5. Sambo
In Russian the word “Sambo” translates to an acronym for “Self-Defence Without Weapons”. Many of the top MMA fighters in history have come from a Sambo background, including Fedor “the Last Emperor” Emelianenko.
Sambo was developed in the 1920s to aid the Red Army in Russia in their hand-to-hand combat. It is a merger of many different fighting techniques, but with a base strong in Judo.
There area actually 3 different types of Sambo:
- Sport Sambo- This is the type of Sambo with the most rules. It is meant to be similar to olympic wrestling, in that there are no strikes but competitors can use leg locks and other holds.
- Freestyle Sambo- Less restrictions than Sport Sambo, and only developed back in 2004, this type of Sambo still does not allow strikes but does allow different submission holds, such as chokes and neck cranks, which not allowed in Sport Sambo
- Combat Sambo- Finally combat Sambo is meant to mimic a real life hand-to-hand combat situation as closely as possible. Striking, groin shots, and everything else is allowed, but competitors often wear protective gear.
