MMA in the Arizona Terriotry, 1890-1940

I found this article on the UG, and thought it was interesting enough to share on the Blog.  As many of you know I first got my MMA start in Arizona, and my parents still live there.—I posted the fist bit of his article, and if you are interested in seeing the articles he shared click on the link! Thank you ‘The Stewed Owl’ for sharing your research!

MMA competition was wildly popular in Arizona over a hundred years ago.

This picture is from the GLOBE (small mining ghost town in AZ now) Newspaper in 1910

 It may be a little anachronistic to think of cowboys saddling up their horses and riding into Phoenix from their ranches and farms and mines to watch Jiu-Jitsu competitors fight against catch wrestlers and boxers, while the cowboys sat in the stands and knowledgeably discussed the merits of the rear naked choke versus the figure 4 armlock….but that’s exactly what was happening, before and after World War I in the territory of Arizona (Arizona was the last of the first 48 states, receiving statehood in 1912) , based on newspaper accounts of the time.

A lot of the early interest was based on Theodore Roosevelt’s study of Jiu-Jitsu and “Jiudo” (he used the Luke Beston spelling – this was a period of transition when Professor Kano was using both terms), which was duly reported in the Arizona papers, as well as the MMA tournaments he set up in the White House between Jiu-Jitsuka, boxers, and wrestlers, which were also a subject of fascination to Americans. ( I’ve written about that before, and how the results of one match led indirectly to the creation of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.) Roosevelt was wildly popular in Arizona, especially because of his connection to Rough Rider Bucky O’Neill, an Arizona icon to settlers and cowboys as an Arizona lawman.

The Arizona Republic 1911 Oct 5th

What’s especially interesting is that this was not just style vs. style competition – the cross-pollination and testing of the differing grappling and striking styles led each side to adapt and adopt techniques from other disciplines, leading to a real mixed-martial arts style, possibly for the first time in America. Many of the Jiu-Jitsu stylists in Arizona were American cowboys who became students of the Japanese and competed as Jiu-Jitsu stylists

Arizonans before and after WWI were fascinated by Jiu-JItsu, and wanted to see how it would compare in the ring with wrestling (which was a much more popular sport in America at the time.) Matches were held all over Arizona, but especially in Phoenix. These continued well into the early 1940s, when Pearl Harbor led to a public hatred of things associated with Japan, and the internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the west led to the loss of many of the best teachers and competitors.

Arizona Republic Newspaper Oct8th 1911