I am thrilled to be able to welcome Dr. Kevin Lally as a guest blogger with Sportyman2020 for the next three weeks. Along with being one of Ireland's brightest young Psychiatrists, Kevin has multiple interests and a varied background outside of his medical career, including boxing, bee-keeping, computer programming and, luckily for Sportyman2020, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and writing.
I've always found MMA to be a bit mysterious but I've learned a huge amount from reading Kevin's very lively pieces. In this first installment, Kevin takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of MMA, with origins traceable to wrestling competitions in Ancient Greece right through to martial arts developments in Japan, street fighting in Brazil and most recently the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in the United States. Next week, Kevin will write about MMA in Ireland, 'a tale of tragedy and triumph' and how, in Kevin's words, 'an island of scrappers produced the world's biggest MMA star'. For the third installment, Kevin will cover the controversial area of safety issues relating to MMA.
So whether you're already an MMA fan or the whole area is new to you, you will
really enjoy this MMA trilogy...
Oh and you can follow Kevin on Twitter: @kevinly
Introducing MMA
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is for some a sport and for others
a vulgar form of entertainment. Modern MMA can reliably trace its origins to
the early 1990s with the start of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and
its connections with the infamous Gracie family which we will discuss later.
The growth of MMA has been expansive both in terms of
participation as a sport and in terms of audience for entertainment. Ireland
has a had a colourful relationship with MMA since the near beginning but only
came to a mainstream audience during the Conor McGregor era.
The history and culture of martial and military arts – fighting – either with or without weapons is rich and diverse. Magazine and internet articles are full of amateur historians romantically describing the discovery, development and demise of various forms. Myth and legend, folklore and oral history are deeply intertwined.
Evolutionary origins
From an evolutionary perspective competition within a
species for territory, mates and resources has given rise to sexual dimorphism.
In vertebrate animals, males are often on average larger than females and
adapted for fighting – antlers, horns, larger muscle mass, etc.
Thus we can surmise that men have been punching each other
as long as they have possessed arms to do so. Similarly, wrestling has been a
method to settle squabbles between rivals since the dawn of time. In fact,
wrestling as a form of solving rivalry disputes and other acts of dominance is
well recorded in the animal kingdom – a brief collation is described here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdNuFgsobDY
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBtLNK5GPYc
and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyrloQ8ijLA
This is not meant as a sexist statement, the historical record is reasonably consistent in reporting that wars were mostly fought between armies made of male recruits. The animal kingdom is equally consistent in showing that males are more likely to be the aggressive sex especially amongst large vertebrate animals like mammals, reptiles and birds. However, when it comes to history, we must acknowledge that so much is biased by the male gaze and secondly consider the male composition of armies is more likely a social construct rather than a biological inevitability.
A Brief History of MMA
While fighting between species or amongst species is
ubiquitous we can narrow down the definition of MMA to
a contest between two opponents based on a variety of
skills –including both striking and wrestling techniques
and focus our attention on three major episodes:
·
Pankration and the Ancient Greeks
·
Vale Tudo in Brazil in the 20th
century
·
UFC in California in 1993
Pankration
Some solid evidence that these two forms of fighting were
combined and used in a formal contest comes from pottery and other art work
from Ancient Greece.
This vase has been decorated with a fight scene dated to 330 BC (Wikipedia).
This is a statue called The Pancrastinae which is a replica of the original which describes a grapple sequence in a Pankration bout.
This type of fighting is called Pankration and was an event
in the original Olympics. Plato in his dialogue Laws describes tactics
for being successful in Pankration (circa 350 BC).
Modern MMA probably looked a lot like ancient Pankration.
The exact rule set was probably fluid and varied from region to region, while
punching, kicking, joint locks and strangle holds were core, attacks like
headbutts, eye gorging and biting seem more variable. Pankration was not
included in the rebirth of the Olympic Games in 1896.
This is interesting as this shows that MMA style fighting
has been around for millennia but also how matters of taste influence the
development of a sport. We can speculate that Pankration was split back into
the arguably the more entertaining boxing and again arguably the more sporting
contest of wrestling to pander to audience preference.
Vale Tudo
The pursuit of expertise in unarmed combat is a strange
interest. It takes a moment’s reflection to observe that the most Herculean
brute armed with a sublime knowledge of martial arts is no match for a group of
unremarkable people with heavy sticks. The development of weaponry for hunting
of animals as well as, we must face it, the killing or subduing of people has
trumped self-defence. Sticks, poles, knives, swords and subsequently guns have
made the art of unarmed combat practically redundant. Despite what you might
hear about the fighting prowess of ex-Navy Seals (e.g. Close-quarters
defence), Russian special forces (e.g. Systema) or the Israeli army
(Krav Maga) there is no evidence these training systems have any proven
benefit in real world situations.
However, in the late 18th and early 19th
century there were a series of serendipitous circumstances that allowed the
development of sophisticated unarmed combat. In Japan, there was a wealth of
experience in the martial art called Jiu-jitsu (various spellings include
Jujitsu etc.). This would later be refined by a Japanese Educator named Jigaro
Kano (Kanō Jigorō 1860-1938) into the modern sport we know as Judo. Kano, a man
of diminutive size (5’2”, 90lbs) had adapted the techniques of Jiujitsu into
those that were both effective and those that could be readily trained without
risk of serious injury. In essence he removed techniques relating to striking
or weapon use and refined the rest from the perspective of a smaller person for
self-defence and exercise purposes.
Jigaro Kano 1937 soruce: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/2/image?phrase=Jigoro%20Kano%20asahi&family=editorial&sort=best&editorialproducts=&excludenudity=true&page=1
An exemplary student of Kano, Mitsuyo Maeda (1878 –1941) had travelled the world, from Europe,
to the United States, through Central America down to Brazil. He had been
competing in various challenge and prize fighting bouts at circuses and
theatres around the world. Some were exhibitions and others were true
contests. In Brazil, this type of
entertainment was called Vale Tudo (everything goes). He performed in a
circus owned by a member of the Gracie family. Carlos Gracie (1902-1994) was in
the audience and was mesmerized by the techniques. Carlos went on to learn the
art from Maeda and later opened a school in Rio de Janeiro.
An interesting observation is that the culture of “street
fighting” in parts of Brazil at this time were conducted under “gentleman’s
rules”. That is to say, if there was a disagreement and an invitation to fight
was offered, it was almost universally agreed upon that outside parties would
not intervene. It is hard to prove that such a culture actually existed as it
does romantically mimic the duels between 17th century aristocrats
but nevertheless it must be considered. An entirely essential ingredient for
the development of unarmed fighting was the principle that when you turned your
back, or went to the ground to engage grappling techniques, your foe's mates
don’t rush up behind you and kick you to death. This is no longer a presumption
you can make.
Over the next thirty or so years the Jiu-jitsu practiced in
Brazil diverged from that taught in Japan. Judo was introduced into the
modern Olympics in the 1964 Tokyo Games. Judo rules became more consistent with
national organisations responsible. However, in Brazil, the Gracie family (and
others) continued to refine the martial art through challenge matches and other
competitions with broader rule sets. The Gracie Jiu-jitsu developed rivalries
with practitioners of different martial arts – Capoeira, Luta livre and
catch-wrestling. They often pitted themselves against each under the moniker of
Vale tudo competition.
UFC
While Vale Tudo was popular in Brazil especially in Rio de
Janeiro it was essentially an underground movement. Professional wrestling where
the bouts were largely choregraphed and designed to be a better spectacle was more
commercially successful. Rorion Gracie (1952-date), nephew of Carlos Gracie and a Brazilian Jiujitsu expert emigrated to the United States. His goal was to
spread the word of his family’s martial art. While working in Hollywood as a stuntman
he taught Jiu-jitsu in his garage to his Hollywood friends and colleagues.
In 1993 Rorion Gracie and a businessman called Art Davie
staged the first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Denver,
Colorado. They sold the event on cable television pay-per-view (PPV) and it was
quite profitable. They advertised the show as a competition between different
martial artists e.g. Who would win between a boxer and a wrestler? The eventual
winner of the 8-man tournament was Royce Gracie (1969-date), Rorion’s younger
brother. Rorion and his advisers had deliberately chosen the least imposing
member of the Gracie family to represent their art. Their vision was to wow the
audience by presenting an unremarkable thin man, subduing a host of imposing
and scary looking men.
The UFC was eventually sold to the Zuffa entertainment group
in 2001. Dana White (1969-date), a Las Vegas based boxing promotor had taken
over managing some of the UFCs early stars and saw huge potential to develop
the company. He sought the backing of two childhood friends of his, the Ferrita
brothers who had made a fortune in Casinos in Las Vegas. Zuffa assumed control
of the UFC brand in 2001 and later acquired the equivalent brand in the
Japanese market (Pride Fighting Championships) in 2007 becoming the undisputed
international market leader in the sport of MMA.
In summary, MMA as a sport has its origins in the circus acts of various martial artists around the world. In this environment of survival of the fittest there was an unlikely winner in the form of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu which in turn allowed itself to become a cornerstone of the modern MMA movement.
Blog post number two will address the development of MMA in
Ireland and how an island of scrappers produced the world’s biggest MMA star.
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