MMA
Mixed Martial ArtsA full-contact sport combining strikes and wrestling standing, in the clinch and on the ground. It has no belts and is contested under several rule sets (Unified Rules, ONE, IMMAF).
Quick Facts
United StatesCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Comparisons
Catalogs & Databases for MMA
About MMA
MMA (mixed martial arts) is a full-contact sport in which strikes are combined with wrestling standing, in the clinch and on the ground. It has no single set of rules and no belt system. Professionals in the USA fight under the Unified Rules, which grew out of the New Jersey rules of 2001 and which the Association of Boxing Commissions adopted in 2009. ONE Championship uses its own rules, and amateur MMA is governed by IMMAF, founded in 2012.
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The roots reach back to Brazilian vale tudo, which appeared in circuses from the early 20th century, and to the Japanese competitions Shooto (1985) and Pancrase (1993). The milestone is considered to be UFC 1 of 12 November 1993 in Denver, an eight-fighter tournament without weight classes and without rounds, won by Royce Gracie. The UFC was created by Art Davie and Rorion Gracie with John Milius, so they are the founders of the competition, not of the sport. The name mixed martial arts first appeared in 1993 in a television review of UFC 1, and who coined it is disputed. Under the Unified Rules a round lasts 5 minutes, a regular bout has 3 rounds and a title bout 5. Gloves weigh 4 to 6 ounces. Banned, among other things, are groin strikes, strikes to the back of the head and spine, kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent, and headbutts. In 2024 the Association of Boxing Commissions approved lifting the ban on the so-called 12-6 elbows, and the change must be adopted by the individual state commissions. ONE allows knees to the head of a downed opponent and banned soccer-style kicks in 2016. IMMAF bans elbows and knees to the head for amateurs and prescribes shin guards and rounds of 3 minutes. Youth compete from age 12 in the Youth C, B and A categories, without strikes to the head. A meta-analysis of six studies (Lystad et al., 2014) reports 228.7 injuries per 1,000 exposures and the head in 66.8 to 78.0% of injuries. After the death of the fighter Yang Jian Bing while cutting weight in 2015, ONE introduced hydration tests before bouts. MMA is not an Olympic sport.
History
MMA builds on Brazilian vale tudo, which appeared in circuses from the early 20th century and was called no holds barred in the USA, and on the Japanese competitions Shooto (Satoru Sayama, 1985) and Pancrase (Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki, 1993). Ancient pankration is listed as a predecessor and a similar sport, and we did not find a direct line to MMA in the sources. The UFC competition was founded by Art Davie, Rorion Gracie and John Milius, who are the founders of the competition, not of the sport. UFC 1 took place on 12 November 1993 in Denver as an eight-fighter tournament without weight classes and without rounds, and gloves were optional. Royce Gracie won by a choke from behind against Gerard Gordeau and later also won UFC 2 and 4. The name mixed martial arts first appeared in 1993 in a review of UFC 1, and who coined it is disputed.
Technique
MMA combines strikes and grappling. The striking side comes mainly from boxing and kickboxing, but the boxing stance has no effective defence against low kicks. Wrestlers bring takedowns and opponents defend against them with the sprawl, while judo and sambo are used in the clinch and for throws. On the ground the bout ends with a submission by a joint lock or a choke, or with strikes from above, for which the term ground and pound became established, and which Mark Coleman may have been the first to use on television at UFC 14. What is allowed is determined by the rule set. The Unified Rules ban groin strikes, strikes to the spine and the back of the head, kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent, stomping, headbutts, biting, eye gouging and hair pulling. The lifting of the ban on 12-6 elbows was approved by the ABC in July 2024, we did not find an effective date and each commission must adopt the change. ONE allows knees to the head of a downed opponent, and Pride allowed stomping too but banned elbows to the head.
Training
MMA fighters train several disciplines at once, often with several coaches or in a team, for example at American Kickboxing Academy or American Top Team. We did not find the structure of a session, the training frequency or what sparring looks like in the sources. A meta-analysis of six studies (Lystad, Gregory and Wilson, Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 2014) reports 228.7 injuries per 1,000 exposures, with the head accounting for 66.8 to 78.0% of injuries. After a KO or TKO there were more than twice as many injuries as after a submission. A study in Frontiers in Nutrition (2025) recorded in 31 professionals an average loss of 10.56% of body weight during the 7 days before the weigh-in. After the death of Yang Jian Bing in December 2015 from the consequences of dehydration while cutting weight, ONE banned this way of cutting weight and introduced hydration tests.
Ranks and progression
MMA has no belts, grades or forms. The amateur pathway runs through the IMMAF age categories: youth compete in three Youth categories from 12 to 17 years, above them stand the Junior and Senior categories, whose exact age limits we did not find. The IMMAF World Championships have been held since 2014. We did not find in the sources how many amateur bouts are expected before a professional debut. A graded system exists in the army programme Modern Army Combatives, which Matt Larsen founded in 2000 at Fort Benning. Its competition has four levels of rules (Basic, Standard, Intermediate, Advanced) and the highest of them corresponds essentially to the MMA rules.
Who it suits
Under the IMMAF rules of January 2021, youth compete in three categories: Youth C (12–13 years) one round of 3 minutes, Youth B (14–15) one round of 4 minutes and Youth A (16–17) three rounds of 2 minutes. Strikes to the head are banned in all categories, Youth C and B in addition may not use strikes on the ground, knees, elbows and most leg locks, and Youth A may strike on the ground only with a fist to the body. Gloves of 6–8 oz, shin guards, a rashguard, a mouthguard and, for boys, a groin protector are mandatory. The report of the American Academy of Pediatrics of November 2016 on martial arts also covers MMA, and we could not trace its exact recommendation on MMA. We did not find a position of the Canadian Paediatric Society on MMA or a study of injuries of children in MMA. The first recorded American women’s bout took place on 28 March 1997. The UFC signed its first woman, Ronda Rousey, in November 2012.
Competition
In the USA, professionals fight under the Unified Rules. The unified set of rules was agreed on 3 April 2001 in New Jersey and the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) adopted it on 30 July 2009, and every state commission must take it over. A round lasts 5 minutes, a standard bout has 3 rounds, a title bout 5, scoring uses the 10-point system, and the rules now distinguish 15 weight classes. A bout ends by KO, submission, stoppage, judges' decision or disqualification. ONE Championship has 3 rounds of 5 minutes, title bouts 5, and judges the bout as a whole. The Japanese Pride (1997–2007) had a first round of 10 minutes and two of 5. Amateurs under IMMAF fight 3 rounds of 3 minutes and may not use elbows, knees to the head, heel hooks or twisters. After a KO, a suspension from competing follows for at least 4 weeks, after two KOs within 3 months for 3 months, and after three KOs within 12 months for 12 months.
Gear
Under the Unified Rules, professionals fight in gloves weighing 4 to 6 oz, which leave the fingers free for gripping. A mouthguard and a groin protector are mandatory, and the approved clothing is shorts, without shoes and without a shirt, while women wear a sports top. For amateurs, IMMAF also requires shin guards and for women a rashguard, and youth compete in gloves of 6 to 8 oz. In the USA, Canada and Britain bouts are mostly fought in a cage, which evolved from the early UFC events, and in Japan, Brazil and part of Europe in a ring. A fighter may not grab the fence or the ropes. The name The Octagon is a UFC trademark.
Philosophy
MMA's original idea was the question of which fighting style holds up against another. According to Sports Illustrated, the UFC 1 organizers Art Davie, Rorion Gracie and Bob Meyrowitz wanted to settle disputes over whether a taekwondo practitioner would beat a karateka or a wrestler a boxer. In Denver in 1993, representatives of eight different disciplines therefore entered, and only biting and eye gouging were forbidden. Today's amateur MMA starts from the opposite priority. The rules of the international federation IMMAF state that the sole ethos of amateur MMA is to give fighters the safest possible environment for training and gaining experience. By its own account, the federation adjusts the rules according to research and injury data. Its goal is the recognition of MMA as a sport and its inclusion among the Olympic sports, but MMA is not yet an Olympic sport.
Styles and schools
MMA has no styles in the traditional sense. Britannica describes it as a hybrid sport that draws on boxing, wrestling, judo, jiu-jitsu, karate, Thai boxing and other disciplines. At the first UFC event in 1993 this could be seen literally: eight participants represented sumo, savate, kickboxing, karate, boxing, jiu-jitsu, shootfighting and taekwondo. The difference that decides things today lies between professional and amateur MMA. Professionals fight under the Unified Rules. A round lasts five minutes, a bout has one to five rounds and at most 25 minutes, and the rules distinguish 15 weight classes, from atomweight up to 105 pounds to super heavyweight over 265 pounds. Only the official version of the Association of Boxing Commissions may carry the name Unified Rules, the versions of individual commissions are named after them, and so the rules differ slightly between organizations. Under IMMAF rules, amateurs fight in ten weight classes. They wear gloves weighing 6 to 8 ounces, shin guards and a fitted short-sleeved shirt, and footwear is not permitted. IMMAF organizes world and continental championships for adults, juniors and youth from the age of 10.
Today
Professional MMA has no single governing body. The UFC has been owned since January 2001 by Zuffa, the company of the Fertitta brothers. ONE Championship has operated from Singapore since 2011, PFL was founded in 2017, has competed since 2018 and acquired Bellator in November 2023. Amateur MMA is governed by IMMAF, founded in 2012, and the Czech national federation is the Czech Association of MMA. MMA is not an Olympic sport. Boxers and kickboxers moved into MMA. James Toney lost at UFC 118 in 2010 to Randy Couture by submission after a choke, and the former world boxing champion Holly Holm defeated Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 in November 2015. Alex Pereira defeated Israel Adesanya in kickboxing in 2016 and 2017, and in the UFC took the middleweight title from him on 12 November 2022, and Adesanya won it back on 8 April 2023. Pereira held Glory titles in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions and in November 2023 also won the UFC light heavyweight title.
In culture
The 2011 film Warrior earned Nick Nolte an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, the film's only nomination. Playwright David Mamet wrote and directed the 2008 film Redbelt, in which Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the owner of a martial arts school and the story culminates in a big fight. The Japanese manga Grappler Baki by Keisuke Itagaki, which revolves around fighting tournaments, ran in Weekly Shonen Champion magazine from September 1991 to June 1999 and has 42 volumes.
Did you know
Pankration, to which MMA is often compared, was part of the ancient Olympic Games from 648 BC, and only biting and eye-gouging were forbidden in it. UFC 1 in 1993 had just as few prohibitions. According to Sports Illustrated, the organizers then considered a moat with alligators for the cage, but dropped the idea. McNichols Arena in Denver was about half empty, and around 80,000 viewers bought the broadcast at home for 14.95 dollars. Gerard Gordeau beat Teila Tuli in 26 seconds at the tournament and lost the final to Royce Gracie by a choke after 1:44. Gracie stood 185 cm and weighed about 82 kg, yet he eliminated bigger opponents. The rules continue to evolve. The July 2024 wording of the Unified Rules removed from the list of fouls the elbow strike straight down from above (12-6), which the 2018 version had banned. The rules consider a grounded fighter to be anyone touching the floor with anything other than hands and feet, and this decides the ban on kicks and knees to the head.
Styles & Branches
Frequently asked questions
What is MMA?
According to Britannica, MMA (mixed martial arts) is a hybrid combat sport that draws on boxing, wrestling, judo, jiu-jitsu, karate, Thai boxing and other disciplines. Professionals fight under the Unified Rules, amateurs under the rules of the international federation IMMAF.
What is the difference between MMA and UFC?
MMA is a sport, UFC is a competition within it. UFC began on 12 November 1993 as a one-night tournament of eight fighters. Many organizations stage MMA today and their rules differ slightly, and only the official Association of Boxing Commissions version may bear the name Unified Rules.
What is prohibited in MMA?
The Unified Rules, as worded in July 2024, list 26 fouls. They include headbutts, eye gouging, biting, hair pulling, strikes to the spine, back of the head, throat and groin, kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent, stomping, grabbing the fence, gloves and shorts, but also avoiding contact or attacking after the bell. The amateur IMMAF rules also ban elbows, knees to the head, heel hooks and twisters.
How does MMA work?
A professional round lasts five minutes with a one-minute break, and a fight has one to five rounds. It is won by submission, knockout, technical knockout, disqualification or on points. Judges score each round under the ten-point system, the round winner gets 10 and the loser 9 or less.
When did MMA originate?
The UFC 1 tournament of 12 November 1993 in Denver, won by Royce Gracie, is considered the milestone of modern MMA. The unified rules of the Association of Boxing Commissions were approved in April 2001. A similar sport, pankration, was known at the ancient Olympic Games from 648 BC, but we found no direct link to MMA in the sources.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.