MMA HISTORY

Although the history of mankind has been characterized by different forms of bare-knuckle fighting, the first documented form of combat that addressed all the distances of combat and structured within a certain type of regulation was the ancient Greek Pancrace that was introduced in the Olympic Games of ancient Greece in 648 BC.
In the Pancrazio the purpose was to beat the opponent with bare hands, using all their strength and the contenders had the possibility to use all possible techniques. The cruelty of this sport was such that the two contenders often arrived to fight until the death of one of them, while the antagonist who won was praised and brought in triumph by the public. From the Greek Pancrazio it is derived then that more violent of the Etruscan and Roman societies.
Until the early Middle Ages were put statues in Rome and other cities in honor of the fighters of Pancrazio.

In the modern era, no-holds-barred fights began to take place in Europe and the United States at the end of the 1800s in traveling fairs or in showrooms where wrestlers of different styles, such as catch wrestling, wrestling, boxing, etc., clashed.
In the United States were also organized fights without rules very violent called "rough and tumble". In the United States the first famous encounter between different styles took place in 1887 when John L. Sullivan, then world boxing champion, entered the ring with his trainer, Greco-Roman wrestling champion William Muldoon and was knocked out in 2 minutes. The next publicized bout occurred at the turn of the century when future heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons faced European Greco-Roman wrestling champion Ernest Roeber. Roeber suffered a fractured cheekbone, but was able to take Fitzsimmons to the mat and finish him off with a lever to the arm.
During the early 1900s, in interstyle fights, Italian Giovanni Raicevich, an expert in Greco-Roman wrestling, defeated Akitaro Ono, a Japanese fighter skilled in judo, ju-jitsu and sumo, and Ad Santel, a catch wrestling champion, defeated several Japanese judo champions.
In 1936 boxing heavyweight Kingfish Levinsky and professional wrestler Ray Steele faced each other in a mixed bout that Steele won in 35 seconds.

In Europe, Japan, and the Pacific Rim there were bouts between different martial styles, such as boxing versus ju-jitsu, which were a popular entertainment and in Japan were known as merikan. These matches could have different rules including wins on points, best of 3 projections or Knockdown, or victory by KO or submission.
After the First World War professional wrestling was divided into two genres: "shoot" where the wrestlers actually fought and "show" where the wrestlers faced each other in simulated matches with a predetermined outcome, in which they performed spectacular actions to entertain the audience (from the latter derived the modern professional wrestling).
The movement that led to the creation of current MMA originated in Brazil in Vale Tudo events and in Japan in Shootwrestling shows.

Valetudo was born in Brazil in the 1920s with the "Gracie challenges", promoted by Carlos and Helio Gracie and continued by their descendants, in which members of this family challenged representatives of other martial arts to demonstrate the superior effectiveness of their art, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, an evolution of Judo taught by the Japanese Mitsuyo Maeda. These challenges often took place in Rio de Janeiro where there was a big confrontation between the representatives of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and the Brazilian Luta Livre, a fighting style similar to catch wrestling.
In Japan in the '70s were organized several meetings of MMA by professional wrestler Antonio Inoki, student of the famous wrestler of catch wrestling Karl Gotch, who gave rise to the shoot style in Japanese professional wrestling and led to the foundation in 1985 of the organization of MMA called Shooto. Inoki himself in 1976 began to challenge champions of other combat sports, facing and defeating the Olympic judo champion and the heavyweight karate champion of the world and drawing with the heavyweight boxing champion of the world Cassius Clay.

It was Rorion Gracie, of the famous Gracie family, who introduced vale tudo by founding the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1993 along with Art Davie, Robert Meyrowitz and Ayoub Akesbi. The enormous success of the UFC created an explosion of vale tudo around the world, particularly in Japan, and a rebirth and a return of popularity of the sport in Brazil where two circuits of vale tudo were created, the World Vale Tudo Championship (WVC) and the International Vale Tudo Chanpionship (IVC).
At the same time, Shooto and the subsequent "Vale Tudo Japan" spread in Japan, which Rickson Gracie won in 1994 and 1995, whose growing popularity gave rise to the Pride Fighting Championships organization in 1997.

Currently, the UFC is the most important organization in the field of mixed martial arts globally.
The purpose of the first Ultimate Fighting championship was to identify the most effective martial art in a fight, with minimal rules, between competitors from different disciplines. In subsequent competitions, fighters began to mix techniques from different styles to make up for each other's deficiencies and weaknesses.
The UFC initially became known for its no holds barred fights and the brutality of the bouts. This did not give the UFC a good reputation in the world of combat sports, also decreeing the end of the broadcast of the events on pay-per-view and consequently reducing its visibility.
The UFC began to change, recreating itself by adopting stricter regulations, linking itself to athletic commissions, introducing weight categories and self-indicating itself as a legitimate promoter of combat sports. Leaving behind the label of a no-rules organization and carrying the banner of mixed martial arts.
The UFC thus manages to re-emerge, regaining space on pay-per-view and promoting shows on free-to-air television stations, even managing to buy and absorb rival promotions such as Pride Fc, World Extreme Cagefighting as well as Strikeforce and International Fight league.

In the United States, the UFC can be followed on the Fox Sports network; UFC shows are also broadcast in more than 156 countries around the world.
The Fertitta brothers initially purchased the federation for $2 million and created Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the UFC. In 2016 The UFC was sold for a record amount of approximately four billion dollars to WME/IMG, representing the largest deal in the history of the sport.

A great recognition to MMA occurred when in 2005 the U.S. Army began holding the annual Army Combatives Championship, an MMA tournament for soldiers.
Currently in addition to the UFC, there are several circuits such as Bellator, One championship, EFC, Cage Warriors, Brave, FFC, XFC... that promote Mixed Martial Arts in the world scene.
Discussions are also beginning about the possibility of bringing Mixed Martial Arts to be one of the next candidates to officially become an Olympic sport. The International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) founded in February 2012 as the international governing body for amateur mixed martial arts, is trying hard to gain Olympic recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).