STEPHEN

To define MMA as only a mix of martial arts just sounds stupid. To say I train in MMA and we do this or that brings up more questions than answers. I have read people saying they practice a careful blend of arts but what does that mean? How can you blend arts unless you have spent years in each art of the so called "blend". I have met fighters who trained in several displines long before it was fashionable. Why is it MMA today and before it was just practicing several fighting styles? Just what defines MMA????? It has to be more than just fighting in an octagon.

james s

MMA refers to fighting that includes many martial arts being used. If you watch a MMA fight, they start standing and may box then wrestle then kickbox. It is practicing different arts and using them together. Instead of just trying to take someone down, you can box and try for a takedown. When MMA became popular around 1990s they started calling it MMA alot more. MMA has actually been around for about 2500 years.

billboard54321

it just means they fight with a set of rules in competition that integrates and allows strikes and grapples from many other previous martial arts competitions. you can fight in mma in a ring as well, or a hexagon or a circle, or many other things.