Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Mixed martial arts" in English language version.
In both ancient China and Greece, the most popular sports were probably wrestling, boxing, and combinations thereof (Greek pankration, Chinese leitai). The same might be argued for ancient Egypt, India and Japan. [...] In both ancient China and Greece, the no-holds-barred combat sport (Greek pankration, Chinese leitai) was probably the most popular one.
(Regarding Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)) With [Bruce Lee's] philosophy of "absorbing what is useful and disgarding what is not", Bruce Lee's influence can be seen in the development of MMA.
In fact, some might claim that shootfighting was the original form of Mixed Martial Arts.
In addition to producing professional Pancrase competitors who are known as Pancraseism (captain/ Kiuma Kunioku); Pancrase Inagakigumi(captain / Katsuomi Inagaki); Pancrase GRABAKA (captain/ Sanae Kikuta); Pancrase Mission(captain / Minoru Suzuki); Pancrase Megaton(captain/ Keigo Takamori). Pancrase Organization has its own gyms in Japan which is called P's LAB with plans to establish additional Pancrase amateur gyms and also to spread Hybrid Wrestling around the world.
In both ancient China and Greece, the most popular sports were probably wrestling, boxing, and combinations thereof (Greek pankration, Chinese leitai). The same might be argued for ancient Egypt, India and Japan. [...] In both ancient China and Greece, the no-holds-barred combat sport (Greek pankration, Chinese leitai) was probably the most popular one.