From it's origins in often brutal "no holds barred" combat,
through the more publicly acceptable format used today, the modern era of padded boxing gloves and mouthguards,
the sweet science of boxing has undergone many changes.
The sport has gone through a major evolution from a brutal, minimally acceptable sport to perhaps the most widely watched fighting sports in the world, but this didn't come without a struggle that nearly ended the sport before it gained a foothold.
Cagefighting involves mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting, a full contact combat sport in which a wide variety of tactics are used including striking and grappling. The original goal of this sport was to create a venue to pit fighters against each other from different disciplines with few rules in place to see which techniques, and fighters from boxers to martial artists of different disciplines would emerge supreme. The battles take place in an octagonal, caged enclosure from which there is no escape and originally almost every form striking, including groin shots and similar techniques, was allowed.
MMA fighting was originally known as "no holds barred" fighting, and as the title suggests, the rules were extremely minimal. Only a few types of attacks were barred, including biting, eye gouging. Other techniques such as groin strikes although not banned, were discouraged. There were not weight classes, which meant a small fighter could easily be paired against someone of much greater size, although that did not always guarantee the larger fighter's victory. Initial contests were particularly brutal, often resulting in severe injury. This lead MMA fighting to quickly drop from public view as, led by Senator John McCain, 36 states banned it and audiences turned away from the unacceptable degree of brutality.
In attempt to regain a public following, additional rules were adopted starting in the late 1990s. The new rules were intended to keep the "no holds barred" format and the inclusion of multiple fighting methods while providing some protection for the fighters and making the sport more acceptable to audiences by reducing the degree of violence. They included weight classes, requirement of gloves, no kicking an opponent when down, and the banning of groin strikes. Blows to the back of the neck and head were banned, as well as other particularly damaging strikes. Since then, MMA, also called cage fighting or ultimate fighting, has rapidly regained public audience and become a incredibly popular sport, attracting large audiences and even setting audience records on pay per view.
In 2005, Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) launched a series on television that pitted MMA fighters against each other in matches that eliminated the losing fighter until only one fighter, the true grand champion of fighting, remained. Then, in 2006, an MMA event set a new a new pay per view audience record that surpassed the all time single year revenue for boxing and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Since then, the sport has been featured on the covers of Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine and obtained sponsorship deals from Harley Davidson and Anhueser Busch, emerging into the top tier of fighting sports.
