Impala
The impala is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of the genus Aepyceros, it was first described to European audiences by German zoologist Hinrich Lichtenstein in 1812. Two subspecies are recognised—the common impala, the larger and darker black-faced impala; the impala weighs 40 -- 76 kg. It features a reddish brown coat; the male's slender, lyre-shaped horns are 45–92 centimetres long. Active during the day, the impala may be gregarious or territorial depending upon the climate and geography. Three distinct social groups can be observed: the territorial males, bachelor herds and female herds; the impala is known for two characteristic leaps. Browsers as well as grazers, impala feed on monocots, forbs and acacia pods. An annual, three-week-long rut takes place toward the end of the wet season in May. Rutting males fight over dominance, the victorious male courts female in oestrus. Gestation lasts six to seven months, following which a single calf is born and concealed in cover.
Calves are suckled for four to six months. The impala is found sometimes on the interface between woodlands and savannahs. While the black-faced impala is confined to southwestern Angola and Kaokoland in northwestern Namibia, the common impala is widespread across its range and has been reintroduced in Gabon and southern Africa; the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the impala as a species of least concern. The first attested English name, in 1802, was palla or pallah, from the Tswana phala'red antelope', its Afrikaans name, rooibok'red buck', is sometimes used in English. The scientific generic name Aepyceros comes from Ancient Greek αἰπύς + κέρας; the impala belongs to the family Bovidae. It was first described by German zoologist Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein in 1812. In 1984, palaeontologist Elisabeth Vrba opined that the impala is a sister taxon to the alcelaphines, given its resemblance to the hartebeest. A 1999 phylogenetic study by Alexandre Hassanin and colleagues, based on mitochondrial and nuclear analyses, showed that the impala forms a clade with the suni.
This clade is sister to another formed by the klipspringer. An rRNA and β-spectrin nuclear sequence analysis in 2003 supported an association between Aepyceros and Nesotragus; the following cladogram is based on the 1999 study: Up to six subspecies have been described, although only two are recognised on the basis of mitochondrial data. Though morphologically similar, the subspecies show a significant genetic distance between them, no hybrids between them have been reported. A. m. melampus Lichtenstein, 1812: Known as the common impala, it occurs across eastern and southern Africa. The range extends from central Kenya westward into southeastern Angola. A. m. petersi Bocage, 1879: Known as the black-faced impala, it is restricted to southwestern Africa, occurring in northwestern Namibia and southwestern Angola. According to Vrba, the impala developed from an alcelaphine ancestor, she noted that while this ancestor has diverged at least 18 times into various morphologically different forms, the impala has continued in its basic form for at least five million years.
Several fossil species have been discovered, including A. datoadeni from the Pliocene of Ethiopia. The oldest fossil discovered suggests its ancient ancestors were smaller than the modern form, but otherwise similar in all aspects to the latter; this implies. Its gregarious nature, variety in diet, positive population trend, defence against ticks and symbiotic relationship with the tick-feeding oxpeckers could have played a role in preventing major changes in morphology and behaviour; the impala is a slender antelope similar to the kob or Grant's gazelle in build. The head-and-body length is around 130 centimetres. Males reach 75–92 centimetres at the shoulder, while females are 70–85 centimetres tall. Males weigh 53–76 kilograms and females 40–53 kilograms. Sexually dimorphic, females are hornless and smaller than males. Males grow lyre-shaped horns 45 -- 92 centimetres long; the horns ridged and divergent, are circular in section and hollow at the base. Their arch-like structure allows interlocking of horns, which helps a male throw off his opponent during fights.
The glossy coat of the impala shows two-tone colouration – the reddish brown back and the tan flanks. Facial features include white rings around a light chin and snout; the ears, 17 centimetres long, are tipped with black. Black streaks run from the buttocks to the upper hindlegs; the bushy white tail, 30 centimetres long, features a solid
American Mafia
The American Mafia or Italian-American Mafia is a organized Italian-American criminal society. The organization is referred to by members as Cosa Nostra and by the government as La Cosa Nostra; the organization's name is derived from the original Mafia or Cosa nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, it emerged as an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia. It is colloquially referred to as the Italian Mafia or Italian Mob, though these terms may apply to the separate yet related Sicilian Mafia or other organized crime groups in Italy; the Mafia in the United States emerged in impoverished Italian immigrant neighborhoods or ghettos in New York's East Harlem, Lower East Side, Brooklyn. It emerged in other areas of the East Coast of the United States and several other major metropolitan areas during the late 19th century and early 20th century, following waves of Italian immigration from Sicily and other regions of Southern Italy, it is a separate organization in the United States. Neapolitan and other Italian criminal groups in the U.
S. as well as independent Italian-American criminals merged with Sicilian Mafiosi to create the modern pan-Italian Mafia in North America. Today, the American Mafia cooperates in various criminal activities with Italian organized crime groups, such as the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra of Naples, and'Ndrangheta of Calabria; the most important unit of the American Mafia is that of a "family," as the various criminal organizations that make up the Mafia are known. Despite the name of "family" to describe the various units, they are not familial groupings; the Mafia is most active in the northeastern United States, with the heaviest activity in New York City, with a substantial presence in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New England, in areas such as Boston and Hartford. It is highly active in Chicago and other large Midwestern cities such as Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis, Kansas City, a smaller presence in places like New Orleans, Denver, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, with smaller families and crews in other parts of the country.
At the Mafia's peak, there were at least 26 cities around the United States with Cosa Nostra families, with many more offshoots and associates in other cities. There are five main New York City Mafia families, known as the Five Families: the Gambino, Genovese and Colombo families. At its peak, the American Mafia dominated organized crime in the United States; each crime family has its own territory and operates independently, while nationwide coordination is overseen by the Commission, which consists of the bosses of each of the strongest families. Today, most of the Mafia's activities are contained to the northeastern United States and Chicago, where they continue to dominate organized crime, despite the increasing numbers of other crime groups; the term Mafia was used in Italy by the media and law enforcement to describe criminal groups in Sicily. The origins of the term are debatable, though most agree the term is derived from the word ma'afir, a term rooted in Arabic and meaning'shelter' or'place of refuge'.
Like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia did not use the term mafia to describe itself. Neither group instead used the term cosa nostra when referring to themselves; when Italian immigrants started forming organized crime groups in the United States, the American press borrowed the term mafia from Italy and it became the predominant name used by law enforcement and the public."Mafia" properly refers to either the Sicilian or Italian-American Mafia. In modern usage, when referring to the Mafia, there may be several meanings, including a local area's Italian organized crime element, the Mafia family of a major city, the entire Mafia of the United States, or the original Sicilian Mafia. Widespread recognition of the word has led to its use in the names of other criminal organizations, such as the Jewish Mafia, Mexican Mafia, or Russian Mafia, as well as non-criminal organizations, such as John F. Kennedy's political team, referred to as the "Irish Mafia"; the press coined the name "National Crime Syndicate" to refer to the entire network of U.
S. organized crime, which includes the Italian-American Mafia. It was described as a confederation of Italian and Jewish-American organized crime groups throughout the U. S. as revealed by the findings of a U. S. Senate Special Committee in the 1950s chaired by Estes Kefauver; the first published account of what became the Mafia in the United States dates to the spring of 1869. The New Orleans Times reported that the city's Second District had become overrun by "well-known and notorious Sicilian murderers and burglars, who, in the last month, have formed a sort of general co-partnership or stock company for the plunder and disturbance of the city." Emigration from southern Italy to the Americas was to Brazil and Argentina, New Orleans had a heavy volume of port traffic to and from both locales. Mafia groups in the United States first became influential in the New York City area progressing from small neighb
Death
Death is the permanent cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which bring about death include aging, malnutrition, suicide, starvation and accidents or major trauma resulting in terminal injury. In most cases, bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death. Death – the death of humans – has been considered a sad or unpleasant occasion, due to the affection for the being that has died and the termination of social and familial bonds with the deceased. Other concerns include fear of death, anxiety, grief, emotional pain, sympathy, solitude, or saudade. Many cultures and religions have the idea of an afterlife, hold the idea of reward or judgement and punishment for past sin; the word death comes from Old English dēaþ. This comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dheu- meaning the "process, condition of dying"; the concept and symptoms of death, varying degrees of delicacy used in discussion in public forums, have generated numerous scientific and acceptable terms or euphemisms for death.
When a person has died, it is said they have passed away, passed on, expired, or are gone, among numerous other accepted, religiously specific and irreverent terms. Bereft of life, the dead person is a corpse, cadaver, a body, a set of remains, when all flesh has rotted away, a skeleton; the terms carrion and carcass can be used, though these more connote the remains of non-human animals. As a polite reference to a dead person, it has become common practice to use the participle form of "decease", as in the deceased; the ashes left after a cremation are sometimes referred to by the neologism cremains, a portmanteau of "cremation" and "remains". Senescence refers to a scenario when a living being is able to survive all calamities, but dies due to causes relating to old age. Animal and plant cells reproduce and function during the whole period of natural existence, but the aging process derives from deterioration of cellular activity and ruination of regular functioning. Aptitude of cells for gradual deterioration and mortality means that cells are sentenced to stable and long-term loss of living capacities despite continuing metabolic reactions and viability.
In the United Kingdom, for example, nine out of ten of all the deaths that occur on a daily basis relates to senescence, while around the world it accounts for two-thirds of 150,000 deaths that take place daily. All animals who survive external hazards to their biological functioning die from biological aging, known in life sciences as "senescence"; some organisms experience negligible senescence exhibiting biological immortality. These include the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii, the hydra, the planarian. Unnatural causes of death include homicide. From all causes 150,000 people die around the world each day. Of these, two thirds die directly or indirectly due to senescence, but in industrialized countries – such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany – the rate approaches 90%. Physiological death is now seen as a process, more than an event: conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible. Where in the process a dividing line is drawn between life and death depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs.
In general, clinical death is neither sufficient for a determination of legal death. A patient with working heart and lungs determined to be brain dead can be pronounced dead without clinical death occurring; as scientific knowledge and medicine advance, formulating a precise medical definition of death becomes more difficult. Signs of death or strong indications that a warm-blooded animal is no longer alive are: Respiratory arrest Cardiac arrest Brain death Pallor mortis, paleness which happens in the 15–120 minutes after death Algor mortis, the reduction in body temperature following death; this is a steady decline until matching ambient temperature Rigor mortis, the limbs of the corpse become stiff and difficult to move or manipulate Livor mortis, a settling of the blood in the lower portion of the body Decomposition, the reduction into simpler forms of matter, accompanied by a strong, unpleasant odor. The concept of death is a key to human understanding of the phenomenon. There are many scientific approaches to the concept.
For example, brain death, as practiced in medical science, defines death as a point in time at which brain activity ceases. One of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life; as a point in time, death would seem to refer to the moment. Determining when death has occurred is difficult, as cessation of life functions is not simultaneous across organ systems; such determination therefore requires drawing precise conceptual boundaries between death. This is due to there being little consensus on how to define life; this general problem applies to the particular challenge of defining death in the context of medicine. It is possible to define life in terms of consciousness; when consciousness ceases, a living organism can be said to have died. One of the flaws in this approach is that there are many organisms which are alive but not conscious. Another problem is in defining consciousness, which has many different d
Club (weapon)
A club is among the simplest of all weapons: a short staff or stick made of wood, wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times. There are several examples of blunt-force trauma caused by clubs in the past, including at the site of Nataruk in Turkana, described as the scene of a prehistoric conflict between bands of hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago. In popular culture, clubs are associated with primitive cultures cavemen. Most clubs are small enough to be swung with one hand, although larger clubs may require the use of two to be effective. Various specialized clubs are used in martial arts and other fields, including the law-enforcement baton; the military mace is a more sophisticated descendant of the club made of metal and featuring a spiked, knobbed, or flanged head attached to a shaft. The wounds inflicted by a club are known as strike trauma or blunt-force trauma injuries. Police forces and their predecessors have traditionally favored the use, whenever possible, of less-lethal weapons than guns or blades.
Until recent times, when alternatives such as tasers and capsicum spray became available, this category of policing weapon has been filled by some form of wooden club variously termed a truncheon, nightstick, or lathi. Short, flexible clubs are often used by plainclothes officers who need to avoid notice; these are known colloquially as saps, or coshes. They are used in olden ages of the Philippines to punish citizens. Conversely, criminals have been known to arm themselves with an array of homemade or improvised clubs of concealable sizes, or which can be explained as being carried for legitimate purposes. In addition, Shaolin monks and members of other religious orders around the world have employed cudgels from time to time as defensive weapons. Though the simplest of all weapons, there are many varieties of club, including: For other types see Baton. Aklys – a club with an integrated leather thong, used to return it to the hand after snapping it at an opponent. Used by the legions of the Roman Empire.
Ball club – These clubs were used by the Native Americans. There are two types; these consisted of a free-moving head of rounded stone or wood attached to a wooden handle. Baseball, cricket and T-ball bats – The baseball bat is used as an improvised weapon, much like the pickaxe handle. In countries where baseball is not played, baseball bats are first thought of as weapons. Tee ball bats are used in this manner, their smaller size and lighter weight make the bat easier to handle in one hand than a baseball bat. Baton Blackjack: see cosh. Clava – a traditional stone hand-club used by Mapuche Indians in Chile, featuring a long flat body. In Spanish, it is known as clava cefalomorfa, it has some ritual importance as a special sign of distinction carried by the tribal chief. Cosh: A weapon made of covered metal similar to a blackjack. Any of various sorts of blunt instrument such as bludgeon, truncheon or the like. Cudgel – A stout stick carried by peasants during the Middle Ages, it functioned as a weapon for both self-defence and wartime.
Regiments of clubmen were raised as late as the English Civil War. The cudgel is known as the singlestick. Crowbar – The crowbar is a used improvised weapon, though some examples are too large to be wielded with a single hand, therefore should be classified as staves. Flashlight – A large metal flashlight, such as a Maglite, can make a effective improvised club. Though not classified as a weapon, it is carried for self-defense by security guards and civilians in countries where carrying weapons is restricted. Gunstock war club – The wooden stocks of firearms introduced during the European colonization of the Americas were re-used by First Nations as improvised weapons. Regardless, the gunstock is an essential part of firearms, but it was stylized as a war club made famous by the American Indians as the gunstock war club. Another more modern variation of this kind of war club is the combat skill of bayonet usage. Without a knife or blade type attachment, the rifle's body itself is used for close-quarters combat.
Jutte – One of the more distinctive weapons of the samurai police was the jutte. An iron rod, the jutte was popular because it could parry and disarm a sword-wielding assailant without serious injury. A single hook on the side near the handle allowed the jutte to be used for trapping or breaking the blades of edged weapons, as well as for jabbing and striking; the hook could be used to entangle the clothes or fingers of an opponent. Thus, feudal Japanese police used the jutte to arrest subjects without serious bloodshed; the jutte came to be considered a symbol of official status. Kanabō – Various types of different-sized Japanese clubs made of wood and or iron with iron spikes or studs. First used by the Samurai. Kiyoga, a spring baton similar in concept to the Asp collapsible police baton, but with the center section made of a heavy duty steel spring; the tip and first section slide into the spring, the whole nests into a seven-inch handle. To deploy the kiyoga, all, necessary is to grasp the handle and swing.
This causes
Hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain "hanging". Hanging has been a common method of capital punishment since medieval times, is the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions; the first known account of execution by hanging was in Homer's Odyssey. In this specialised meaning of the common word hang, the past and past participle is hanged instead of hung. Hanging is a common method of suicide in which a person applies a ligature to the neck and brings about unconsciousness and death by suspension. Partial suspension or partial weight-bearing on the ligature is sometimes used in prisons, mental hospitals or other institutions, where full suspension support is difficult to devise, because high ligature points have been removed.
There are numerous methods of hanging in execution which instigate death either by the fracturing of the spine or by strangulation. The short drop is a method of hanging performed by placing the condemned prisoner on a stool, the top of a ladder, the back of a cart, horse, or other vehicle, with the noose around the neck; the object is moved away, leaving the person dangling from the rope. Suspended by the neck, the weight of the body is used to tighten the noose around the trachea and neck structure causing strangulation and subsequently death; this takes between ten and twenty minutes, with unconsciousness occurring within 6–15 seconds. Before 1850, the short drop was the standard method for hanging, is still common in suicides and extrajudicial hangings which do not benefit from the specialised equipment and drop-length calculation tables used by the newer methods. A short drop variant is the Austro-Hungarian "pole" method, called Würgegalgen, in which the following steps take place: The condemned is made to stand before a specialized vertical pole or pillar 10 feet in height.
A rope is routed through a pulley at the base of the pole. The condemned is hoisted to the top of pole by means of a sling running across the chest and under the armpits. A narrow diameter noose is looped around the prisoner's neck secured to a hook mounted at the top of the pole; the chest sling is released, the prisoner is jerked downward by the assistant executioners via the foot rope. The executioner stands on a stepped platform 4 feet high beside the condemned, guides the head downward with his hand simultaneous to the efforts of his assistants; this method was also adopted by the successor states, most notably by Czechoslovakia. Nazi war criminal Karl Hermann Frank, executed in 1946 in Prague, was among 1,000 condemned people executed in this manner in Czechoslovakia; the standard drop involves a drop of between 4 and 6 feet and came into use from 1866, when the scientific details were published by an Irish doctor, Samuel Haughton. Its use spread to English-speaking countries and those where judicial systems had an English origin.
It was considered a humane improvement on the short drop because it was intended to be enough to break the person's neck, causing immediate unconsciousness and rapid brain death. This method was used to execute condemned Nazis under United States jurisdiction after the Nuremberg Trials including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Ernst Kaltenbrunner. In the execution of Ribbentrop, historian Giles MacDonogh records that: "The hangman botched the execution and the rope throttled the former foreign minister for twenty minutes before he expired." A Life magazine report on the execution says: "The trap fell open and with a sound midway between a rumble and a crash, Ribbentrop disappeared. The rope quivered for a time stood tautly straight." This process known as the measured drop, was introduced to Britain in 1872 by William Marwood as a scientific advance on the standard drop. Instead of everyone falling the same standard distance, the person's height and weight were used to determine how much slack would be provided in the rope so that the distance dropped would be enough to ensure that the neck was broken, but not so much that the person was decapitated.
The careful placement of the eye or knot of the noose contributed to breaking the neck. Prior to 1892, the drop was between four and ten feet, depending on the weight of the body, was calculated to deliver a force of 1,260 lbf, which fractured the neck at either the 2nd and 3rd or 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae; this force resulted in some decapitations, such as the infamous case of Black Jack Ketchum in New Mexico Territory in 1901, owing to a significant weight gain while in custody not having been factored into the drop calculations. Between 1892 and 1913, the length of the drop was shortened to avoid decapitation. After 1913, other factors were taken into account, the force delivered was reduced to about 1,000 lbf; the decapitation of Eva Dugan during a botched hanging in 1930 led the state of Arizona to switch to the gas chamber as its primary execution method, on the grounds that it was believed more humane. One of the more recent decapitations as a result of the long drop occurred when Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was hanged in Iraq in 2007
Self-defense
Self-defense is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in times of danger is available in many jurisdictions. Physical self-defense is the use of physical force to counter an immediate threat of violence; such force can be either unarmed. In either case, the chances of success depend on a large number of parameters, related to the severity of the threat on one hand, but on the mental and physical preparedness of the defender. Many styles of martial arts include self-defense techniques; some styles train for self-defense, while other martial or combat sports can be applied for self-defense. Some martial arts train how to escape from a knife or gun situation, or how to break away from a punch, while others train how to attack. To provide more practical self-defense, many modern martial arts schools now use a combination of martial arts styles and techniques, will customize self-defense training to suit individual participants.
A wide variety of weapons can be used for self-defense. The most suitable depends on the threat presented, the victim or victims, the experience of the defender. Legal restrictions greatly influence self-defence options. In many cases there are legal restrictions. While in some jurisdictions firearms may be carried or concealed expressly for this purpose, many jurisdictions have tight restrictions on who can own firearms, what types they can own. Knives those categorized as switchblades may be controlled, as may batons, pepper spray and personal stun guns and Tasers - although some may be legal to carry with a license or for certain professions. Non-injurious water-based self-defense indelible dye-marker sprays, or ID-marker or DNA-marker sprays linking a suspect to a crime scene, would in most places be legal to own and carry. Everyday objects, such as flashlights, baseball bats, keyrings with keys, kitchen utensils and other tools, hair spray aerosol cans in combination with a lighter, can be used as improvised weapons for self-defense.
Tie-wraps double as an effective restraint. Weapons such as the Kubotan have been built for ease of to resemble everyday objects. Ballpoint pen knives, cane guns and modified umbrellas are similar categories of concealed self-defense weapons that serve a dual purpose. Being aware of and avoiding dangerous situations is one useful technique of self-defense. Attackers will select victims they feel they have an advantage against, such as greater physical size, numerical superiority or sobriety versus intoxication. Additionally, any ambush situation inherently puts the defender at a large initiative disadvantage; these factors make fighting to defeat an attacker unlikely to succeed. When avoidance is impossible, one has a better chance at fighting to escape, such methods have been referred to as'break away' techniques. Understanding the'mindset' of a potential attacker is essential if we are to avoid or escape a life-threatening situation. Verbal Self Defense known as Verbal Judo or Verbal Aikido, is defined as using one's words to prevent, de-escalate, or end an attempted assault.
This kind of'conflict management' is the use of voice and body language to calm a violent situation before violence ensues. This involves techniques such as deflecting the conversation to individuals who are less passionately involved, or entering into a protected empathetic position to understand the attacker better. Lowering an attacker's defense and raising their ego is one way to de-escalate a violent situation. Personal alarms are a way to practice passive self-defense. A personal alarm is a small, hand-held device that emits strong, high-pitched sounds to deter attackers because the noise will sometimes draw the attention of passersby. Child alarms can function as locators or device alarms such as for triggering an alert when a swimming pool is in use to help prevent dangerous situations in addition to being a deterrent against would-be aggressors. Self-defense techniques and recommended behavior under the threat of violence is systematically taught in self-defense classes. Commercial self-defense education is part of the martial arts industry in the wider sense, many martial arts instructors give self-defense classes.
While all martial arts training can be argued to have some self-defense applications, self-defense courses are marketed explicitly as being oriented towards effectiveness and optimized towards situations as they occur in the real world. There are a large number of systems taught commercially, many tailored to the needs of specific target audiences. Notable systems taught commercially include: civilian versions of modern military combatives, such as Krav-Maga, Defendo and Systema Jujutsu and arts derived from it, such as Aikijujutsu, Bartitsu, German ju-jutsu, Kodokan Goshin Jutsu. Model Mugging Traditional unarmed fighting styles like Karate, Kung fu, Pencak Silat, etc; these styles can include competing. Traditional armed fighting styles like Kali Eskrima and Arnis; these include competing, as well as unarmed combat. Street Fighting oriented, unarmed systems, such as. A course in self defense will compr
Combat sport
"Combat Sports" redirects here, for The Vaccines' album, see Combat Sports. A combat sport, or fighting sport, is a competitive contact sport that involves one-on-one combat. In many combat sports, a contestant wins by scoring more points than the opponent or by disabling the opponent. Common combat sports include mixed martial arts, wrestling, savate, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, HMB, Kyokushin, Kūdō, sometimes Ninjutsu. Tradition styles of wrestling exist in most cultures. Boxing contests date back to ancient Sumer in the 3rd millennium BCE and ancient Egypt circa 1350 BCE; the ancient Olympic Games included several combat-related sports: armored foot races, boxing and pankration, introduced in the Olympic Games of 648 BCE. In ancient China, combat sport appeared in the form of lei tai, it was a no-holds barred combat sport that combined wrestling. There is evidence of similar combat sports in ancient Egypt and Japan. Through the Middle ages and Renaissance, the tournament was popular.
Tournaments were competitions that featured several mock combat events, with jousting as a main event. While the tournament was popular among aristocrats, combat sports were practiced by all levels of society; the German school of late medieval martial arts distinguished sportive combat from serious combat. In the German Renaissance, sportive combat competitions were known as Fechtschulen, corresponding to the Prize Playing in Tudor England. Out of these Prize Playing events developed the English boxing of the 18th century, which evolved into modern boxing with the introduction of the Marquess of Queensberry rules in 1867. Amateur boxing has been part of the modern Olympic Games since their introduction in 1904. Professional boxing became popular in the United States in the 1920s and experienced a "golden age" after World War II; the creation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is attributed to the Gracie family of Brazil in 1925 after Asian martial arts were introduced to Brazil. Vale-tudo, muay thai kickboxing and luta livre gained popularity.
Modern Muay Thai was developed in the 1920s to 1930s. Sambo was introduced in the Soviet Union. Modern Taekwondo emerged after the Japanese occupation of Korea and became an Olympic sport in 2000. Sanshou as part of modern wushu was developed in the People's Republic of China since the 1950s. Kickboxing and full contact karate were developed in the 1960s and became popular in Japan and the West during the 1980s and 1990s. Modern Mixed Martial Arts developed out of the interconnected subcultures of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and shoot wrestling, it was introduced in Japan in the form of Shooto in 1985, in the United States as Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993. The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts were introduced in 2000, the sport experienced peak popularity in the 2000s. During this period, multiple brands and promotions were established; the most well-known promotion for MMA is UFC. Combat sports are more popular among men, both as athletes and as spectators. For many years, participation in combat sports was exclusive to men.
A study conducted by Greenwell, Hancock and Thorn in 2015 revealed that combat sports had a male audience. Combat sport promotions such as UFC or Bellator MMA are advertised to men. Combat athletes fight one-on-one. Different sports moves. For example, boxing only allows punches, taekwondo involves kicks, both Muay Thai and Burmese boxing allow the use of elbows and knees. There are combat sports based on grappling, such as both freestyle and Collegiate wrestling. Modern MMA is similar to the ancient Greek Olympic sport of pankration; some combat sports involve the use of weapons and armor, such as fencing and the new sport SCA Heavy Combat. Boxing Historical Ancient Greek boxing Historical Russian Fist Fighting Historical English Bare-Knuckle Boxing Modern Amateur Boxing Modern Professional Boxing Kickboxing and analogous styles Musti-yuddha Savate Sanda Indochinese Kickboxing Muay Thai Muay Lao Lethwei Shoot boxing Japanese combat sport introduced in 1985. Karate Full Contact Karate Taekwondo Pinning and takedown oriented wrestling Ancient Greek wrestling Beach wrestling Belt wrestling Judo Freestyle wrestling Greco-Roman wrestling Scholastic wrestling Sport Sambo Sumo Submission grappling: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu luta livre FILA Grappling Folk wrestling shuai jiao Catch wrestling Hybrid martial arts, combining striking and grappling elements: Pankration.
Modern Amateur Pankration Dambe traditional form of boxing, including kicking and wrestling elements, practiced by the Hausa people. Combat Sambo: Russian sport introduced in the 1920s. Kudo Vale Tudo, derived from Brazilian circus shows of the 1920s. Sanshou, institutionalized as part of modern Wushu since the 1950s. Shoot-style wrestling, since the 1980s. Shootfighting Shoot boxing Japanese combat sp
