Rumble at the River comes to North Little Rock's Alltel Arena on Friday evening as 29 fighters from 11 gyms across the state and region will also compete in mixed martial arts at the Riverfest Amphitheatre. Mixed martial arts combines judo, boxing, kickboxing, floor grappling and submission holds of Brazilian jujitsu, as Ingrid Norton reports in Friday's Arkansas Weekend section.
In a mixed martial arts (often shortened to MMA) match, competitors are just as likely to come crashing to the mat from jujitsu and wrestling moves and they are from punches and kicks.
Mixed martial arts fighting is a relatively new phenomenon. The sport first became prominent in the early '90s with the Ultimate Fighting Championship's pay-per-view fights. At that time, the goal was to see which martial arts style would prevail in a fight.
"At one point MMA had no rules, it was no holds barred, anything goes, last man standing," says Marc Ratner, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Ratner says that in the past decade the sport has become more regulated.
"It's become a real sport," he says.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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