MMA
MMA history
How the competition came to look the way it does.
Weight classes, five rounds, one cage
Early events were style-versus-style contests with minimal rules, and the unified rules that followed created the sport as it is now recognised.
Regulation by athletic commissions, not promotion policy, is what made the sport mainstream.
Grappling and striking specialists have alternated dominance as each generation learned the other discipline.
Season-by-season champions, records and historical tables need a licensed historical data source. Until we have one, this page carries written history only.