We return this week to our brief history of MMA to discuss some modern fighters, how the fighting styles have evolved, general rules, the main strategies and ways to win, and also the safety precautions taken to ensure these athletes are protected. Again, I want to thank Wikipedia for really helping make my research on this topic so much easier. You can find much of this article in the form of various articles on Wikipedia, I just merged them together and added my two cents.
I mentioned at the beginning of my Part 1 post last week that I felt somewhat authorized to speak on this subject because I’ve recently gone back to watch many of the early UFC and Pride events, the two ‘heavyweights’ in the MMA world. But what’s the difference between the two? To understand that, you have to have a little better idea of where they came from, and what philosophy they were based in. We’ll get into that and more after the jump. (more…)