Important people in WMA

[DdlR]

Johannes Liechtenauer

Yep, without question the most influential of the known German masters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtenauer

Fiore dei Liberi would be his Italian equivalent - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiore_dei_Liberi

[DdlR]

The next major innovators would be the Italians who really honed rapier fencing, especially Salvatore Fabris: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvator_Fabris

Basically, it's easier to name individual masters from further back in history because we have fewer surviving records from before the invention of the printing press. By the time you get into the 1800s there are so many manuals being published on so many styles it gets hard to choose between them.

[gttintin]

Jim Corbett for use of the jab, adding more science to boxing.

[Naszir]

Charles LeCour for adapting English style boxing to Savate. Depending on how you look at it, Vasili Oshchepkov and Viktor Spiridonov for the development of SAMBO.