Although the earliest evidence of martial arts goes back millennia, the true roots are difficult to reconstruct. Inherent patterns of human aggression which inspire practice of mock combat (in particular wrestling) and optimization of serious close combatascultural universals are doubtlessly inherited from the pre-human stage and were made into an "art" from the earliest emergence of that concept. Indeed, many universals of martial art are fixed by the specifics of human physiology and not dependent on a specific tradition or era.
The UFC's decision to allow female fighters in the organization, to promote the dominant fighter Ronda Rousey, is often cited as the reason women's mixed martial arts became known to the general public. Rousey won the Best Fighter ESPY Award at the 2015 ESPN ESPY awards, beating out noted fighters such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., and becoming the first UFC and MMA fighter to win the award. (Full article...)
Ancient Greek boxing (Greek: πυγμαχίαpygmachia, "fist fighting") dates back to at least the 8th century BC (Homer'sIliad), and was practiced in a variety of social contexts in different Greek city-states. Most extant sources about ancient Greek boxing are fragmentary or legendary, making it difficult to reconstruct the rules, customs and history surrounding this activity in great detail. Still, it is clear that gloved boxing bouts were a significant part of ancient Greek athletic culture throughout the early classical period. (Full article...)
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Part of the Zliten mosaic from Libya (Leptis Magna), about 2nd century AD. It shows (left to right) a thraex fighting a murmillo, a hoplomachus standing with another murmillo (who is signaling his defeat to the referee), and one of a matched pair.
Agladiator (Latin: gladiator, "swordsman", from gladius, "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death.
Irrespective of their origin, gladiators offered spectators an example of Rome's martial ethics and, in fighting or dying well, they could inspire admiration and popular acclaim. They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world. (Full article...)
The UFC was founded by businessman Art Davie and Brazilian martial artist Rorion Gracie, and the first event was held in 1993 at the McNichols Sports ArenainDenver, Colorado. The purpose of the UFC's early competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a contest with minimal rules and no weight classes between competitors of different fighting disciplines. In subsequent events, more rigorous rules were created and fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create a separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts. (Full article...)
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Savate (French pronunciation:[savat]), also known as French boxing (boxe Française), is a French kickboxingcombat sport that uses the hands and feet as weapons combining elements of English boxing with kicking techniques.
Muay Thai (Thai: มวยไทย, RTGS: muai thai, pronounced[mūa̯jtʰāj]ⓘ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, is a Thai martial art and full-contactcombat sport that uses stand-up striking, sweeps, and various clinching techniques. This discipline is known as the "Art of eight limbs", as it is characterised by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees and shins. Muay Thai became widespread internationally in the late 20th to 21st century, when Westernised practitioners from Thailand began competing in kickboxing and mixed-rules matches as well as matches under Muay Thai rules around the world. The professional league is governed by The Professional Boxing Association of Thailand (P.A.T.), sanctioned by The Sports Authority of Thailand (S.A.T.).
Muay Thai is related to other martial art styles such as Muay Chaiya, Muay Boran, Muay Lao, Kun Khmer, Lethwei, Benjang and Tomoi. A practitioner of Muay Thai is known as a Nak Muay. Western practitioners in Thailand are sometimes called Nak Muay Farang, meaning "foreign boxer". (Full article...)
Krav Maga was originally developed by Hungarian-born Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld. Having grown up in Bratislava during a time of anti-Semitic unrest, Lichtenfeld used his training as a boxer and wrestler to defend Jewish neighborhoods against attackers in the mid-to-late 1930s, becoming an experienced street fighter. After his immigration to Mandatory Palestine in the late 1940s, he began to provide lessons on combat training to Jewish paramilitary groups that would later form the IDF during the 1948 Palestine war. As an instructor, he compiled his knowledge and experience into the combat system that would later become known as Krav Maga. This system would continue to be taught long after he left the IDF. (Full article...)
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Aretiarius stabs at a secutor with his trident in this mosaic from the villa at Nennig, c. 2nd–3rd century CE.
Aretiarius (plural retiarii; literally, "net-man" in Latin) was a Romangladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a weighted net (rete (3rd decl.), hence the name), a three-pointed trident (fuscinaortridens), and a dagger (pugio). The retiarius was lightly armoured, wearing an arm guard (manica) and a shoulder guard (galerus). Typically, his clothing consisted only of a loincloth (subligaculum) held in place by a wide belt, or of a short tunic with light padding. He wore no head protection or footwear.
The retiarius was routinely pitted against a heavily armed secutor. The net-fighter made up for his lack of protective gear by using his speed and agility to avoid his opponent's attacks and waiting for the opportunity to strike. He first tried to throw his net over his rival. If this succeeded, he attacked with his trident while his adversary was entangled. Another tactic was to ensnare his enemy's weapon in the net and pull it out of his grasp, leaving the opponent defenceless. Should the net miss or the secutor grab hold of it, the retiarius likely discarded the weapon, although he might try to collect it back for a second cast. Usually, the retiarius had to rely on his trident and dagger to finish the fight. The trident, as tall as a human being, permitted the gladiator to jab quickly, keep his distance, and easily cause bleeding. It was not a strong weapon, usually inflicting non-fatal wounds so that the fight could be prolonged for the sake of entertainment. The dagger was the retiarius's final backup should the trident be lost. It was reserved for when close combat or a straight wrestling match had to settle the bout. In some battles, a single retiarius faced two secutores simultaneously. For these situations, the lightly armoured gladiator was placed on a raised platform and given a supply of stones with which to repel his pursuers. (Full article...)
Money in the Bank was broadcast globally and received positive reviews from critics, with the main event receiving the most praise. For pay-per-view buys, 195,000 customers paid to watch the event compared with 165,000 for the previous year.
Yabusame (流鏑馬) is a type of mounted archery in traditional Japanese archery. An archer on a running horse shoots three special "turnip-headed" arrows successively at three wooden targets.
This style of archery has its origins at the beginning of the Kamakura period. Minamoto no Yoritomo became alarmed at the lack of archery skills his samurai possessed. He organized yabusame as a form of practice. (Full article...)
Image 29Ancient Greek pankratiasts fighting. This drawing is an early 20th Century copy of a scene from a Panathenaic amphora. (from Mixed martial arts)
Image 30Bōgutsuki, a form of full-contact karate fought with armour, one of the competition formats for kumite (from Karate)
Image 31Groundfighting in MMA. Differently from other grappling-based martial arts, you are allowed to strike your opponent when fighting on the ground. (from Mixed martial arts)
Image 32GAMMA medallists on the podium at the 2023 African Games (from Mixed martial arts)
Image 33The Pancrastinae: A statue portraying the pancratium, an event which took place in the Roman Colosseum. Even as late as the Early Middle Ages, statues were put up in Rome and other cities to honor remarkable pankratiasts. This statue, now part of the Uffizi collection, is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original, circa 3rd century BC. (from Mixed martial arts)
Image 40Depiction of fighting monks demonstrating their skills to visiting dignitaries (early 19th-century mural in the Shaolin Monastery). (from Chinese martial arts)
The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.
See the list on the right of Martial art related projects who organise work on these articles. You can also add your self to the list of Wikipedians by martial art
![Image 1 Drawing of the archetypical ninja from a series of sketches by Hokusai. Woodblock print on paper. Vol. six, 1817. A ninja (Japanese: 忍者, lit. 'one who is invisible'; [ɲiꜜɲdʑa]) or shinobi (Japanese: 忍び, lit. 'one who sneaks'; [ɕinobi]) was an infiltration agent, mercenary, or guerrilla warfare and later bodyguard expert in feudal Japan. They were often employed in siege, espionage missions, and military deception. They often appear in the historical record during the Sengoku period, although antecedents may have existed as early as the 12th century. During the Japan's warring state period, jizamurai clans of peasant-warriors in Iga Province and the adjacent Kōka District formed ikki – "revolts" or "leagues" – as a means of self-defense. (Full article...)](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blank.png)
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