Who Really Invented "Mixed Martial Arts"

**Matt Phillips** · Posted On: 1/15/2010 2:50pm

Not sure if this ultimately should live in MABS, but I can't post it elsewhere. Feel free to move as appropriate.

I posted this over on Sherdog when BS was o/o/o:

Originally Posted by Marco Rugeass

I just went looking for sources supporting the popular belief that Jeff Blatnick coined the phrase "Mixed Martial Arts" and couldn't actually find anything. It turns out that this term originates with Battlecade EF and not the UFC at all. The earliest usage is in sept. of 1995, here:Article: Operators struggle again with UFC time overrun. (multiple-systems operators; Ultimate Fighting Championships) - Multichannel News | HighBeam Research - FREE trial by Rick Blume, president and CEO of Battlecade. This would be immediately after UFC 7.

So now you know...

Edit: Here's the actual quote:

The event, which will retail at $19.95, will pit fighters from different martial arts disciplines, including jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, shootwrestling, tae kwon do, sambo and karate against each other in different weight classes, said Rick Blume, president and CEO of Battlecade. "The weight class structure ensures that this will be the highest quality mixed martial arts competition ever," Blume said in a prepared statement.

Obviously this is not normal MABS fare, but it is dubunking martial arts bullshit, just of a misinformation variety.

**Roidie McDouchebag** · Posted On: 1/15/2010 6:13pm

Interesting. Not particularly important, but interesting.

**Matt Phillips** · Posted On: 1/15/2010 6:52pm

Originally Posted by ICY

Interesting. Not particularly important, but interesting.

Its not particularly important, but its the truth, and that's what counts.

Nice to see you back BTW.

**Roidie McDouchebag** · Posted On: 1/16/2010 1:59am

Yeah, it's good to document that, for instance, it WASN'T Dana White.

**slideyfoot** · Posted On: 1/16/2010 7:00am

I had a look on Google Books, and "mixed martial arts" does pop up a few times if I limit the search parameters to before 1994. However, I was a bit confused by this entry, which claims to be published in 1983, but mentions the UFC, so that can't be right:

Originally Posted by Armor, v. 92, no. 6 - 1983, p49

I noted that the soldiers from both units responded similarly. First, they are always interested. They enjoy watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), so they really enjoy learning the same moves that professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters use [...]

Then there is this, from something called Catalyst, apparently from 1993:

Originally Posted by Catalyst, 1993

It is difficult to determine what the exact events were, as new ones were usually added through the years. But some of the common and more popular events include boxing, wrestling, pankration (regulated full-contact fighting, similar to today's mixed martial arts), chariot racing, running events, as well as a pentathlon, which included wrestling, long jump, javelin and discus throw.

**Matt Phillips** · Posted On: 1/16/2010 12:17pm

If you look at the cover of that issue of Catalyst, it has a publication date of Aug, 2008. I suspect we would find something similar in the issue of Armor is we could check (we can't), as it is also mentioning things like MACP that did not exist in 1993. This is why I made a big deal of establishing the date of Blume's quote relative to the event(s) being discussed in the article (UFC 7, and Extreme Fighting 1). Alot of automated searches will report a date *in* the text as the date *of* the text. You gotta read what it says carefully and decide if this is the case or not.

**slideyfoot** · Posted On: 1/16/2010 12:28pm

Originally Posted by War Wheel

Alot of automated searches will report a date *in* the text as the date *of* the text.

Ah: that would explain a lot of the problems I've had when using Google Books. Presumably the other thing to do would be rewatch UFC 4 through 7 and see if Blatnick ever refers to 'mixed martial arts.'

**Matt Phillips** · Posted On: 1/16/2010 1:54pm

Originally Posted by slideyfoot

Ah: that would explain a lot of the problems I've had when using Google Books. Presumably the other thing to do would be rewatch UFC 4 through 7 and see if Blatnick ever refers to 'mixed martial arts.'

Yep, that is the thing to do. I have 4 at home, but I will need to get the rest. I do remember Jeff using that term in reference to the "Mixed Martial Arts Council" when he was president (around 1998), but IDK about before that. It is worth noting that Blatnick had only 9 or 10 months with the UFC when Blume made that statement. Also, its not clear that the original useage refered to individuals mixing arts, rather than events mixing different stylists together.

Going through the rosters of UFC 4 through 7, there are very few fighters who were actually "mixed" in their preperation. Ruas comes to mind.

The first (UFC) event I can think of where *all* the competitors were actually mixed martial artists is 15.5 aka Ultimate Japan which was in Dec of '97.