When And How Did MMA Begin?
Most people think of martial arts and the beginning of MMA tournaments they think most likely of the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese fighting styles and martial arts matches in China and Japan that pitted various styles against every other. However combat has been around since the beginning of time. For individuals that believe in creation, the story of Cain killing his brother Able is 1 of the first stories and events in the bible. After that, while stories of numerous ancient battles depict individuals between forces armed spears and knives you can be certain those pitched battles needed some serious hand-to-hand combat that required much much more training and guts to survive than anything anybody experiences within the UFC octagon these days.
When you look at the ancient Greece and Rome. It is possible they were the first known civilizations that really developed unarmed combat training. Still even in 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 during those times was a lot tougher than it is these days, particularly without good communications for law enforcement and no street lights, a time when even 1 Roman Emperor secretly snuck out during the night to kill for fun.
Then you’ve the prestigious gladiator tournaments that were perhaps the primary mixed martial arts tournaments, throwing together warriors from all over the recognized world in to the arena for fights to 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 had been 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 were killed. How´s that for motivation?
Imagine the condition you had to be in to participate in during individuals times. Plus there were no supplements, steroids or weight machines and as these competitors 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 when you really feel like bellyaching within the gym, and you wish to complain your poor physical condition on the fact that eating healthy is just too expensive or feel like giving up within the octagon, remember exactly where MMA training really comes from and stop feeling sorry for yourself.
