MMA: The Marriage of Martial Arts

[bushido_man96]

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions have become a popular venue of martial arts study. The sport attracts top-tier athletes from around the world. The modern popularity of the sport can be directly related to the arrival of the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993. It quickly became evident that the best model for success in this venue of competition is the idea of cross training in different fighting styles. The ability to be able to punch and kick and grapple has all become important in MMA competition. The styles are brought together in what could be defined as a form of matrimony. Each style needs the help of the other in order to bring success. However, this marriage of the martial arts is not a new philosophy. In fact, there have been a few incidents throughout history where this wedding of styles has been noted. In this article, I endeavor to discuss a history of previous events that joined different arts together and discuss positive outcomes of these marriages.

The Original Wedding

In 648 B.C., the Pankration event was added to the Olympic games. It quickly became one of the most popular events at the games and also the most rewarding; it's purse being higher than that of any other event. Before the advent of Pankration, there were two other popular contact sports that were already Olympic events: boxing and wrestling. The Pankratiast took the grappling from wrestling and added to it by allowing holds below the waist; wrestling only allowed holds above the waist. The boxing rules of the time only allowed head strikes, but the Pankratiasts struck both head and body. The contestants added kicks to their repertoire as well.

The Pankration was fought with very few rules and broken bones and death where neither uncommon nor unexpected. Victory was achieved when a contestant either lie unconscious or gave up, with strangulation being viewed as the most efficient means of attaining this goal. The contestants would perform a vast array of techniques to ensure victory. The bout would normally begin with the combatants standing, but would move to the ground as well. Various striking and kicking methods were used, including kicks to the groin and the stomach. Foot sweeps taken from wrestling were commonly employed as methods of taking opponents to the ground. Leg twists and arm locks were popular techniques as well, and the fingers were not off limits, either (Perrotet, pp. 170-172). One particular technique that became popular for choking out an opponent was called the "ladder hold" and is described thus:

"... an athlete jumped on his opponent's back, wrapping his legs around the stomach; he could then lock his arms around the neck and block off the victim's breathing." (Perrotet).

From reading this description, it sounds an awful lot like an early version of what we would refer to today as the "rear naked choke."

The ancient Greeks saw the benefit behind the marriage of two of their most popular sporting events to form a comprehensive fighting style that added much to their culture. The Greeks viewed Pankration as the ultimate physical test, combining both strength and skill. The level of skill demonstrated by the fighters must have been impressive. It is also believed by some that the marriage of these two arts provided a basis for hand-to-hand combat training for Greek soldiers (Wikipedia, Pankration, pp. 1).

Unfortunately, the fall of the Greek and Roman empires, along with the onset of the Dark Ages, led to the disappearance of Pankration. However, another courtship in the attempt to join the martial arts was inevitable.

Another Engagement

In England, during the late 1890's, a man by the name of Edward William Barton-Wright made an attempt to marry several different styles of martial arts together to form an all-encompassing self defense system. Barton-Wright had interests in various systems of self defense and had experience in boxing, wrestling and savate, among others (Journal of Manly Arts, pp. 2). During a three-year study in Japan, he took up the opportunity to learn jujitsu and brought this art back to England with him. He decided to incorporate jujitsu into his system as well, which he named Bartitsu.

The idealistic approach that Barton-Wright had toward his new system appears ahead of his time to the modern day practitioner. Barton-Wright's concepts, however, were simple. He included boxing for training the hands, savate to learn to kick and jujitsu and wrestling for what he termed as "close play." He included a system of stick fighting as well. The principles behind bringing these systems together are very common sense and, in a way, are echoed by the popularity of cross training today. Barton-Wright felt that one needed to understand boxing in order to appreciate and understand what can happen when being attacked with punches. He applied the same theory to sticks and kicks. One way that he differed from most of the sentiments of today was in his approach towards jujitsu. He felt that it was not to be directly used to counter a puncher or a kicker, but was only to be used once coming in close to an attacker. (Wikipedia, Bartitsu, pp. 1) However, we could excuse this detail in his attempt to marry the arts in order to cover the three major areas of fighting: stand-up, clinch and groundwork.

Barton-Wright wasn't what we would refer to today as just another self-proclaimed expert in multiple styles trying to prove something to the world of martial arts. Although he had studied each of the various styles incorporated into his system, he did not claim expertise in each of the systems. He hired various instructors (including two jujitsu practitioners that he convinced to follow him back to England) to teach their respective styles to the students at his school. However, he did claim that he had practical application experience, which he had gained by engaging thugs and ruffians. He also held various demonstrations with area wrestling experts, demonstrating his knowledge of jujitsu.

So, what happened to Bartitsu? I am sure that many who read this will wonder what it is and where I came up with it, let alone what happened to it. This seemed like the perfect marriage; arrangements were made and an engagement ensued, but it seemed like it just wasn't meant to be. Some bad timing and some unfortunate circumstances led to an early separation. One concern was that enrollment fees at Barton-Wright's school were too high. Paying several qualified instructors to teach their respective styles could get pricey. A few of Barton-Wright's assistants also decided to break away and start their own gyms. Barton-Wright was even reported as saying that he had an argument and a fight with one of his jujitsu instructors. Money problems and infighting always seem to hover around failed engagements. This was no exception.

Fortunately, Edward William Barton-Wright's vision and eclecticism demonstrated that the marriage of various martial arts styles could provide many different benefits regarding the knowledge of fighting and defending in various ranges of combat and that one style can contribute to another. Barton-Wright was also a proponent of testing styles against each other, under common rule sets; a precursor of modern MMA/NHB competitions (Wikipedia, Bartitsu, pp. 3).

Thus far, we have evaluated two cases of marriage between styles; one successful and one not so much. Perhaps, in order to harbor a healthy, prosperous relationship, a few marriage-counseling sessions is just the thing to take the courtship to the next level.

Marriage Counseling

In order for the union of the martial arts into mixed martial arts to take place, we need to evaluate several different counseling sessions. Each "session" will bring something different to the table, and we will evaluate the contributions of various "marriage counselors."

Session 1: The Challenge Match

The challenge match became popular in Europe during the late 1800's, involving various wrestling champions of differing styles. Several matches took place, pitting boxers against wrestlers. Here are some of the most publicized:

1887: Heavyweight Boxing champion John L. Sullivan vs. Greco-Roman Wrestling champion William Muldoon (who also happened to be Sullivan's trainer). Sullivan was slammed to the mat in two minutes (Wikipedia, MMA, pp.2).

Late 1890's: Bob Fitzsimmons (future heavyweight champion) vs. Greco-Roman Wrestling champion Ernest Roeber. Roeber took Fitzsimmons down and submitted him with an arm lock, despite suffering a fractured cheekbone (Wikipedia, MMA, pp. 2).

1936: Heavyweight Boxer Kingfish Levinsky vs. professional wrestler Ray Steele. Steele won in 35 seconds (Wikipedia, MMA, pp. 2)

In each of these events, the victor was the grappler. In the 1920's, a similar scenario, known as the "Gracie Challenge" matches, came about. These matches were dubbed "Vale Tudo," or "anything goes." This movement began with Carlos and Helio Gracie and the legacy is continued on by later generations, which we will discuss in a moment. Japan also hosted a series of mixed martial arts matches in the 1970's, which inspired the creation of shoot wrestling. One of the first MMA organizations was created in 1985 and was called Shooto. We can see how these "sessions" are beginning to lead up to a successful Mixed Martial Arts relationship. (Wikipedia, MMA, pp. 2).

The Councilors

The efforts of Edward William Barton-Wright have already been discussed in this article and, although his attempt to marry the styles appeared to have failed, it should be noted that his "advise" was sound.

Carlos and Helio Gracie's Vale Tudo challenge matches helped to pave the way for the future of challenge matches, like the first UFC tournaments. Although the Gracies were attempting to promote the legitimacy of their own style, they were nevertheless laying the foundation for a happy martial arts marriage.

One cannot fail to mention Bruce Lee as a marriage councilor, either. Lee was an advocate of "freedom" in fighting and not holding to the fixed positions of more traditional styles. Although Lee had a strong foundation in Wing Chun Gung Fu, he also explored what other styles had to offer. He was a proponent of using whatever was effective and borrowed from styles like boxing and wrestling and even took concepts from modern fencing (Wikipedia, MMA, pp. 3). Indeed, Bruce Lee's views seem somewhat parallel to those of Barton-Wright's.

The final councilor I will discuss is Royce Gracie. The first UFC was set up as a martial arts tournament to pit style against style, with the goal of discerning what was effective and what was not when in actual combat. In what seems to echo a call back to the European challenge matches of the late 1800's, Royce's knowledge of grappling was difficult for other contestants to defend against, due to their lack of experience in ground fighting. His dominance continued for quite some time and then other fighters began to see the benefit of learning a grappling system. Royce's early dominance would actually act as a catalyst to the future marriage of fighting styles that we know today as mixed martial arts. In turn, I think that Royce Gracie leads us into our second counseling session.

Session 2: The Early UFC's

In the early 1990's, three styles stood out as effective for MMA competitions. These were Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, amateur wrestling and shoot wrestling (Wikipedia, MMA, pp. 3). The practitioners of styles based primarily in striking had difficulties defending against the ground fight, due to their lack of groundwork. However, this lack of knowledge would soon be rectified. Stand up stylists began to study grappling styles as well, so as to adapt defenses for the ground game that had become so prominent.

With the strikers' new found knowledge of grappling, they began to compete with, and even defeat, dominant grapplers. And now, we reach the focus of our second marriage counseling session. There is one thing that is required to make any relationship work and that is compromise. The beauty of the UFC is that it has allowed us to view this compromise as it took place, right before our eyes. As the strikers began to learn grappling, the grapplers soon followed suit by learning to improve their stand-up skills. Finally, our various fighting systems begin to show that each can benefit from the other, leading to a potentially successful relationship. As MMA has become more popular, the compromise has produced a style of fighting that has three distinct phases: stand-up, clinch and ground fighting. Only through the marriage of martial arts have the MMA fighters been able to increase their skill level in these three areas of fighting.

Happy Marriage

Mixed martial arts competitions have evolved quite a bit since their arrival in mainstream entertainment in the early 1990's with the UFC. There are several organizations in existence today that share the same goals. Today's MMA events have provided a fairly consistent set of rules for its practitioners. The major factor that tends to vary from one organization to another is the duration of the rounds fought, aside from the division of the weight classes and some minor rules regarding the kicking of an opponent while on the ground. Many rules regarding head butting, eye gouging and groin striking have also been established, with the goal of eliminating some of the brutality and eliciting a safer level of sportsmanship. Ways of winning include knockout, submission, technical knockout, referee stoppage or stoppage from the corner. These "prenuptials" have laid groundwork for guiding the fighting styles into working together and complimenting one another.

Conclusion

Mixed martial arts competitions began as style versus style. However, as the competitors have begun to see the advantages of adding other fighting methods to their arsenals, making them better all-round fighters. The very nature of these competitive events has caused a modern day martial arts revolution, or, if you will, an evolution. Instead of martial artists from various styles fighting each other, we now have various martial artists with similar knowledge fighting each other. The nature of these fights has, in my opinion, married various martial styles into one new style. At every MMA event, you will see some parallel between the combatants; they are all trained in stand-up, clinch and ground fighting. In my opinion, we have seen the emergence of a new martial art; its own style, found through the successful marriage of various other styles.

Spectators will still observe that certain fighters prefer one aspect of the style to the others. For example, you will have those that prefer to strike and those that prefer to grapple. This is akin to the karate practitioner who prefers to kick a lot or the Taekwondo fighter who likes to use his hands. They invariably know how to use both, but each has a preference. This is similar for MMA fighters as well. However, many of these fighters are beginning to have similar training regimens and are all well versed in this new martial style (or is this an old style, re-emerged and improved?).

The road leading to the successful Marriage of the Martial Arts has been a very long one, dating back to the ancient Greek Olympic games. Perhaps it even predates the ancient Greeks. We have seen how various attempts along the way have been tried, with successes and failures attached to each. Through the efforts of the ancient Greeks and men like Edward William Barton-Wright, Bruce Lee and the Gracie family, we have witnessed the successful marriage of the martial arts. This time, I believe it is here to stay.

Works Cited

Bartitsu, Wikipedia, May 31, 2006

Mixed martial arts, Wikipedia, October 13, 2006

An Introduction to E. W. Barton-Wright (1860-1951) and the Eclectic Art of Bartitsu[/u], Graham Noble, March, 2001

Journal of Manly Arts, Graham Noble, March, 2001

Pankration, Wikipedia, October 13, 2006

Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games, Tony Perrottet, June, 2004

[Patrick]

Thank you for the submission.

[ShoriKid]

Good article sir. When I'm not pressed for time I'll have something more lengthy concerning the continued tradition of mixed range fighting. If I can get my head around it and present what's bouncing inside my skull in a coheirent manner.

[bushido_man96]

I would love to hear your response. Thanks for taking the time to read it.