As a Nigerian, you must have heard the names Kamaru Usman and Isreal Adesanya. These two are Nigerian MMA athletes who have been champions in the UFC hence why they are more popular than other Nigerian MMA athletes. If you are reading this article, I believe you are interested in the sport of MMA. You will get more information in this article about the sport of MMA and about other Nigerians who have participated in the sport or are currently active fighters.
What are Martial Arts?
As a Nigerian, you must have watched movies by Jackie Chan and Jet Li growing up or more recently, Donnie Yen. So you have some intro into what martial arts is. Simply put, martial arts are systems of combat (fighting). With that definition, our scope of martial arts can be expanded to not just include the flashy kung fu and wing chun seen in Chinese movies, but also include systems like Boxing, Kick Boxing, Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Karate, Taekwondo. All these combat systems have elements that make them unique for example, Muay Thai is known for the use of knees, elbows, and kicks and is often called the “art of eight limbs”. Muay Thai has punches too, but there’s more focus on the kicks and the knees.
Martial arts are broadly categorized into striking and grappling arts. Some systems are hybrid as they include elements of striking and grappling.
Striking involves hitting with force using a body part like the knees, fist, elbow, or heel. Striking martial arts include Boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Karate, and Taekwondo.
Grappling involves manipulating your opponent’s body and performing sweeps to gain an advantageous position or submit them. Grappling martial arts include Wrestling, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Hybrid martial arts combine striking and grappling. Examples include Sambo and some Karate disciplines like Kyokushin.
What then is MMA?
MMA is an acronym for Mixed Martial Arts. MMA as a sport allows athletes to mix different martial arts into their fighting style with a unified set of rules. This means that boxers can learn some Muay Thai and be able to throw kicks when fighting, and a Nak Muay (a Muay Thai fighter) can learn some wrestling to help defend himself during a fight too. Good enough, you will find out that some fighters learn a new discipline and get so good, that they use it as their base. For example, Kamaru Usman is a very good wrestler (a Division 2 national champion) but in a good number of his most recent fights has not come out with an active wrestling game plan. He currently trains under Trevor Wittman who is an excellent boxing coach and has greatly improved Usman’s boxing. In his second fight against Jorge Masvidal, he knocked out Masvidal with a perfect 1 2.
Although fighters can incorporate different fighting styles, there is a unified set of rules that determines what can be done in a fight, what are possible fouls, the consequences for bad sportsmanship, how judges should score fights, the attire fighters can put on, medical requirements, and prohibited substances. The rules can be determined by the organization organizing the bouts and in some cases, the sports commission in the place where the bout will be held.
Nigerian MMA Fighters
Beyond Kamaru Usman (The Nigerian Nightmare) and Isreal Adesanya (The Last Stylebender), other Nigerians have competed in MMA fights in the past and others are still active fighters. Some of those fighters include Anthony Njokuani, Chidi Njokuani, Kennedy Nzechukwu, Sodiq Yusuff, Jakiel Ayana, Cornel Thompson, Andy Ologun, Bobby Ologun, Hakeem Dawodu, Emmanuel Onyedikachi, Henry Fadipe, Mohammed Usman, and many many more. An exhaustive list can be found on Tapology here https://www.tapology.com/search/mma-fighters-by-nationality/country-ng and here also https://www.ranker.com/list/best-nigerian-ufc-fighters-all-time/pedro-cerrano
What organizations organize MMA fights?
Several organizations hold MMA fights in different countries. Some more being more popular than others. Four very popular ones include UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), Bellator, Professional Fighters League and One FC. Others include KSW(Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki), LFA (Legacy Fighting Alliance), Invicta Fighting Championships, and Road Fighting Championship. Wikipedia can provide you with an exhaustive list of MMA organizations.
How can you watch MMA fights?
When you are trying to become a fan of a new sport, an exhaustive library of events can be helpful to get acquainted with the sport. Luckily, most MMA organizations have a YouTube channel with an exhaustive library of fights that you can watch.
Some of these organizations also stream their fights live on YouTube. However, organizations like UFC and Bellator do not stream fights for free. You need to pay to stream their fights using their app or a media partner like ESPN or Amazon Prime in the case of One FC.
I will leave you with some MMA fights from Nigerian fighters that you should watch to get started.