Mixed Martial Arts: A Comprehensive Review

Attitudes towards mixed martial arts sports medicine coverage

“…MMA is a combat sport that involves submission grappling, boxing, wrestling, and kickboxing (Bishop, La Bounty, & Devlin, 2013). MMA techniques include kicking, strikes with the knees, elbows, punching, and takedowns.…”

“…MMA is very similar to "pankration," a sport that combined wrestling and boxing, created in 649 BC, first introduced in the original Grecian Olympic games (Kim, Greenwell, Andrew, Lee, & Mahony, 2008). The striking and grappling aspects create clearer competition rules for modern MMA, which also combines these moves with aspects of nontraditional martial arts (Bishop, La Bounty, & Devlin, 2013).…”

“…The first modern MMA competition was held in Denver, Colorado, under the auspices of its first major organization, the "Ultimate Fighting Championship" (UFC). In the 2000s, UFC started growing more and more in viewer popularity and MMA is now one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States (Bishop, La Bounty, & Devlin, 2013).…”

“…Issues of violence in the MMA have drawn the attention of the media in the past, and it is possible that this may have led to a generally negative image of MMA among viewers (Bishop, La Bounty, & Devlin, 2013), including, though not limited to, physicians. Research about the sport continues to grow even as MMA's popularity increases (Andrew, Kim, O'Neal, Greenwell, & James, 2009); however, in total, there is a relative paucity (Bishop, La Bounty, & Devlin, 2013).…”

“…Research about the sport continues to grow even as MMA's popularity increases (Andrew, Kim, O'Neal, Greenwell, & James, 2009); however, in total, there is a relative paucity (Bishop, La Bounty, & Devlin, 2013).…”