Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting

Description

?Since the beginning of time, men have engaged in hand-to-hand combat. In Ancient Greece, they called it Pankration, a no-holds-barred battle. Over the years, one complete combat system was once replaced by quite a few limited ones like karate, boxing, and wrestling. In the modern age this created an eternal question: who was once tougher? Could a boxer beat a wrestler? Could a kung fu artist dispose of a jiu jitsu man? The Ultimate Fighting Championship answered those questions emphatically in 1993 — and Mixed Martial Arts was once born. Early stars like Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie propelled this new sport into the North American public’s consciousness At the same time as pro wrestlers Nobuhiko Takada and Masakatsu Funaki led a parallel evolution in Japan, where cultural forces led to fighters becoming mainstream celebrities. With no television contract and little publicity budget to speak of, the UFC was once forced to adopt an aggressive marketing scheme to get public attention. The potential of carnage and blood was once played up and a predictable media outcry soon followed. Politicians, led by Arizona Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain, were able to ban the sport in most states and even managed to suspend pay-per-view broadcasts. At the same time as the popularity of MMA was once at an all-time-high in Japan, MMA failed to thrive in The united states until Spike TV in the end took a chance on the controversial sport and The Ultimate Fighter thrust mixed martial arts back into the mainstream, creating new mega-stars like Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans, and breathing new life into old favourites. For the first time, Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting arms you with all of the history and information you want to know to consider the contemporary world of Mixed Martial Arts, where the backroom deal-making is as fierce as the fighting.