Whats MMA?

That catch wrestler guy who trained under gene lebell - Hannibal will know

 

Under Gene that would suggest Gokor - although John Lewis (Extreme Fighting) was also a graduate of Gene

I do remember Haku/Meng being suggested as an option for the first UFC, but Vince Mcmahon wouldn't allow it. Shame because he was legitimately one of the toughest men on the planet and every pro wrestler feared him

 

So did they share the basis on which they were rejected? I'm curious now.

 

The Dog Brothers were rejected as a DEMO - not as competitors. Essentially they were too brutal

Vince didn't want his wrestlers losing because he always wanted them to be seen as "tough guys" (Haku actually was as an aisde - I woudl also have happily seen Allan Coage aka "Bad News Brown" in there too)

Other than that I cannot really think of any who applied that were rejected...especially in the early days

 

What is the combat martial arts association? I can't find any information on it. To be honest I am hearing a lot of red flags. Those type of organisations are often a method that people with dodgy ranks or lineage use in order to appear legitimate. It tends to imply that there is a level of deception. Combine this with a 10th degree black-belt in a system that changes it's name, and alarm bells are really ringing.

 

Well since Hannible is a fellow cop I can say this much the guy that I know who was rejected was a legit badass, and he was a cop at the time he was rejected in fact he was a KCMO (Kansas city Missouri) cop. His rejection came around/just before Ufc one took place. Important to mention here is that he practiced a mixed style, was prior military and was an accomplished/very accomplished college wrestler. I rember that it seemed odd to me back then that someone would be told no by the UFC.

 

Likewise - what reasons were given? I ask because Shamrock was allowed (hybrid and a badass) and Jennum was a cop too (UFC 3). They had some legit tough guys along there too so i am a bit stumped

 

Well I hesitate to say it but since I value my friendship with you guys I will take a chance and offer you an explination. I remember the BB's in the association talking about this when I was about 18, I had been doing Karate with them for about three years at the time and from what I remember hearing this is what I think.
I dont think they wanted a guy with zero forigen influence or training to compete, certainly not one that possesed that particular set of skills. Imagine if an American fighter came out in UFC one with the skills of a modern day MMA fighter and he was a cop from the midwest, it wouldnt seem so spectacular and mystifying, so we got charicters like Shamrock and Sevren.

 

Dan Severn from spectacular and mystifying... Michigan?

 

Don't buy any of that

John Hess was SAFTA...completely made up. Tank Abbott was good ol' US born and bred and then you had Melton Bowen, Art Jimmerson.....there were a plethora of "zero mystic" fighters back in the day

 

Yea I see what your saying about that, there were lots of guys from the states representing in UFC. I honestly guess I dont know, I can try to find out.

 

That would be cool - I am genuinely interested

 

I don't see any tacticAl combination of striking and grappling in bartitsu that would be relevant to modern MMA. It looks like typical no contact guy stands there SD with no sparring or fighting what so ever. Obviously that's the geeky modern take on it....at the time it might of been different. Interesting though.

Like I said since man has fought they have done mixed styles and known grappling and striking is important. The tactical combination of clinch ,striking and grappling is a modern thing it seems. We would need to analyse the stance and positioning, of say the ancient Greeks, to know if it was tacticaly combined or just mixing styles. It's not easy from drawings.

Even medieval weapons arts had grappling as a big part of it and striking too, before it became irrelevant and turned into things like fencing and more sporting or social as oppose to pure killing violence in any way possible.

 

Jon Bluming has claimed some of his fighters were ducked by the Gracies. He is another who mixed his arts.

 

Was also dropped by Wang

 

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that the gracies hand picked the opponents for the early UFC' s. I say that just as information not to take anything away from them or Royce Gracie. It's interesting too, that even among the gracies there was one who died young who apparently was the first amongst them to look at all the grappling styles and incorporate them in BJJ and he was a big influence on a young Rickson and regarded by some very highly .I can't think of his name right now.

Edit....Rolls Gracie.

 

Baritsu - actually considering it was all upper class british folk practising in victorian times, it was probably much like the geeky modern take.

the gracie you're thinking of is Rolls, the black sheep (adopted by helio from his brother IIRC) who was also the teacher of roger gracies father and many (if not all?) influential BJJ players today.

 

Hey! I'm from Michigan and I'm spec--okay, yeah I see your point.

 

Hey, I'm not here to judge. I was raised on the mean streets of the suburbs of Annapolis. Where you could get judged pretty harshly for wearing the wrong colour sweater around your neck. Especially after Labour Day.

 

Hey I just saw this post dont know how I missed it from before, well the combat martial arts association was never really popular or main stream...go figure right. But basically it was started by a particular martial artist that was stationed in several forign countries during his millitary service (he was an officer not enlisted). He was a special forces member for most of his career then he got out and became a college professor and started several martial arts clubs while teaching at th university, about the same time he was asked to head a council for a special operations members society, not sure what all the did but he was the director for it untill just a few years before he passed. At some point he created the combat martial arts association and mostly it was a rank verification process shared by spec ops operators who had formal martial arts back grounds but had put together mixed systems, membership was fairly exclusive to/for that group.
The combat martial arts association opened its doors to a larger audience once several of its founders students attained higher ranking belts like second and third degree bb and wanted to open schools of there own.
That answer any questions.