At the same time, in Brazil there was a phenomenon called vale tudo, which became known for unrestricted fights between various styles such as judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, catch wrestling, luta livre, Muay Thai and capoeira.

Originally promoted as a competition to find the most effective martial arts for real unarmed combat, competitors from different fighting styles were pitted against one another in contests with relatively few rules.

[54] The sport gained international exposure and widespread publicity when jiu-jitsu fighter Royce Gracie won the first Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament, submitting three challengers in a total of just five minutes.

It was previously marketed as "Ultimate Fighting" and "No Holds Barred (NHB)", until Blatnick and John McCarthy proposed the name "MMA" at the UFC 17 rules meeting in response to increased public criticism.

[74] Since the UFC came to prominence in mainstream media in 2006, and with their 2007 merger with Pride FC and purchases of WEC and Strikeforce, it has been the most significant MMA promotion in the world in terms of popularity, salaries, talent, and level of competition.

[76][77] MMA gyms serve as specialized training centers where fighters develop their skills across various martial arts disciplines, such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling, Muay Thai, and boxing.

The most popular and used, ranking portals are: The rules for modern mixed martial arts competitions have changed significantly since the early days of vale tudo, Japanese shoot wrestling, and UFC 1, and even more from the historic style of pankration.

Mixed martial arts promotions typically require that male fighters wear shorts in addition to being barechested, thus precluding the use of gi or fighting kimono to inhibit or assist submission holds.

[71][98] The need for flexibility in the legs combined with durability prompted the creation of various fighting shorts brands, which then spawned a range of mixed martial arts clothing and casual wear available to the public.

Some notable fighters who are known for using BJJ skills include: Alexandre Pantoja, Amanda Nunes, Anderson Silva, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Charles Oliveira, Cris Cyborg, Deiveson Figueiredo, Demian Maia, Fabrício Werdum, Glover Teixeira, José Aldo, Junior dos Santos, Lyoto Machida, Maurício 'Shogun' Rua, Rafael dos Anjos, Ricardo Arona, Ronaldo Souza, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, Mackenzie Dern, Aljamain Sterling, B.J.

Penn, Brian Ortega, Brandon Moreno, Chael Sonnen, Demetrious Johnson, Frank Mir, Georges St-Pierre, José Alberto Quiñónez, Gerald Meerschaert, Ilia Topuria, Jim Miller, Nate Diaz, Gabriel Benítez, Tom Aspinall, and Tony Ferguson.

[106] Notable wrestlers who were MMA competitors include: Khabib Nurmagomedov, Jon Jones, Chael Sonnen, Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez, Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, Mark Coleman, Frankie Edgar, Colby Covington, Kamaru Usman, Justin Gaethje, Chris Weidman, Daniel Cormier, Dan Henderson, Tito Ortiz, Khamzat Chimaev, Ilia Topuria, Tyron Woodley, Yoel Romero, Deiveson Figueiredo, Michael Chandler and Henry Cejudo.

Notable fighters include Alex Pereira, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Zhang Weili, Edson Barboza, Darren Till, Anderson Silva, José Aldo, Charles Oliveira, Mauricio Rua, Wanderlei Silva, Ciryl Gane, Donald Cerrone, Jiří Procházka Cris Cyborg, Stephen Thompson, Mirko Cro Cop, Alistair Overeem, Israel Adesanya, Sean O'Malley, Michael Page, Yair Rodríguez, Cory Sandhagen, Alexander Volkanovski, Volkan Oezdemir, Dricus Du Plessis and Leon Edwards.

[110] Several aspects of boxing are extremely valuable such as footwork, combinations, and defensive techniques such as slips, head movement and stance (including chin protection and keeping hands up) commonly known as the Guard position.

[109] Fighters known for using boxing include: Petr Yan, Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, Max Holloway, Erik Pérez, Calvin Kattar, Sean Strickland, Cain Velasquez, Nick Diaz, Glover Teixeira, José Aldo, Ilia Topuria, Junior dos Santos, B.J.

Penn, Dan Hardy, Shane Carwin, Jack Della Maddalena, Francis Ngannou, Alexander Gustafsson, Gabriel Benítez, Jamahal Hill, Justin Gaethje and Andrei Arlovski.

[114] Some notable luta livre practitioners in MMA include: Marco Ruas, Eugenio Tadeu, José Aldo, Renato Sobral, Pedro Rizzo, Alexandre Franca Nogueira, Terry Etim, Jesus Pinedo and Darren Till.

[115] Fighters who hold a black belt in judo include Fedor Emelianenko, Marco Ruas, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, Ian Garry, Dong Hyun Kim, Cub Swanson, Don Frye, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fabricio Werdum, Vitor Belfort, Benoît Saint-Denis, Merab Dvalishvili, Reinier de Ridder and Olympian judokas Ronda Rousey,[116] Hector Lombard, Rick Hawn[117] and Hidehiko Yoshida.

Some notable Sambo fighters that transitioned into MMA include: Fedor Emelianenko, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, Igor Vovchanchyn, Oleg Taktarov, Andrei Arlovski, Yaroslav Amosov, and Shavkat Rakhmonov.

Other wushu sanshou based fighters who have entered MMA include Michael Page, Song Yadong, K. J. Noons, Pat Barry, Zhang Tiequan,[130] Muslim Salihov,[131] and Zabit Magomedsharipov.

[141] In 1995 at the Desafio Internacional de Vale Tudo event, Capoeirista Mestre Hulk defeated two-time BJJ world champion Amaury Bitetti using Capoeira techniques in an underdog victory.

[142] Some fighters which have trained Capoeira and incorporated techniques include Anderson Silva, Conor McGregor, Deiveson Figueiredo, Thiago Santos, Marco Ruas and Michel Pereira.

A few notable examples are Igor Vovchanchyn, Mirko Filipović, Chuck Liddell, Mark Hunt and more recently Alex Pereira, Francis Ngannou, Junior dos Santos, Justin Gaethje, Andrei Arlovski,[143] and Joanna Jędrzejczyk.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) plays a significant role in MMA submission grappling, with techniques such as armbars, triangles, rear-naked chokes, guillotines, and kimuras being commonly utilized.

Modern proponents of the submission-seeking style, such as Demian Maia, Ronaldo Souza, Charles Oliveira, Ryan Hall, Marcin Held, and Paul Craig tend to come from a Brazilian jiu-jitsu background.

[citation needed] There has been a growing awareness of women in mixed martial arts due to popular female fighters and personalities such as Ronda Rousey, Megumi Fujii, Miesha Tate, Cristiane Santos, Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Holly Holm, Alexa Grasso and Gina Carano among others.

[179] World Mixed Martial Arts Association (WMMAA) was founded in 2012 in Monaco by M-1 Global commercial promoters and is under the leadership of the General Secretary Alexander Endelgarth, President Finkelstein and Fedor Emelianenko.

By 2017, WMMAA had expanded to 83 members: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Guatemala, Georgia, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.

[189] As of March 2015, there were 39 total members from 38[190] countries, which come from Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland (Northern Ireland), Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Nepal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, The Seychelles, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

[230] On July 15, 2017, after a TKO loss resulting from unanswered punches in the second round of his fight, 37 year old Donshay White became unresponsive and collapsed in his locker room and was rushed to the KentuckyOne Health Sts.