The UFC, the brainchild of Rorion Gracie and ad executive Art Davie, had two purposes when it made its television debut in November of 1993. It was, first and foremost, a spectacle of the highest order—a cage fighting tournament that would match up athletes from a variety of disciplines to see which martial art was best.
The other, more stealthy, goal was to spread the art of Gracie Jiu Jitsu far and wide. Rorion’s family fighting system was the real star of the early UFCs, introducing America and the world to the power of submissions and ground fighting. Gracie did exactly what he intended—he created a market for his Jiu Jitsu all over the world.
But Gracie Jiu Jitsu wasn’t the only art fighting for supremacy in the cage. Some of the competition, like wrestling, judo and karate, were well-known arts in their own rights. Others were a bit off the beaten path.
Those are the arts we’ll look at today—the wackiest styles ever used in the cage.