Post about martial arts history including early mixed style bouts, martial arts history, and martial arts film.
In November 2025, I successfully tested for 5th-degree black belt in Taekwondo. As I prepared for the test, I had a chance to reflect on the arts I studied. When I look at these arts, I see a distinct reason that I studied each one. The arts cover striking, grappling, ground fighting and a practical self-defense weapon, the cane. I […]
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Ad Santel, one of the most talented submission wrestlers of the 1910s and 1920s, built his reputation in contests with judo and jiu-jitsu experts. Santel wrestled one of these contests on Saturday, February 5, 1916, at the Dreamland Rink in San Francisco, California. Santel wrestled Professor Tokugoro Ito, a 5th-degree black belt in judo, who started wrestling challenge matches in […]
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On Wednesday, August 11, 1937, professional wrestler Nick Lutze took part in a mixed styles bout with professional boxer Pio Pico. Promoter Lou Daro booked Lutze and Pico for the undercard of Bronko Nagurski defending his newly won world title against Los Angeles’ biggest star Vincent Lopez. The card drew 20,000 fans to Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field, a sellout of […]
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On Saturday, December 30, 1916, Taro Miyake fought Ben de Mello, a professional boxer, in a mixed styles six round challenge bout. 1,000 spectators filed into the Hilo Armory to watch a rare legitimate contest between a boxer and jiu jitsu expert. Referee H.S. Prager started the bout between the 35-year-old Miyake and the younger boxer. Miyake warily circled de […]
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When the great Jack Johnson defeated Tommy Burns for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship, the boxing establishment started searching for a “white hope” to defeat Johnson. In desperation to find someone to defeat Johnson, promoters and sports writers started lobbying former World Heavyweight Champion James J. Jeffries to end his retirement to fight Johnson. Jeffries retired undefeated in 1905. After […]
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On Friday, March 11, 1932, wrestlers George Tragos and Rudy Dusek faced boxers, Stanley McRae and Tom Pivac in wrestler versus boxer bouts. It took the fans longer to get to their seats than it took the combatants to complete the bouts. The men fought the pair of bouts in Memphis, Tennessee at the Auditorium. Fans know George Tragos, a […]
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On Sunday, November 9, 1913, African American boxer Sam McVea, or McVey, battled Professor Stevenson, a Jujitsu practitioner, in a mixed styles bout in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. McVea and Stevenson fought ten, five-minute rounds, with three-minute intermission between rounds. McVea and Stevenson fought for $100 a side. In grappler vs. boxer matches, the grappler usually won, but McVea […]
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On Tuesday, June 3, 1924, up-and-coming wrestler Jim Browning challenged Taro Miyake in a mixed styles match in Nashville, Tennessee. Browning, a wrestler from Verona, Missouri recently left the Missouri-Kansas area to wrestle in Tennessee and Kentucky. The 21-year-old Browning was developing a reputation for solid wrestling. Browning impressed promoters so much in the 1920s that the promoters put the […]
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On Friday, November 27, 1891, former American Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Joe Acton wrestled future World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Bob Fitzsimmons in San Francisco, California. The men wrestled for a reported $1,000.00 purse. Acton usually gave up size to his opponent but Acton outweighed the 148-pound Fitzsimmons by seven pounds. The men wrestled a two-out-of-three falls match according to catch-as-catch-can wrestling […]
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In mixed style bouts between wrestlers and strikers, the adage is once the wrestler gets his hands on the striker, the fight is over. In most mixed style bouts between wrestlers or grapplers and boxers, the grappler normally wins after dragging the striker to the ground. Ray Steele defeated Battling Levinsky. “Judo” Gene LeBell smashed Milo Savage. In modern […]
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