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Female Mixed Martial Artists
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More Female MMA
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Women's MMA
Mixed martial arts is combat sport in which a wide variety of fighting styles are used, including strikes, kicks, throws, elbows, knees, grappling and submissions. Fighters use techniques from Muay Thai, kickboxing, Jiu-Jistsu, judo, wrestling and other martial arts.
More and more professional mixed martial arts organizations are embracing women's MMA. With such popular fighters as Tara LaRosa, Gina Carano, Tanya Evinger, Julie Kedzie and Christiane Santos people are beginning to realize that these well trained, athletic women can really fight just as hard as men. To date women's bouts have been held by Strikeforce, XFA and the now defunct EliteXC.
Organizations like Fatal Femmes Fighting, Princess of Pain, Smackgirl and Valkyrie of Japan promote women's fighting only.
According to a list compiled by MMAweekly.com, two of the top 10 most viewed MMA events of all time were women's fights CBS aired in 2008.
Each event drew more than five million viewers.
History of Mixed Martial Arts
The history of the modern MMA tournament can be traced back to Brazil in the 1920s with the Gracie family's vale tudo (anything goes) martial arts tournaments, as well as early mixed martial arts matches hosted by Antonio Inoki in Japan in the 1970s. The fighting concept of combining various combat disciplines gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the emergence of Bruce Lee and his theories of mixing various martial art styles.
Art Davie, an advertising executive based in southern California met Rorion Gracie in 1991 of the famed Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu family and created a tournament concept that would bring together fighters from various fighting backgrounds to determine which style was superior. It was this concept that went on to become the first Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Rorion's brother Royce Gracie was crowned the champ of the first tournament as the pay-per-view show drew almost 90,000 viewers. Gracie went on to win three of the first four tournaments. This was quite a feat, especially if you take into account the fact that some of the guys he beat were more about 100 lbs heavier than him. The sport gained international exposure and widespread publicity in the United States in 1993.
In the beginning, fighters from all disciplines stepped up to fight and fans witnessed everything from sumo and kickboxing to boxing and jiu-jitsu. As the sport evolved, fighters learned the necessity to become well-rounded - dismissing the original intent to determine a superior art. Fighters began cross-training - pure strikers like kickboxing practitioners developed a ground game by training jiu-jitsu. Jiu-jitsu players, added strikes to their arsenal, took off the gi, and learned to approach takedowns with caution to avoid a devastating knee to the face.
MMA Rule Changes
In the early days there weren't a whole lot of rules. Although there was no biting or eye gouging one could get away with hair pulling, groin strikes and head butting. This lack of rules is what compelled. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to lead a crusade in the mid 90's to have the sport banned as he referred to it as "human cockfighting". Over 36 states went on to ban this "no-holds-barred" type of fighting.
Through a series of rule changes the sport became much more palatable to the mainstream and quelled many of the opponents concerns which limited striking areas and barred hair-pulling, groin strikes, and head-butting to name a few. Gloves and five-minute rounds were also introduced. In Japan the continued interest in the sport resulted in 1997's creation of the PRIDE Fighting Championships.
On the brink of financial ruin the UFC was saved by Dana White and his entity Zuffa, LLC as they purchased it. With White's business acumen and marketing prowess the organization steadily rose in popularity and found its way into the mainstream. By 2006, the UFC had broke the record of the pay per view industry's all time single year revenue, surpassing WWE and boxing.
Today, mixed martial artists train in a variety of styles that have been proven effective in the ring, so that they can be effective in all the phases of combat. Although fighters will try to play to their strengths, they understand they will encounter a wide range of situations - this is the beauty of the sport. The sport has grown into a multi-million dollar industry competitive with boxing in terms of
Pay-Per-View numbers and ticket sales.
Other Women's Fighting Styles
Karate I
Muay Thai I
Boxing I
Kickboxing I
Taekwondo I
Jiu-Jitsu |
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