Overview

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is an international phenomenon, with a fascinatingly diverse and complex history that stems from fighting sports around the world. In Mixed Martial Arts: A History from Ancient Fighting Sports to the UFC, L.A. Jennings explores the vast global history of martial arts—including Asian martial arts, African fighting sports, European pugilism and wrestling, and the fighting styles of North, Central, and South Americas—and how they gave rise to the modern sport of MMA. Jennings shares some of the most famous moments in fighting history alongside stories of the fighters themselves, such as the infamous 1976 fight between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki. When the Ultimate Fighting Championship premiered in 1993, it introduced the world to the controversial “cage fighting” at a scale never seen before. With the assistance of technological innovations and globalization, MMA has become the fastest growing sport on earth, the culmination of thousands of years of fighting for sport. Featuring fascinating stories and photographs of fighters from around the world, Mixed Martial Arts reveals the long and captivating history of this often-misunderstood sport.

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Reviews

L.A. Jennings has created a fascinating and remarkably thorough history of unarmed combat, tracing the evolution of the martial arts from its earliest recorded examples in ancient civilization and documenting the historical forces that shaped it into what we see today. Her passion for the subject matter and dedication to research make this a must read for any Mixed Martial Arts fan interested in learning more about the origins of fighting as sport. -- Ryan Couture, Mixed Martial Artist, owner of and trainer at Xtreme Couture MMA You don't have to be interested in history or sports to lose yourself in this fascinating read. I happen to be interested in both, and I was hooked from the first word. LA Jennings is one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent writers of mixed martial arts working today. -- Julie DiCaro, senior writer and editor, Deadspin, and author of Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America

""L.A. Jennings has created a fascinating and remarkably thorough history of unarmed combat, tracing the evolution of the martial arts from its earliest recorded examples in ancient civilization and documenting the historical forces that shaped it into what we see today. Her passion for the subject matter and dedication to research make this a must read for any Mixed Martial Arts fan interested in learning more about the origins of fighting as sport."" --Ryan Couture, Mixed Martial Artist, owner of and trainer at Xtreme Couture MMA ""You don't have to be interested in history or sports to lose yourself in this fascinating read. I happen to be interested in both, and I was hooked from the first word. LA Jennings is one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent writers of mixed martial arts working today."" --Julie DiCaro, senior writer and editor, Deadspin, and author of Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America

Author Information

L.A. Jennings is the owner and head coach of Train.Fight.Win.MMA in Denver, Colorado. She is the author of She’s a Knockout! A History of Women in Fighting Sports and wrote for VICE on fighting sports history. She has been interviewed by NPR, The Economist, Cosmopolitan, and the HISTORY channel as an expert on the history and culture of MMA. She is an instructor in the Department of English at the University of Colorado Denver.

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