When Did Mixed Martial Arts Really Begin?
When most individuals think of martial arts and also the beginning of MMA competitions they believe of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese style of fighting and martial arts matches in China and Japan that pitted different styles against every other. Nevertheless combat has been around since the beginning of time. For those that believe in creation, the story of Cain killing his brother Able is 1 of the first stories and events within the bible. After that, while stories of many ancient battles depict those between forces armed spears and swords you can be certain those pitched battles needed some serious hand-to-hand combat that needed a lot more training and guts to survive than anything anybody experiences within the UFC octagon today.
In looking at the Romans and Greeks. It is possible they were the very first recognized civilizations that really developed unarmed combat training. Still even within the octagon today you will find the remains of Greco-Roman wrestling, from tournaments held thousands of years ago. You can also be sure that surviving on the streets throughout individuals times was a lot tougher than it’s these days, particularly without great communications for law enforcement and no street lights, a time when even 1 Roman Emperor secretly snuck out at night to kill for fun.
Then you’ve the monolithic gladiator tournaments that had been possibly the primary Mixed Martial Arts tournaments, throwing together warriors from all over the known world in towards the arena for fights towards the death. Fighters exactly where brought to Rome to perform from Africa, Asia and Europe, every with their own unique style. Surely if any of these warriors were resurrected these days 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 had been killed. How´s that for motivation?
Picture the condition you had to be in to fight in throughout those times. Plus there were no steroids, supplements or working out with weights and as these competitors were prisoners you can bet there wasn´t much of a selection of diet, or especially the luxury of eating 6 to 7 times a day. So next time you feel like yapping in the gym, and you want to blame your undesirable physical condition on the fact that eating healthy is just too costly or feel like giving up within the octagon, remember where MMA training truly comes from and stop feeling sorry for yourself.