Welcome to MMA, Here's the History of the Sport

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

In the aftermath of the biggest weekend in MMA history, our traffic here at Bloody Elbow has roughly doubled.

Many of you folks are just learning about the sport for the first time.

In the interest of catching you up, here’s a 15 part series I’ve been working on for the past two years that covers most of the first decade of modern mma, 1993-1997. I swear I’ll be posting more soon, but these links are a good place to start learning more now — tons of videos of legendary fights in every link.

Enjoy.

I: UFC 1 Pancrase meets BJJ
II: The Ur-Brazilian MMA Feud: BJJ vs Luta Livre and the Style They Never Saw Coming
III: More on Japan
IV: Rickson Brings Jiu Jitsu Back to Japan
V: The Reign of Royce
VI: A Dutch Detour
VII: A New Phase in the UFC
VIII: From Russia With Leglocks
IX: Strikers Attack
X: The Reign of the Wrestlers
XI: Carlson Gracie’s Mighty Camp
XII: End of the UFC Glory Days
XIII: Coleman Gets His Kicks
XIV: Boom and Bust in Brazil
XV: Pancrase, RINGS, and Shooto 1996

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About the author

Nate Wilcox

Nate Wilcox is the founding editor of BloodyElbow.com. As such he has hired every editor and writer to work for the site. Wilcox’s writing for BE is known for its emphasis on MMA history, the evolution of fighting techniques and strong opinions. Wilcox developed the SBN MMA consensus rankings which were featured in USA Today from 2009 to 2011. Before founding BE, Wilcox was a political operative working for such figures as Senators John Kerry and Mark Warner and an early political blogger. He is the co-author of Netroots Rising, a history of the political blogosphere from 2003 to 2007. Wilcox also hosts the Let It Roll podcast on music history for the Pantheon Podcast Network.

Welcome to MMA, Here’s the History of the Sport

Nate Wilcox