A Brief History of Mixed Martial Arts in the Americas
To all, I have decided to approach this particular topic a bit differently. Instead of siding with forum member “North” about tactics in M.M.A bouts (and I do), I’m going to post a bit about the history of personal combat in North America. Early Boxing Originally, the rules for martial sport were something called “London Prize Fight Rules”. Later that was changed to “The Marquis de Queensbury Rules”. And under these, the sport was quite different from what we see today. It was permissible to throw an opponent in order to win a round. It was at this time that John L. Sullivan toured North America. Later he trained under the great wrestler, William Muldoon. It was Muldoon who whipped him back into shape. A wrestler training a boxer. http://www.hardcoreboxing.net/Chodash1022006.htm http://www.ibhof.com/muldoon.htm Early Karate in North America In the early ‘50’s, Mas Oyama of Kyokushinkai fame; also toured North America. He fought all comers as part of his show demonstrating the power of Karate. Yet it was a light weight boxer named “Becker” who gave him the most trouble. The boxer had to remain in the ring for 3 minutes in order to win his prize. And he almost did it. This would be yet another case of testing various martial disciplines against each other. http://www.fightingmaster.com/masters/oyama/ Gracie Jiu-jitsu At this point, I’m going to post briefly about Gracie Jiu-jitsu. I mean no disrespect here so don’t go reading that into this. The actual teacher of Helio Gracie was this guy. “Mitsuyo Maeda was a Japanese judoka, and prize-fighter often referred to as Count Combat (or Conde Koma in Brazil, although he actually earned the nickname in Spain by 1908).” Suffice it to say that he was trained in JUDO, not jiu-jitsu. The Kodokan banned him but he wasn’t deterred. This is the best explanation of this remarkable innovator. “In Maeda's mind, it was a smart fighter's task to keep the fight located in the phase of combat that best suited his own strengths. Because Maeda's strength lay primarily in grappling, he put much effort towards finding means to efficiently close the distance between himself and fighters specialized in striking.” Go here if you want to read more about him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuyo_Maeda Maeda sensei trained Helio Gracie, who was himself a remarkable martial giant. He started training in 1929 and by 1932 was competing. In 1937 he and some of his people went to a rival gym. There he thumped the owner, breaking the guys head, arm and some ribs. Helio was arrested, tried and convicted. He appealed but the sentence was upheld. The the president of Brazil pardoned him. In his life he has had many bouts against many different styles. His influence has helped give rise to the concepts of ground fighting and M.M.A. Here is another record he holds (and look who trained his opponent). “Hélio holds the world record for longest match, a feat achieved when he spent 3 hours 40 minutes fighting his former student Valdemar Santana (also known as Adema Santa), losing by knockout from a knee to the head. That fight was held at the YMCA in Rio de Janeiro in 1955. At the age of 44 in 1957, Hélio attempted a comeback only to be stopped again by Adema Santa due to knee strikes to the stomach.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helio_Gracie Vale Tudo “Vale-tudo (Portuguese for anything goes) describes competitions in unarmed combat having minimal rules… The term vale tudo comes from the name of a television show that aired in Brazil starting in the 1960s.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale-tudo But I am beginning to digress. The U.F.C. The idea of anything goes came to North American Television in the early 1990’s. “A core proposition for the show was to find an answer for sports fans: Can a wrestler beat a boxer." Then this happened: “After repeated criticism, and letter-writing campaigns led by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the UFC was dropped from the major cable pay-per-view distributor Viewer's Choice, and individual cable carriers such as TCI Cable.” And then, so did this. “In a response to the criticism, the UFC increased its cooperation with state athletic commissions and redesigned its rules to remove the less palatable elements of fights while retaining the core elements of striking and grappling. Weight classes were introduced at UFC 12; gloves became mandatory and kicks to a downed opponent, hair pulling, and groin strikes were banned at UFC 14. UFC 15 saw more limitations on permissible striking areas: strikes to the back of the neck and head, small joint manipulation, and pressure point strikes were banned. With five-minute rounds introduced at UFC 21, the UFC gradually became re-branded as a sport rather than a spectacle.” Here is more, if you’ve got the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufc In closing this rather long post (but short history), I have but one more thing to say. The students of Moh just aren’t that different from other savvy martial artists. Regards, MrE2Me2 Without prejudice E&OE
To all, I have decided to approach this particular topic a bit differently. Instead of siding with forum member “North” about tactics in M.M.A bouts (and I do), I’m going to post a bit about the history of personal combat in North America. Early Boxing Originally, the rules for martial sport were something called “London Prize Fight Rules”. Later that was changed to “The Marquis de Queensbury Rules”. And under these, the sport was quite different from what we see today. It was permissible to throw an opponent in order to win a round. It was at this time that John L. Sullivan toured North America. Later he trained under the great wrestler, William Muldoon. It was Muldoon who whipped him back into shape. A wrestler training a boxer. http://www.hardcoreboxing.net/Chodash1022006.htm http://www.ibhof.com/muldoon.htm Early Karate in North America In the early ‘50’s, Mas Oyama of Kyokushinkai fame; also toured North America. He fought all comers as part of his show demonstrating the power of Karate. Yet it was a light weight boxer named “Becker” who gave him the most trouble. The boxer had to remain in the ring for 3 minutes in order to win his prize. And he almost did it. This would be yet another case of testing various martial disciplines against each other. http://www.fightingmaster.com/masters/oyama/ Gracie Jiu-jitsu At this point, I’m going to post briefly about Gracie Jiu-jitsu. I mean no disrespect here so don’t go reading that into this. The actual teacher of Helio Gracie was this guy. “Mitsuyo Maeda was a Japanese judoka, and prize-fighter often referred to as Count Combat (or Conde Koma in Brazil, although he actually earned the nickname in Spain by 1908).” Suffice it to say that he was trained in JUDO, not jiu-jitsu. The Kodokan banned him but he wasn’t deterred. This is the best explanation of this remarkable innovator. “In Maeda's mind, it was a smart fighter's task to keep the fight located in the phase of combat that best suited his own strengths. Because Maeda's strength lay primarily in grappling, he put much effort towards finding means to efficiently close the distance between himself and fighters specialized in striking.” Go here if you want to read more about him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuyo_Maeda Maeda sensei trained Helio Gracie, who was himself a remarkable martial giant. He started training in 1929 and by 1932 was competing. In 1937 he and some of his people went to a rival gym. There he thumped the owner, breaking the guys head, arm and some ribs. Helio was arrested, tried and convicted. He appealed but the sentence was upheld. The the president of Brazil pardoned him. In his life he has had many bouts against many different styles. His influence has helped give rise to the concepts of ground fighting and M.M.A. Here is another record he holds (and look who trained his opponent). “Hélio holds the world record for longest match, a feat achieved when he spent 3 hours 40 minutes fighting his former student Valdemar Santana (also known as Adema Santa), losing by knockout from a knee to the head. That fight was held at the YMCA in Rio de Janeiro in 1955. At the age of 44 in 1957, Hélio attempted a comeback only to be stopped again by Adema Santa due to knee strikes to the stomach.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helio_Gracie Vale Tudo “Vale-tudo (Portuguese for anything goes) describes competitions in unarmed combat having minimal rules… The term vale tudo comes from the name of a television show that aired in Brazil starting in the 1960s.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale-tudo But I am beginning to digress. The U.F.C. The idea of anything goes came to North American Television in the early 1990’s. “A core proposition for the show was to find an answer for sports fans: Can a wrestler beat a boxer." Then this happened: “After repeated criticism, and letter-writing campaigns led by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the UFC was dropped from the major cable pay-per-view distributor Viewer's Choice, and individual cable carriers such as TCI Cable.” And then, so did this. “In a response to the criticism, the UFC increased its cooperation with state athletic commissions and redesigned its rules to remove the less palatable elements of fights while retaining the core elements of striking and grappling. Weight classes were introduced at UFC 12; gloves became mandatory and kicks to a downed opponent, hair pulling, and groin strikes were banned at UFC 14. UFC 15 saw more limitations on permissible striking areas: strikes to the back of the neck and head, small joint manipulation, and pressure point strikes were banned. With five-minute rounds introduced at UFC 21, the UFC gradually became re-branded as a sport rather than a spectacle.” Here is more, if you’ve got the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufc In closing this rather long post (but short history), I have but one more thing to say. The students of Moh just aren’t that different from other savvy martial artists. Regards, MrE2Me2 Without prejudice E&OE