Mixed Martial Arts encompasses any moves or techniques learned in any of the martial arts, in order to defeat your opponent. It is difficult to really place a date on the emergence of this in history. The very first emergence of martial arts in recorded history is Pankration, which evolved in Greece around 648BC, it was included in the Olympic Games. Pankration, while it was the first, it was too early a form to have any direct influence on the martial arts of today.

In the late 1800s, wrestling and boxing became popular, when no holes barred matches were held, it was not uncommon to see someone with a wrestling build and background win the competition. One of the biggest driving forces and supporters of the creation of Mixed Martial Arts was Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee had his own style as he mixed styles from Karate, fencing, boxing, Jiu Jitsu and even wrestling. He combined all of these disciplines into his own creation that he found was the best for him. As time goes on, this style of fighting is becoming more and more popular in both forums and shows no signs of waning interest. Students are learning many different disciplines in order to compete successfully in the current day ring

Somebody sure has a deathwish…

From Sherdog.com

“[Ortiz-Shamrock II] had a lot of buildup and a lot of hype and it ended in a minute,” White told Kevin Iole. “Nobody got to see the fight they paid to come to see, so we’re going to give it to them.”

I’ll be honest…I’d like to see Ken Shamrock win this one (he was one of my favorite fighters in the early days of UFC and Pancrase, and he was my favorite character in the video game Fire Pro Wrestling!), but I think he’ll get beat up once again (reminds me of Sak Vs. Silva…)

Chances are after this fight, he’ll be retiring.

More proof that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is gaining in popularity:

Violent Sport Tops on Yahoo

Yesterday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship – a sport that blends martial arts with the theatrical flair of professional wrestling – topped the buzz metric on the Yahoo! search engine as the most searched term of the day.

Ultimate Fighting Championship, a frequent fixture on the Yahoo list, beat out other popular terms, including “X-Men,” “Jessica Alba” and “World Cup 2006.”

Far from surprised, Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White said the Web has catapulted the sport into the mainstream.

“This thing survived through the Internet through the years when it couldn’t get distribution” on television, White said.

Ultimate Fighting Championship matches are typically shown on pay-per-view or Spike TV, a cable channel targeting male viewers.

White said much of the sports buzz comes from online, where the typically young, male fans spend a lot of time.

“These 18- to 34-year-olds are all online, man,” he added.

Ultimate Fighting Championship also took a lead on Yahoo’s sports index, beating out the terms “NBA” and “MLB.” While White isn’t claiming to be more popular than baseball, he does think it’s a testament to the sport’s burgeoning popularity.

Nice.

From LiveAudioWrestling:

The 2-year dispute between the WWE and Brock Lesnar finally came to a close today and both parties settled in court. Lesnar’s no compete clause will apply to certain pro wrestling organizations in North America (read TNA) but for the majority he will be free to compete in wrestling and will have no restrictions when it comes to MMA, which he is considering. Lesnar will continue to work for New Japan including this Wedneday’s show.

I doubt it’ll happen, but if it does, it would probably attract some of WWE’s audience to watch more MMA. Heck, he might even do well too! (Brock Lesnar was the 2000 NCAA amateur wrestling champion).

On the subject of Brock Lesnar, check out his match with Akebono in New Japan Pro Wrestling…very few men make Lesnar look small…

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Most of the MMA video games out there are, in my opinion, mediocre at best.  (K1 videogames on the other hand, is a different story ).

But take a look at “Virtual Pro MMA”.  It’s based off of a modified version of Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 on the old Nintendo 64.  You run it on a computer using an emulator (the instructions are on their website).

For a home-brewed project, the game looks pretty good!  Although the graphics aren’t up to par with the latest WWE games out there, the game play (at least from the video) looks better than the MMA video games I’ve played.  From the video you can see everything from Mirko’s high kicks, double leg takedowns, ground and pound, and even stomping!

So far, the available textures for fighters include:

• Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic
• Fedor Emelianenko
• Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
• Wanderlei Silva

(Take a look at the pictures here…yes, they’re blocky, but what’d you expect from a home-brewed N64 game?)

This modified game is a work-in-progress, so if anything, Virtual Pro MMA can only get better.  Hopefully the installation of the mod and characters get easier too.

In the mean time, check out the video:

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