Mixed Martial Arts

In recent years, hybrids of mixed martial arts have become increasingly popular on television and the demand for access to "the fight" keeps many a bar or restaurant with premium channels out of the red. Onling betting sites like www.Gamebookers.com have seen a tremendous influx of traffic as MMA continues to swell, although not everyone is content to stay sedentary: gym memberships have increased by 23% since 2001. Groan if you must but you can't deny that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has renewed the public interest in classic martial arts like karate, kickboxing, and jiu jitsu.

What direction are we taking, though? Let's take a look at some of the popular practices of MMA:

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Did you know that the Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC is an exclusive, privately owned discipline/organization? The practices incorporated in UFC combat include wrestling, jiu jitsu, and boxing, among others, emphasizing simplicity in "the octagon", where all the action happens. It's interesting to note that in its early days, UFC fighters were allowed to trash talk during fights. However, fighters these days are held to a higher standard of behavior and professionalism - didn't know it was a gentleman's game, did you?

Strikeforce

History was made in the mixed martial arts world in 2009 when the first women's MMA match was televised. It's not just a girls club, though! Strikeforce is a kickboxing based MMA organization that although still relatively new to the MMA scene, it's already shown incredible potential since it's debut on CBS in '09. Its pool of fans continues to grow despite it's subscription-based contract with Showtime.

Vale tudo

The brazilian combat sport of vale tudo has been slow to migrate to the United States, although it hasn't been entirely out of the public eye. There's only one rule in this MMA practice: anything goes. It's a violent, uninhibited, full contact culmination of boxing, wrestling, sambo, judo, jiu jitsu, and muay thai. It's undoubtedly the closest thing to Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club we'll ever see in our lifetimes.