When Did Mixed Martial Arts Really Begin?

When most people think about martial arts and the beginning of mixed martial arts competitions they think of Asian fighting styles and martial arts competitions in China and Japan that pitted different schools against each other. However fighting has been around since the beginning of time. For those that believe in creation, the story of Cain killing his brother Able is one of the first stories and events in the bible. After that, while stories of many ancient battles depict those between forces armed spears and swords you can be sure those pitched battles required some serious hand-to-hand combat that required much more training and guts to survive than anything anyone experiences in the UFC octagon today.

Look at the ancient Greeks and Romans. Perhaps they could be created with being the first known civilizations that actually developed unarmed combat training. Still even in the octagon today there are remnants of Greco-Roman wrestling, from tournaments held thousands of years ago. You can also be sure that surviving on the streets during those times was a lot tougher than it is today, especially without good communications for law enforcement and no street lights, a time when even one Roman Emperor snuck out a night to kill for fun.

Then you have the legendary gladiator tournaments that were perhaps the first mixed martial arts tournaments, throwing together warriors from all over the known world in to the arena for fights to the death. Fighters where brought to Rome to perform from Africa, Asia and Europe, each with their own unique style. Surely if any of these warriors were resurrected today they would laugh at the octagon and today´s MMA competitions. Rules? There were none. Submissions, tap outs? Winning back then meant killing your opponent. Besides the hand to hand combat, unarmed fighters were often thrown up against armed assailants and even tigers and lions. Forget fighting for a championship belt, either you won or were killed. How´s that for motivation?

Imagine the shape you had to be in to compete in during those times. Plus there were no martial arts supplies, supplements, steroids or weight machines and as these fighters were prisoners you can bet there wasn't much of a choice of diet, or especially the luxury of eating 6 to 7 times a day. So next time you feel like whining in the gym or dojo, want to blame your poor shape on the fact that eating healthy is just too expensive or feel like giving up in the octagon, remember where MMA really comes from and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Tony Mills is the Chief Editor of online Content for The MMA Zone. Tony is an expert in the field of martial arts training and conditioning.

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