An Intro to Mix Martial Arts (MMA)

October 19, 2025Witherly Heights#Issue2, Sports0

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, especially in the women’s division. MMA is very popular in countries like the US, Brazil, and Russia. It first started as an underground sport and is now one of the most respected sports today.

So what is MMA? MMA includes techniques from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and many other martial arts. Before 1993, MMA was always an underground sport and many states had it banned due to lots of violence. MMA started gaining recognition and popularity after the creation of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) in 1993. It was huge and helped promote MMA as an actual sport. As the sport has grown in popularity, the UFC helped contribute to making MMA safer such as groin protection and mouthguards being mandatory during fights and banning performance-enhancing drugs.
Today the main MMA organizations are the UFC, the Professional Fighters League (PFL), and Bellator. Out of these, the UFC is the biggest MMA organization in the world, valued at $11.3 billion, which is why they have the best fighters across the world. Because of its huge influence, there’s more UFC related info in this article.

MMA leagues have different weight classes mainly for safety and fair competition. The UFC has 11different weight classes. There are eight weight classes for men and three for women.

UFC Men’s Division Weight Classes
- Flyweight: Up to 125 lbs
- Bantamweight: 126 lbs-135 lbs
- Featherweight: 136 lbs-145 lbs
- Lightweight: 146 lbs-155 lbs
- Welterweight: 156 lbs-170 lbs
- Middleweight: 171-185 lbs
- Light Heavyweight: 186 lbs-205 lbs
- Heavyweight: 206 lbs-265 lbs
UFC Women’s Division Weight Classes
- Strawweight: Up to 115 lbs
- Flyweight: 116 lbs-125 lbs
- Bantamweight: 126 lbs-135 lbs

Fighters have to maintain their weight to be eligible to fight. Exceptions are only allowed only in non-title fights. They maintain their weight through a diet and training which needs a lot of physical and mental discipline.

During the fights, the UFC has ensured the safety of the fighters with a lot of rules. If you want to get disqualified, all you need to do is headbutting, poking your opponent in the eye, strikes to the back of your head, hairpulling, grabbing your opponent, faking an injury, biting and many more. So what is allowed? Punches, kicks, and knees are allowed which are techniques from boxing, kickboxing, and Muay Thai and they also allow things like chokes and takedowns which are techniques from wrestling and Jiu Jitsu.

All fighters have certain strengths. Some fighters use their grappling skills more and others use their striking skills more often. For example, current UFC Middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev is known for his wrestling and takedown skills and mainly uses those skills in his fights. Middleweight legend Anderson Silva is known for his striking. Some fighters use a mix of striking and grappling which makes them very well rounded like Flyweight legend Demetrious “Might Mouse” Johnson. He was very quick with his striking but also amazing at takedowns.

In any MMA organization fight, there are 3-5 rounds depending on the event. A main event or a title fight will have 5 rounds. If not, there will be 3 rounds. There are different ways to win a fight. Each round is 5 minutes with a 1 minute rest period after each round

Knockout/Technical Knockout
- A big hit that stuns the fighter and it is dangerous for them to continue
  - The fight can be stopped by the referee, the fighter’s team corner, or a doctor.
Submission
- When a fighter chokes their opponent and they tap their opponent a few times to signal they surrender.
Decision
- There are three judges that score the fight.
  - Each round is scored by takedowns, strikes, aggressiveness, and controlling the tempo of the fight.
  - Points in a round are between 7-10. The winner of the round will always have 10 points.
  - There are very rare cases of both fighters scoring 10 points which means there was no clear winner of the round.

All fight events are held in the night at a location selected by the UFC, and is called a UFC Fight Night. Each Fight Night has 2 fight cards that include the scheduled fights for the night, the preliminary card, and the main card. At times, there is a third card called the early preliminary card. The main card has the more important fights and the fights on the preliminary and the early preliminary cards are not as important. The main card has fights that can change up the rankings of a weight class unlike the preliminary and early preliminary rounds.

How does a fighter become a champion of their division? First the fighter has to be ranked in the top 15 fighters in their weight class. To climb in the rankings, the fighter needs to dominate fights against fighters ranked higher than themselves. To become the champion in their weight class, the fighter must beat the champion of their weight class.

In rare cases, a fighter can be a double champion in two different weight classes at the same time. Not many fighters do it because they’ll have to adjust to a new weight class. Some fighters who have done this are Conor McGregor who was the first fighter to do this for the Featherweight and Lightweight divisions, Daniel Cormier for the Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight divisions, and Amanda Nunes — the only female double champion — for the Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions.

Two big UFC events are coming up soon, UFC 321 and UFC 322. UFC 321 will be on October 25 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It will be current Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall vs Ciryl Gane. UFC 322 will be in New York City on November 15 and it will be former Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev vs current Welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena aka JDM. There is another title fight as well this time in the female division. It is between current Strawweight champion Zhang Weili vs current Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.

The biggest fight in MMA history is UFC 229 between Lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov vs former double champion Conor McGregor. The fight made $180 million in pay-per-view (PPV) fueled by a very big rivalry between the two fighters.

The current male UFC champions by weight class are:

Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja
Bantamweight Champion Merab Dvalishvili
Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski
Lightweight Champion Ilia Topuria
Welterweight Champion Jack Della Maddalena
Middleweight Champion Khamzat Chimaev
Light Heavyweight Champion Alex Pereira
Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall

The current female UFC champions

Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili
Flyweight Champion Valentina Shevchenko
Bantamweight Champion Kayla Harrison

MMA has grown from an underground sport to now being one of the most popular and respected sports in the world today. The success comes from the different martial arts, the skill and technique required, and the fans around the world. Fighters from the whole world bring their own strengths. It can be the precise striking of Muay Thai or the powerful grappling of wrestling, or even a mix of both. With new fighters coming in, rivalries, and big events coming up, MMA continues to inspire lots of people.

Works Cited

UFC.com

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