MMA: Then and Now
By Kevin Chan, Thursday, May 16th, 2019
Then
On November 12th, 1993, an Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) bout was televised for the world to see. The objective of the televised event was to match up fighters of different disciplines and styles up against one another to truly see what fighting style is most dominant. There were “No Rules”, which was pretty much true, except for no eye gouging and no biting. There were no weight classes, judges present, time limits on the rounds, and last but not least—no gloves.
With all of the various dangers surrounding Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as a sport, as well as the lack of protection for the fighters in the UFC, no fight on the UFC’s first fight card lasted longer than 4 minutes and 18 seconds.
Fighters with one main focus of martial arts was the general definition for almost all of the pioneers in the UFC: Don Frye with his extensive knowledge of wrestling; Royce Gracie only having mastery of jiu-jitsu; Tank Abbot and his background of pit fighting. The list goes on and on, and in the early days of the UFC, fighters relied on their singular focus of one martial arts style to effectively defend against a different one.
An interivew with someone who has been in the octogon:
Elijah “Eli” Talbott started martial arts at age three. “It was fun at first, but then it really started to grow into something.” Eli always enjoyed martial arts ever since he began doing it. Eli describes his fighting style as more karate oriented, which is the style he started with. He acknowledges that karate raised his interest in other fighting styles, like wrestling.
One “highlight” in Eli’s fighting career was a sidekick that broke the ribs of his opponent and ended the fight. When asked about the anxiety levels he went through during tournaments, he said is was like anything new in life. The first few times will be very scary and make you very anxious, but you grow more comfortable to it as you go on.
To answer the question of what martial arts meant to him, he simply stated: “Self-discipline, hard work, and you get what you put into it.”
Now
Mixed Martial Arts has evolved to something much more technical and planned in today’s UFC. The fighters have multiple disciplines of styles, there are judges, gloves, weight classes, and more rules set it place to have fairer match ups, as well as protect the fighters.
Fighters are still known to be more effective in one area than another, but the days of completely not knowing what to do on the ground or standing up are over. The new era of more well-rounded fighters leads to better overall conditioning and training of the fighters in the UFC.
The UFC has grown into something big and will only continue to grow bigger because of the advancements the current and future fighters will make.
The way fighters train is evolving as well
In the early years of the UFC, fighters would spar, drill, run, lift weights, and eat as best as they could. All of the old traditional ways of training are still there, but modified to increase the yield fighters gain from training. The UFC has a performance institute where fighters can train smarter, instead of harder.
The UFC’s performance institute website highlights one of the modern advances that MMA fighters use. A machine that can imitate different oxygen levels: “A unique feature to the UFC Performance Institute, our integrated hypoxic laboratory can simulate altitude training to help fighters significantly improve their endurance, speed, and recovery capabilities, as well as accelerate rehabilitation rates following injury.”
Well-Rounded Improvement
The performance institute covers all aspects of a fighters route in the UFC. They try and improve the fighting skills you have, show fighters a better way to rest for better recovery after a fight or training, all the way down to creating a specialized diet that will meet your nutritional needs.
(Forrest Griffin’s explanation of the UFC Performance Institute’s program for fighter 24:31–25:05)
UFC Performance Institute Hyperlink:
http://www.ufc.com/performance-institute/
What is next for the UFC?
The evolution of MMA in the UFC has already been amazing for such a young sport. As MMA grows more popular, it will produce more and more advancements of itself, and by the looks of it quite quickly too. With more advancements in MMA, the level of difficulty in the sport will grow higher and higher, meaning even better fights for the audience, which in turn means more money for the UFC. The UFC already has big sponsors like Burger King and Bud Light per the Bleacher Report’s website, and with a growing audience, more big name sponsors will be soon to follow.
Sources:
http://www.ufc.com/performance-institute/index.html?redirect=no
