Welcome to the world Of MMA: Beginner’s Guide

MMA and me:

I would like to tell you that I am a champion holding several belts, but the reality is quite different: I am simply a person who likes to watch MMA fights for several years. I’m training as an amateur. I lived in France, Spain, Russia and that’s where I discovered Khabib Nurmagomedov, when he was a lightweight fighter between 2012 and 2020.

I had already seen a few fights but I started to give it a shot with a more attentive eye and quickly got caught up in the game. And here I am, years later, wasting all my weekends by staying up until 7am every Saturday (jet lag requires, the fights are often in the United States), to watch people hit each other above. Life is full of surprises!

So what is MMA?

MMA for “Mixed Martial Arts” is a combat sport called “full-contact” and which consists of uniting different martial arts to create a complete combat sport: The fighter has the right to kicks, punches, knee strikes and elbow strikes, but also standing clinch, throws and submissions.

History of sports

But basically, we can go back to Pankration in Greece but especially to Vale Tudo and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu to find the origins of modern MMA. This martial art favors ground combat and technique, instead of brute force and strikes. It was after immigrating to the United States and opening gyms left and right that one of the members of the Gracie family, Rorion, joined forces in the 80s with businessmen to create the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a tournament where different combat sports practitioners compete to see who is the strongest.

The UFC quickly encountered a lot of problems with legislators and right-thinking people, but the fuse caught fire and other organizations, notably PRIDE in Japan, found success. This is where two Las Vegas businessmen who do casinos, the Fertitta brothers, joined forces with their boxing promoter friend Dana White, and bought the UFC in which they saw potential, to make MMA a “clean” sport.

For the record, they bought the organization in 2001 for 2 million dollars and sold it in 2016 for 4 billion.

The rules

We will do it quickly and well, so that you understand the main points, focusing on the Unified Rules of MMA implemented by the Nevada commission, and respected by the UFC, Bellator and the PFL. ONE Championship remixes this a bit, but overall it remains the same:

Duration of a fight:

3 Rounds of 5 minutes for normal fights / 5 Rounds of 5 minutes for main events or if a championship title is at stake.

Weight categories:

Judging criteria:

We have a referee in the cage, and three judges on the edge who are responsible for counting the points. In each round, the winner scores 10 points, and the loser 9, or even 8 (if there really was boxing, basically). Penalty points may be deducted in the event of a mistake.

The elements that influence the score are, in order of importance:

• Effective strikes or grappling exchanges: Which does more “significant” damage in terms of hits, takedowns, etc.
• The aggression: Who is making the effort to get in?
• Control: Who controls the center of the combat zone and imposes its rhythm?

With the new rules, judges are increasingly encouraged to score rounds 10–8 so that athletes are motivated to give their all and avoid playing it too safe (if there can be considered any any safety when you are in your underwear fighting in a cage)

How can a fight end?

I think I don’t need to draw a picture for you but the fight could end in IS if one of the fighters loses consciousness following a blow, WHO if the referee stops the fight because the fighter is no longer defending himself, submission when one of the fighters gives up either verbally or by “tapping”, or loses consciousness by being strangled for example.

Finally, if the fight lasts the entire duration of the rounds, the judges decide on a decision based on the scores awarded, which can be unanimous, shared, or even a draw. In rare cases, the fight may be canceled due to an illegal strike.

What is prohibited?

We’re getting to the juicy part! In MMA, fighters do not have the right to:

• Shots below the belt
• Knees to the head of an opponent on the ground (three limbs touching the ground)
• Blows to the back of the head or spine
• Headbutts
• Fingers in eyes or mouth
• Bites
• Hair pulling
• Throat blows
• Hang on to the cage

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