best conditioned athletes in the world.  This is a highly intense sport, and the UFC ownership states emphatically that fighter safety is their utmost concern, second only to providing quality entertainment for the masses.  It is stated that no competitor has ever been seriously injured in a UFC event.

What is the New Ultimate Fighting Championship?
    The new Ultimate Fighting Championship is a series of international, competitive mixed martial arts events.  These events are televised several times a year, and can be seen live, in the arena, on pay-per-view, and other cable and satellite formats, both in the United States, and internationally. The New Ultimate Fighting Championship is committed to providing high quality live events and television productions.  The New Ultimate Fighting Championship is produced exclusively in cooperation with Zuffa, LLC.  The first UFC event produced under new ownership and management, was held on February 23, 2001.  The New Ultimate Fighting Championships bring extremely fit, skilled fighters from all over the globe, who are talented and skilled in all facets of mixed martial arts, including grappling, Greco Roman Wrestling, striking, and submission fighting.

There have been many drastic changes to the UFC I, Mixed Martial Arts form, since Dana White, and Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta purchased the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2001.  Ken Shamrock, the first son of the Ultimate Fighting Championships, was the first major title holder, and has been portrayed, especially during The Ultimate Fighter Season 3, as a short-tempered, easily infuriated brute, but when he speaks about the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship, with a gleam in his eye, he’s suddenly an extraordinary storyteller.  He claims that even the fighters had little knowledge of what the Ultimate Fighting Championships held in store.  On Nov. 8 of 1993, Shamrock was in Japan at another mixed-martial arts event, submitting Takaku Fuke in a mere 44 seconds, only to appear in Denver on Nov. 12,  for the first-ever Ultimate Fighting Championship.  Jet-lagged and facing an altitude change, he had no idea he was about to become a focal point of a mixed-martial arts revolution.
                                                                                                                                     The fight was billed as an anything-goes event, where two men would enter, and one would leave.  The UFC, as Shamrock saw it, was making claims that only the movies made.  He is said to have doubted that the event would ever take place, but it did.  It began with striking specialist, Gerard Gordeau, sprinkling the teeth of sumo wrestler Teia Tuli across the mat. Shamrock has been quoted as saying he remembered that “You could hear a pin drop.”  From that moment, ultimate fighting was on, the brutality was for real, and anything could happen.
   
    Shamrock made his debut shortly thereafter against tae kwon do specialist Patrick Smith.  Smith and Shamrock’s camps exchanged words behind the scenes, with Smith telling everyone who would listen that he felt no pain, to a background of his camp chanting, “He’s gonna crush you!”  Even Shamrock’s father, Bob, was furious, but Ken assured his father he’d take care of Smith, and he did just that, less than two minutes into the fight, by submitting Smith with a heel hook. Shamrock, who’d been in his fair share of bar room brawls, street fights, and tough man contests, before becoming involved in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, from the very first match, Shamrock fell in love with Mixed Martial Arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Mixed martial arts have often been labeled brutal and barbaric even obscene.  Now, mixed martial arts competitions run every week on television, and nearly every month on pay-per-view.  Long criticized for brutality and barbarism, many now say it is the fastest growing sport in America, with celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, seen peppering the live audiences. Technically, the term is mixed martial arts, but in this sport, nothing is fake, the competitors are well trained, and in optimal physical condition.  The training of Mixed Martial Art competitors is known to be the most extensive of any fighting competitions in the world.  The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the reality of mixed martial arts competitions, and the gladiators of our time.
   
    The Ultimate Fighting Championships are America’s biggest and most recognized mixed-martial arts competition.  They began in November of 1993 McNichols Arena, in Denver, Colorado as a tournament with no rules, and no holds barred.  This competition pitted experts against experts, and was determined to fight it out until they knew beyond a doubt which fighting style was the brutal best.
   
    One of its latest competitions was Ultimate Fighting Championship’s number 61: Bitter Rivals.  It took place in Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, to a packed house.  The organization boasts five weight classes, well-rounded martial artists, and regulations specifically designed to lessen the sport’s danger.  These battles take place in an octagon shaped cages known simply as “the octagon.”  The octagon is the symbol of the UFC.  A man by the name of Ken Shamrock is the bridge between then and now. UFC President and Co-owner, Dana White, says that Shamrock and a man by the name of Royce Gracie were instrumental in taking a sport so intense, as to be taboo, to where it is today.
   
    If you ever watched The Ultimate Fighter, a reality show on Spike TV, you know why it has been called ‘barbaric’ and labeled ‘taboo’.  Its weekly “Unleashed” broadcasts feature past fights and Ultimate Fight Night shows.   Its pay-per-view numbers continue to increase every year in front of sold-out crowds in Southern California and Las Vegas. The sport routinely has the internet buzzing. Dana White, and Lorenzo, and Frank Fertitta purchased the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2001, and feel they have taken mixed martial arts to a whole new level as a competition, and plan to go global with the sport, in the near future.

Sport mixed martial arts competitors fall into one of three general categories, the ground fighter, the wrestler, and the striker.  The ground fighter is the closest thing to a “die hard” No Holds Barred fighter there is in the MMA.  The ground fighter’s strength lies in his ability to force a fight to the ground, where they can force a submission, to end the fight, using joint locks or chokes.  The ability to perform a take down is an integral to ground fighting strategies, but a well executed take down is not as important to a ground fighter as it is to a wrestler.
   
    The mixed martial arts competitor, whose strengths lie in wrestling, pits stand-up striking strengths against the ground oriented grappler, whose strength is usually in the takedown itself.  Ground and pound is a common strategy of the wrestler.  The ground and pound method of taking an opponent down, centers on achieving a dominant ground position and finishing the fight with strikes.
   
    Mixed martial arts strikers are commonly known as standup fighters, due to their preference for staying on their feet to win with a knockout.  Sprawl and brawl is the strategy of the striker.  This refers to their focus on preventing take downs in order to stay upright and exchange blows.  The sprawl is believed by many to be the best defense to one of the more common entries to a takedown in wrestling, called “the shoot.”
   
    These categories, rather than excluding other categories, work in tandem with skills from all categories of the fight.  Ground fighters will at least learn the basics of wrestling, to be able to take competitors down, and the basics of striking, to keep from getting knocked out.  Competitors, whose strengths make them primarily Strikers, learn enough wrestling to neutralize a takedown, throw attempts, and enough ground fighting to get back to their feet, if they are taken down.  Wrestlers learn enough ground fighting and striking to protect themselves, and to be able to easily finish opponents with whatever technique they find most effective for their personal fighting style.
   
    Only on rare occasions, you will see fighters highly skilled according to MMA standards, in all three areas, but these types of multi-talented fighters are becoming increasingly common as the sport becomes more professional.

Though mixed martial arts, as a sport, has been labeled barbaric and compared to the gladiators of ancient Rome, the sport has seen almost unprecedented growth since the Ultimate Fighting Championship was purchased by Dana White, and Lorenzo, and Frank Fertitta in 2001.  Once named “No Holds Barred” fighting, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has implemented some rules and regulations to reduce the number of fight related injuries and fatalities, but it is still believed to be the roughest sport in the world, and the UFC owners took mixed martial arts global, beginning in July of 2002, by branching out into Europe, with a new London office.
   
    Examples of Street MMA are the Dog Brothers style of martial arts sparring (full-contact stick fighting with limited to no protective gear and real sticks), Roy Harris’ school in San Diego, CA, and Frank Benn’s school in Austin, TX. Reality Fighting and adrenal stress/scenario training (such as that done by Model Mugging/IMPACT, Tony Blauer, Peyton Quinn, etc.) are also often large influences on many of these programs.
   
    The principles of street style mixed martial arts as applied for non-sport situations seem to draw less interest compared to sport mixed martial arts, though the number of street style MMA participants is growing.  Many, though not all, of the fighters doing this come from a Jeet Kune Do background, and sometimes call what they do Jeet Kune Do. 
   
    Their competitions are somewhat different from the Jeet Kune Do mainstream, because they call for large amounts of rule sparse sparring, and they encourage their students to do sport mixed martial arts sparring and competitions.  Practitioners have argued as to whether what they do is, or is not, mixed martial arts, but there are similarities to both, and the two are almost inseparably intertwined.
   
    Most street mixed martial arts competitors believe that sport mixed martial arts still needs a few changes in strategy, with less emphasis on staying on the ground, and more weapons awareness, as well as the addition of a broader range of techniques, to become highly effective for the street fighting.  By far the most common addition to street-oriented MMA is training in Filipino martial arts, due to its emphasis on, and practical use of weaponry, primarily the stick and knife.
 

Mixed Martial Arts is both a style, and many styles, simultaneously. It is a unique mixture of both new and old ways of thinking about martial arts.  The techniques used in mixed martial arts is based on demonstrated effectiveness of a broad range of styles and techniques exhibited by different practitioners in open, non-style-specific sparring and competitions designed to have as few rules as possible, implementing rules, which, while moving away from the old “No Holds Barred” school of competition, still ensures the safety of competitors against death, or severe, permanent injury.
   
    Two Main Styles of Mixed Martial Arts
    One main style of Mixed Martial Arts is Sport MMA.  A mixed martial arts competition designed for sporting, like the ultimate fighting championship (UFC), pride fighting championship, or vale tudo style fighting matches.  Such matches usually have two unarmed competitors fighting under a core of rules such as: no biting, no eye-gouging (with fingers or chin) and no fish-hooking (inserting body parts such as the fingers into bodily crevices such as the mouth or nose). Groin attacks (striking or squeezing the groin) are also often prohibited.
   
    Promoters of mixed martial arts competitions may add additional rules, or simply adhere to what are considered to be the core rules. More restrictive promotions of MMA include Old Pancrase, Shootfighting, or RINGS rules. These rule sets often ban striking when an opponent is on the ground, and closed-fist striking.  In general, boxing (kickboxing/muay thai included), wrestling (Freestyle, Greco-Roman, and, to a lesser extent, Judo), and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are the three styles that comprise the core of nearly all modern Mixed
    Multiple Arts training.
   
    Mixed martial arts competition demands the fighters be in optimum physical condition, so athletes are trained to maximize their energy and endurance, though energy system training, strength training, flexibility, and speed drills.  There is no way any athlete in less than top shape can be successful at mixed martial arts competitions.
   
    Mixed Martial Arts Training
    Mixed Martial Arts Training resembles boxing, wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training, but with a much smaller selection of techniques.  There is also a focus on ‘putting it together,’ using boxing to set up a takedown, how to take someone down while maintaining position for a submission, boxing on the ground, etc. and Street Mixed Martial Arts may add weapon drills, awareness training, and changes in strategy as well.