Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport involving a wide variety of martial art styles and fighting techniques. While most participants date the formation of mixed martial art tournaments to the early 1900s, many of the fighting traditions used by MMA combatants boast considerable lineages. From kung fu and karate to judo and Greco-Roman wrestling, many established martial arts are represented in MMA and fit into the sport's basic fighting categories of stand-up, clinch and ground fighting.
Stand-Up Fighting
Used to refer to hand-to-hand combat while both combatants are standing, stand-up fighting often dominates the first phase of a MMA tournament fight. Stand-up fighting involves a number of approved strikes and blocks utilized to both injure or incapacitate an opponent while protecting yourself with defensive maneuvers. Traditional martial art schools, such as karate, kung fu, muay thai and taekwondo, are among the list of fighting styles that excel in stand-up fighting, though practitioners of boxing and kickboxing are also effective. During stand-up combat, the distance between fighters is key to the types and varieties of strikes or kicks used in a fight. For instance, the "comfort zone" is a sport-wide term used to describe a distance between fighters wherein it is not possible to attack your opponent without considerably closing the distance, or coming closer. Kicking distance, punching distance and clinch zone all refer to the incremental closeness of combatants as they approach up to the point of "clinching," or standing grappling.
Clinch Fighting
Although technically an element of stand-up fighting, the large amount of matches decided within the clinch zone designate clinch fighting an MMA category of its own. Clinch fighting offers a number of benefits to fighters. By closing the distance into the clinch zone, combatants eliminate their opponent's ability to effectively utilize kicks, punches and strikes. Closing the distance between opponents also offers combatants the chance to utilize takedowns, sweeps, clinch holds, locks and other grappling techniques to gain leverage over their opponent and bring the fight to the ground. Martial art styles that excel in clinch fighting include judo, sambo, wing chun and Greco-Roman wrestling.
Ground Fighting
Sometimes referred to as ground work or "ground game," ground fighting is the category of MMA fighting that involves both combatants on the floor of the competition space. Primarily involving close-range grappling to hold, pin, manipulate or apply joint locks to the opponent, ground fighting is an ongoing competition for leverage wherein both opponents seek the top position over the other combatant. Depending on the formality of the MMA event (some unofficial and potentially illegal fights may resemble scenes from the movie Fight Club, with only a minimum of rules) a wide range of severely damaging attacks can be entered while fighting on the ground. Such attacks can range from chokeholds to fish-hooking, eye-gouging, pressure-point application and even biting. Martial artists skilled with clinch fighting also tend to be effective in ground work. This group includes practitioners of judo, Brazilian jiu jitsu and wrestling.
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