One of the fastest growing sports in the US and perhaps around the world is Mixed Martial Arts(MMA). It is a combination of many different martial arts rolled into one sport.
You can use just about any fighting style in MMA, however, there are some standout types of martial arts. They are wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu, kick boxing and Muay Thai. It's contact sport and the participants will get hit. It doesn't matter if you are on the ground or standing; you can still hit and get hit.
Part of the reason that MMA is quickly growing into a bigger sport is because of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). It was started around 1993 and was basically made to see which style was the best style of martial arts. It had been pretty savage and there were not a lot of rules. However, one of the ways that they have been able to promote the UFC is to change the format to include some rules.
Some of the biggest rules are that you have are that you have to wear gloves, a cup and you are not allowed to hit in the groin. A fighter is also not allowed to strike anywhere near the spine to prevent the other fighters from getting hurt. Another thing that you are not allowed to do is to kick your opponent in the face when he is on the ground and you are standing up.
There are a few more rules when you are an amateur who is just starting to fight. The reason for this is to protect the safety of the fighters. Many amateur fights will not allow elbows, since they are the main reason that fighters get cut.
Because of these rules with today's MMA competitions, it is much safer and you are able to watch it on TV. Before the rules, MMA was not allowed to be watched on TV because of how savage it was portrayed to be.
The lightest weight in the UFC used to be 155 lbs. Quite recently though, the UFC merged with its sister fight promotion World Extreme Cage Fighting (WEC). The WEC only had fighters in the range of 135 lbs to 155 lbs. That means that there will now be two new weight classes in the UFC. It will also mean that the top 155 lbs WEC fighters will be able to challenge the top 155 lbs guys in the UFC. This should add a lot more excitement to the UFC now.
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