MMA, short for Mixed Martial Arts, is one of the most dominant and comprehensive combat sports practiced worldwide today. MMA originally evolved from the Brazilian Vale Tude and Luta Livre. It is also sometimes called cage fighting, freefighting, or No Holds Barred (NHB) fighting. However, contrary to popular belief, modern MMA and its major organizations have quite a few regulations, and of course, not everything is permitted.
The first time the term MMA was used was during what is now widely considered the most important point in modern MMA history, UFC 1 (Ultimate Fighting Championship).
In the 1990s, the Gracie family from Brazil brought their adapted (Brazilian) Jiu-Jitsu style to the USA. This ultimately led to the first-ever major global MMA tournament: UFC 1.
The original idea was to filter the best fighting styles by allowing virtually anything. However, MMA has since exploded, and many professional fighters have begun cross-training in various fighting styles. To keep things safe, to make the sport more mainstream and therefore commercially acceptable, many more rules and weight classes were gradually introduced, resulting in what is today a wildly popular sport and organization: MMA and the UFC.
MMA is such a big business today worldwide, and especially in the USA, that it rivals the ever-popular professional boxing, pro-wrestling, and kickboxing.
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