Today the United States has virtually claimed Mixed-Martial Arts as its own through corporate buyouts and media power.
There are hundreds or MMA promotions around the globe, and many that I will cover in the future are gaining ground in markets where fans seek out more traditional and nationalistic matches.
While The Ultimate Fighting Championship made the technique of “mixing” full-contact martial arts a global phenomena, the pioneers of combat disciplines had been toying with this idea nearly a decade prior.
Even before the Japanese went full force in televised combat, a professional wrestling promotion named UWF, or Universal Wrestling Federation began flirting with the idea of seeing how interested the public would be with unscripted fighting.
It did not hurt the UWF that they had two of the most famous wrestlers in the world to stable their new promotion.
In 1983 Japanese icon Antonio Inoki was possibly going to be released from New Japan, a company where he was the brand, and the biggest celebrity in all of Japan.
The idea of Inoki’s departure rattled TV Asahi and the radical UWF had its shot at capturing a TV audience.
The UWF looked to eliminate the showmanship stigma pro-wrestling had attached to it and brought in American Karl Gotch to train their new athletes.
As usual, conflicting philosophies and business models brought UWF under by 1985, but one man’s dream would not be deferred.
In 1985 after leaving UWF, legendary Pro-Wrestler Satoru Sayama, internationally know as Tiger Mask, started Shooto. This was based on the style of Shoot-fighting.
The Japanese were the first to implement “real” combat into their professional wrestling, where they truly validate an athlete’s career based on toughness and accomplishments outside the scripted world of wrestling.
For those confused, in today’s professional wrestling the worlds biggest star would have to be Brock Lesnar. Lesnar, has held world championships in college wrestling and Ultimate Fighting.
The figureheads of Japanese wrestling knew that they could build their biggest stars through putting the spotlight on “Shoot” matches. This traditionally had gone through Sumo championships and Catch-Wrestling.
Two Organizations blossomed in Japan before UFC and created the international market for full contact sports with no decided outcomes.
The true precursor to UFC was Japan’s Pancrase promotion formed by wrestlers who wished to be judged on their skills and not their acting. Pancrase itself was named after the ancient Olympic sport of Pankration. This was one of the first live events where winners were determined only by submission or knockout
Then, one karate practitioner in Japan decided to mix a few of the most respected striking disciplines in Japan and formed K-1. The K-1 Grand Prix in 1993 saw the worlds best Kickboxing, Karate, and Kung-Fu experts compete before 12,000 people live and even more on television.
Only a few months before the debut of Ultimate Fighting the seeds had been planted for a market thirsty for combat, however it would be another 4 years before they had a true MMA promotion to call their own.
Outsider FC 