Mixed Martial Arts Competition
A waist-hold is applied to a wrestler in preparation of throwing him down to the ground. In the background, two ancient athletes are pictured in a stance known as akrocheirismos (finger-hold) with their heads pushing against each other's.Grappling and striking skills are both of importance in mixed martial arts competitions. Fighters who were accomplished wrestlers, gained respect during the early stages of MMA development. Some of these, went on to win several early Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12).
Successful fighters in modern MMA who began their training in various forms of wrestling, include Jon Jones, Frank Edgar, Cain Velasquez, former Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier and Brock Lesnar, a former UFC heavyweight champion who was a NCAA wrestling champion in 2000 and achieved 2nd place 1999, and former champions Dan Henderson, of PRIDE FC and Randy Couture, a multi-time UFC champion, both of whom competed extensively in collegiate and Greco-Roman wrestling before beginning their careers in mixed martial arts.
Read more about this topic: Wrestling
Famous quotes containing the words mixed, martial, arts and/or competition:
“Love sits enthroned in Clara’s eyes,
The Graces play her lips around,
And in her cheeks the tendrest dyes
Of lilly mixed with rose are found.
Where charms so irresistless throng
What mortal heart can try resistance?
But ah! her nose is two feet long,
And bids our passions keep their distance.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Let the martial songs be written, let the dirges disappear. Let a
race of men now rise and take control!”
—Margaret Abigail Walker (b. 1915)
“... the creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.”
—William Morris (1834–1896)