It’s Not Your Average Boxing Match!
As brutal and physical as it is, mixed martial arts (MMA) cage fighting is one of the most popular sports around the world today. The sport pits two competitors, based on weight class, against each other in an eight sided, fenced in arena called the “Octagon”. The competitors have no body protection aside from two small, slightly padded, finger-cut gloves that spare no face from a bloody nose or eyebrow if struck correctly and with enough force. The matches consist of up to five 5 minute rounds, but will end before that if one fighter is knocked out, or held down long enough to “tap out”; if neither happens, a panel of judges establishes a score and decides the winner.
For many of those who have seen a mixed martial arts cage fighting match, they may wonder how such a physically damaging sport ever came in to existence. The sport had been somewhat underground around the world until 1993, when Royce Gracie, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter, won three separate matches against competitors in less than five total minutes. After this groundbreaking fighting event, MMA
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