THIS! IS! SPAR! TA!!!!
Mixed Martial Arts, being a combat sport, has been around since ancient Greece. (Even though, then it was called Pankration and the competitors fought with bare fists, and they fought to the death sometimes). Fast forward through time, to when Japanese people who had been living warrior lifestyles for centuries ventured to Brazil, bringing with them their skills of Jujutsu, judo and other martial arts.
In the mean time, people everywhere else over time had developed their own martial arts. Boxing, wrestling (WRASSSLIN’ like southpark, not WWE fake redneck soap opera stuff), and brought it to North America as well.
With all these forms of hand to hand combat on the same half of the planet, and an emerging modern era, we can all sort of see what happens next.
Not quite.
Kano Jigoro was the inventor of Judo. Long story short, he derived a “gentle” martial art from Jujutsu, a more lethal and painful art of smashing your opponent and breaking his limbs. Jigoro taught Judo in Japan, and in his dojo welcomed challenges. One day Mitsuyo Maeda walked into the kodokan dojo, and began training as a Judoka (judo practitioner).
Enter Carlos Gracie. Mitsuyo from the last paragraph taught this Brazilian how to do Judo. Carlos Gracie and his brothers took Judo and eventually came up with the art of Brazilian (or Gracie) Jiu Jitsu, BJJ. BJJ, derived ultimately from Jujutsu back in Japan was pitted in matches against wrestlers, Judokas, boxers, everyone. Originally, Helio Gracie was the main one doing this, and as the Gracie Clan spread their techniques around, pretty soon it was 1993.
YES!
Another reason besides Doom that 1993 was so awesome was Rorion Gracie and some other people set up the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Here was the first time on television that Americans saw kickboxing vs. sumo wrestling, boxing vs. BJJ, wrestling vs tae kwon do.
Wow.
So, from roots dating back centuries, the culmination of derivation in martial arts came down to a day in November of 1993.
Over the next seventeen years, the UFC would evolve, largely in part to Zuffa LLC purchasing it, and the hard work of promoting it and making it a business. Leading the charge of operations was this man, Dana White.
Soon, instead of being “Human cock fighting” as Senator John McCain from Arizona put it, it began to take on the role of athletic competition, who could mix martial arts together in a blend to out power, out think and out maneuver someone else who was doing the same thing. Who would strike better? Who had more heart to power through tough spots in the battle?
It didn’t take too long for people to see the success of the UFC, and it’s cash crop. The WEC became a subsidiary to the UFC. Originally, the WEC had the standard 5 weight classes, but recently has switched to the 3 lighter-weight classes, and has since been producing some of the most intense, fast paced MMA competition around, with fighters such as Jose Aldo, Urijah Faber, Donald Cerrone, Benson Henderson and Mike Brown. In Japan, PRIDE Fighting Championships had their heyday with huge fighter names like
Wanderlei Silva 
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson 
and Dan Henderson. 
Other promotions emerged too, such as Strikeforce and Bellator FC When the UFC bought PRIDE in 2007, the Japanese owners went and remade it, calling it DREAM.
So from ancient warriors, to today where athletes go for broke against each other in pitted matches to be watched by millions, Mixed Martial Arts has become immensely popular, because it’s the most basic sport that there can be. You can lose at football, you can lose at basketball, but even then, you can say “Well, I can still kick Tom Bradys ass”, or “Kobe Bryant is too good at basketball, I can totally beat him up though.” But if someone beats you in an MMA fight, what can you really say?
“Psh…we’ll settle this on the horseshoe court!”
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