Jiu-Jitsu: Brazilian or Greek?

My fiancee Maya and I acting tough

If you ask people how they like to spend their Saturday mornings, most will say sleeping in, playing soccer, watching Netflix, or reading a book. For me, I can't think of a better Saturday activity than getting choked out, punched in the face, and beat up.

When I began training in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA over a year ago, I never considered its ancient Greek heritage. The amazing sport the world calls Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu hasn't always been so Brazilian. In fact, Jiu-Jitsu is likely to have descended from the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece. 

The best candidate for the direct ancestor of Jiu-Jitsu within these ancient competitions was Pankration, one of the most popular sports in the entire event. Pankration was a sport that combined boxing and wrestling techniques into a hybrid fighting style, very similar to MMA (mixed martial arts) and UFC you can watch on pay-per-view today. Although the medium in which we view the fighting has developed drastically, men and women unknowingly train in the ancient art of Pankration for the entertainment of the masses. 

What sports do you enjoy that have descended from the Greeks?

Click here for the History of Jiu-Jitsu

"Let's have a good clean fight"

The Greeks were nothing if they weren't ready to be entertained.  If the many athletic competition they engaged in, the pankration was by far the the most exciting(or brutal- depending on your perspective).  In this competition, the participant would do anything (except eye gauging and biting) to defeat their opponent.

The cup on the left is trophy to the winner of the pankration event.

In our day, the most analogous sport would be Mixed Martial Arts. Much to the dismay of my concerned mother I started to fight MMA about 1.5 years ago. Its a great work out, awesome life skill, and significantly less dangerous then the practically anything-goes pankration. MMA has substantially more rules to prevent severe, permanent damage.                                                               The picture to the right is of me (left) competing in a Muay Thai fight. Muay Thai is the stand up fighting style used in MMA.