Growing up we've all heard tales of great Roman gladiators fighting until the death. These warriors were trained fighters, in various disciplines, and gifted athletes. The thing that separated them from all others was their courage and disregard for their own safety. They honored having the opportunity to fight for and entertain the fans, and they had the utmost respect for the other combatants. You may be asking yourself what this has to do with
MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) or any martial art
for that matter. If you subtract the fighting until death aspect you will see that
MMA fighters exhibit many characteristics of these past warriors. You could even say they are our modern day gladiators!
What is MMA? Well, it's Mixed Martial Arts and it is a relatively new combative sport that combines
Wrestling, Boxing, Karate, Jiu-jitsu,
Sambo, San Shou - Kick Boxing, and pretty much any other
Martial art you can think of. Some events are held in a cage while others go the traditional combative sport route and use a ring. A match pits two competitors against each other usually for 2-3 five minute rounds. A fighter is allowed to use strikes consisting of elbows, kicks and punches and is allowed to grapple with their opponent both while standing and while the two are on the ground. A fighter can win a match by either knocking their opponent unconscious, applying a submission hold and having their opponent submit or by going the distance and having the judges decide upon the outcome.
You often hear various slurs, like street fighting and human cock fighting, in association with
MMA but these detractors couldn't be further from the truth. The biggest misconception is that your average tough guy can enter one of these events and hold their own. Would people expect your average golfer to be able to keep up with Tiger Woods or your average basketball hobbyist to stand a chance against Michael Jordan? The answer is no because these professional athletes are extremely well trained and incredibly athletic. This holds especially true for
MMA fighters as well. Fighters competing in
mixed martial arts are not street fighters or thugs they are highly trained athletes. The average fighter trains for 1 hour a day each in
boxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling. They also do an hour of cardiovascular training as well as an additional hour of strength training. That's 5 hours of intense training in
martial arts and conditioning. You're not going to find many other pro athletes with that much of a work ethic.
Mixed Martial Arts, is the fastest growing combat sport in the world with many representatives from every continent and virtually every country. When you look at the fact that just 5 years ago there weren't many
mixed martial artists taking home more then ten thousand dollars a fight. Now some of these same fighters earn $250 to $500 thousand dollars plus to fight. It clearly reflects how far this sport has come.
Boxing better make way because Mixed Martial Arts is here to stay.
