My recent articles have covered the migration of Judo to Brazil, its transformation to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and its evolution in the face of challenges in Vale Tudo. But we are going to return to Europe to the discipline of catch wrestling, the grappling system that developed in the middle ages.

Catch Wrestling existed not as one art but as a collect of very regionally segmented arts. The most famous and predominant is Lancashire Catch-as-Catch-Can from England, but there is also Irish Collar-And-Elbow, versions of Greco-Roman that retained some of the Pankration holds, even Indian Pelhlwani and Iranian styles of wrestling all fall under the umbrella of catch wrestling.

The growth of the Olympics and sport wrestling pushed Catch Wrestling more and more to the side. This was for a verity of reasons, safety chief among them. Submission holds increase the chance of injury, so for amateur wrestlers the risk was just great. Also the need for time limits for matches also made catch style wrestling less practical for amateurs. So Catch Wrestling became strictly for professional matches, where there was a cash prize and thus professional wrestling was born.

Karl Istaz was a wrestler born in Antwerp, Belgium. A natural talent, Karl stated wrestling at the age of eight. His family moved to Germany and he excelled in competition but his story was almost cut short by the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s. Karl was sent to a labor camp, but he attempted several escapes and was moved to different camps several times. When his camp was liberated Karl was severely malnourished and likely would have starved to death if the war had lasted any longer.

As a testament to his amazing skill, just a few years later Karl qualified for the 1948 Olympics in both Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling at the age of 23. He won one match in Greco, and while not a medal it was impressive feat none the less considering his physical condition just a few years before the games. At the summer games, Karl was approached by the uncle of celebrated catch wrestler Billy Robinson. Referred to as Alf, he recruited Karl to come train at Billy Riley's famous gym.

Karl trained there for several years and started appearing in Pro Wrestling matches in Europe in 1951. Pro Wrestling matches already at this time were often predetermined in outcome, called "works". Live matches or "shoots" would occur for private betting but those were not often recorded. Karl spent a decade at Riley's gym training and doing European matches.

He then moved to the United States to train with Frank Wolfe. In 1961 Karl was given the name 'Gotch' by the U.S. immigration officer which is ironic because Frank Gotch was perhaps American history's most legendary Catch Wrestler. Karl Gotch became a staple in American Pro Wrestling, but his competitive nature remained strong. Gotch had no respect for Pro Wrestlers that just did worked matches and didn't have real wrestling backgrounds. As a result, Gotch was a threat to promoters to go against the decided script. These fears of many promoters were made real in a famous backstage clash with NWA Heavyweight Champion Buddy Rogers. Gotch and Rogers fought backstage and while the cause is unknown, Roger's hand was broken in the scuffle.

This incident got Gotch black listed in the United States, so he moved on to the quickly growing Japanese Pro Wrestling scene.

more after the jump...

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Boxing matches from two hundred years ago may not drive all of our readers into fizzy paroxysms of delight, but the history involved and the match itself is surprisingly relevant to mixed martial arts and other combat sports we engage in today. Those of you who have read John Nash/nottheface's historical pieces on the Golden Age of Mixed Martial Arts, the development of Brazilian jiu jitsu and the worldwide nature of combat sports should love this Brian Phillips piece on the heavyweight championship bout between Tom Cribb and Tom Molineaux.

It is hard to come up with a better quote pull than this early paragraph:

The fight cemented a set of stock characters - the fast-talking, ultra-talented, self-destructive black athlete; the Great White Hope; the canny coach who's half devoted to his pupil and half exploiting him - that have echoed down the centuries.1 In fact, so much about the fight feels familiar today, from the role of race to the role of the media, that if you had to name a date, you could make a good case that December 10, 1810, was the moment sport as we know it began.

Phillips is a sports writer who built the Run of Play site that is essentially the FreeDarko of soccer - providing coverage of a very strange sport with some "uses-big-words-in-entertaining-ways" writing leavened with a ton of sly humor and awesome pictures. He writes about a few different sports for Grantland and may be the only voice consistently worth paying attention to over there.

After the jump, two more quotes showing how the olden days of boxing were surprisingly MMA-like and how the people we pay attention to in sports are not necessarily the best people, despite all narrative attempts by the promoters and commentators to the contrary.

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In keeping with the Bloody Elbow tradition of belated birthday wishes, a day after Rorion Gracie's 60th Birthday is the ideal time to wish a true martial arts pioneer a happy birthday. Previous installments have included Helio Gracie (sadly on the occasion of his final birthday), Billy Robinson and Gene Lebell.

Rorion Gracie is the oldest son of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu co-founder Helio Gracie, and in his 60 years on this planet Rorion has had a huge impact on the martial arts world. Rorion was the man who brought Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to North America. His first trip to America was a classic road trip adventure that included having his airline tickets stolen from a YMCA safe, flipping burgers at a White Castle in California, and panhandling in Hawaii before he returned home to Brazil.

videos after the jump...

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Other than the length of the action, November's major highlight -- the UFC's debut on Fox featuring a heavyweight title fight between the returning Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos -- hit on all cylinders and brought in a massive, massive audience. It also was a month of fighters saying stupid things and SB Nation acquiring a major asset.

November 2011: Eight Point Eight

For months, we heard about the UFC's debut on Fox. We raised an eyebrow when we heard it was a single fight on the show and raised it higher when we heard Ben Henderson vs. Clay Guida was being relegated to Facebook with no chance of making air. People talked and debated and talked some more. Finally, it was time for the UFC's biggest public moment and it lasted all of 64 seconds.

Despite the quick fight and a new champion in dos Santos taking his crown, the buzz was mainly positive and the numbers showed that an MMA record 8.8 million people watched the fight itself. Needless to say, the UFC and Fox were thrilled and all eyes looked toward the full contract to kick off in 2012, which would include 2000 hours of programming on Fuel TV.

And by the way, Henderson vs. Guida turned out to be a great fight with "Bendo" earning a shot at UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar as a result. Too bad no one saw it. A lot of people did see boxer Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, which was on the same night.

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The month was permeated with two stories of fighters making unfortunate comments, led off by former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin joking on Twitter that "rape is the new missionary". He later claimed it was because he was flipping through channels and couldn't believe all the media stories about rape, but admitted it was a dumb thing to say given the medium. He visited several rape crisis centers, donated money and managed to keep his job, something that wouldn't be the case one month later for another fighter.

Shortly thereafter, fellow UFC light heavyweight and Penn State alum Phil Davis chimed in on the Jerry Sandusky scandal, telling another media outlet that ousted head coach Joe Paterno followed protocol and that it wasn't fair he was going to be remembered for the scandal. It was probably the wrong thing to say at a time when tensions were high on the subject, but he still said it.

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The month closed out with one of the best MMA nights of the year, headlined by what many feel is the best battle in MMA history between Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio Rua. For 25 minutes, the two fit every cliche one could imagine: going toe to toe, swinging for the fences, grasping victory from the jaws of defeat. It was a simply stunning and awesome fight, ironically coming one week after a huge audience had just seen a minute of action with Velasquez vs. dos Santos

In the co-main event, Wanderlei Silva remained out of the retirement line by defeating Cung Le in a fun battle, while Urijah Faber overwhelmed Brian Bowles to earn a third fight with 135-pound champion Dominick Cruz. Unfortunately for Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez, their four-round Bellator classic happened on the same night and was overwhelmed by chatter of Hendo vs. Shogun. Chandler submitted Alvarez to win the 155-pound title and made himself a name in one single fight.

For the rest of November's news that included a drug test failure and one of the sport's best known fighters returning to action, keep on reading after the jump.

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As 2011 began to rumble toward its wintry end, one of the best fighters in the world and an all-time great was faced with a serious injury, a former champion was battered in what could be his last fight and the final part of a trilogy was as good as advertised.

October 2011: Of Knee-Jerk Reactions

After winning 30 straight rounds and eight straight going into his April 2011 title defense against Jake Shields, it turned out that Georges St. Pierre's toughest opponent was his body as he was pulled from his scheduled UFC 137 title defense against Carlos Condit with two weeks notice due to a knee injury.

Nick Diaz took full advantage of his main event opportunity, ripping apart B.J. Penn with strikes at UFC 137 and cutting an infamous post-fight speech that riled up GSP so much that he leapfrogged Condit to take back his title shot.

Diaz said St. Pierre wasn't hurt but was scared to face him and according to Dana White, GSP demanded he fight Diaz next. White said Condit was fine with it. Uh huh. Penn said he was retiring, but later explained he was going to take some time off instead.

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UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard weren't mainstream sports sensations going into 2011, but did gain some praise among casual MMA fans for their January 1st Fight Of The Year candidate that ended in a draw. Injuries to both men delayed the third fight in their trilogy, but the UFC 136 main event was worth the wait. Edgar TKO'd Maynard in the fourth round in a battle that played out much like their second one did.

Chael Sonnen returned to action for the first time in more than a year and ran through Brian Stann to seemingly earn an anticipated rematch with Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. He also cut a great post-fight promo (ala Diaz) where he challenged Silva to a bout where if Silva lost, he would leave the 185-pound division and if Sonnen lost, he'd "leave the UFC forever". Outlandish? Yes. Awesome? Double yes. Silva's people said that Sonnen didn't deserve another shot.

While a relatively small amount of people purchased the pay-per-view, it also featured a successful title defense by 145-pound champion Jose Aldo over Kenny Florian and a surprise submission victory by Joe Lauzon over top lightweight contender Melvin Guillard.

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The quest of Rashad Evans to earn another 205-pound title shot suffered a setback as White booked UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida for December's UFC 140 despite rumors that Evans had got the nod. Jones said Evans was ducking him, but an Evans hand injury wouldn't be healed in time for a Toronto show that White desperately wanted a name-value main event for.

For the rest of the month that was October, join us after the jump.

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Entering into the mid-1900s, the Brazilian fighting spectacle known as Vale Tudo was gaining popularity and the first family of Vale Tudo was the Gracie family. Lead by the famous brothers Carlos and Helio Gracie, who won the family fame by taking matches with Judokas and catch wrestlers. While the Gracies didn't always win these matches, they always left an impression.

But in the 1950s, being top dog was catching up with the Gracies. Luta Livre was gaining popularity based off Euclydes "Tatu" Hatem's defeat of George Gracie. A school of Jiu-Jitsu fighters founded by Luis Franca, another student of Carlos Gracie's original teacher Mitsuyo Maeda, defeated the Gracie Academy using footlocks, which Helio scorned as a 'suburban' tactic. Other members of the Gracie handled the defeat with more grace, and it was declared that this loss meant that Jiu-Jitsu belonged to everyone, not just the Gracie family.

Despite this Helio Gracie thought that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu belonged to the Gracies and while he accepted everyone at this academy, he would not teach those outside the family anything but the self-defense fundamentals and withholding advanced techniques to all but the most favored students. Helio had entered a wartime mind set, seeing these challenges as targeted at his family and not his martial art, thus his first order of business was to protect the family.

more after the jump...

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The month of September belonged to a man from Stockton, CA, who made his disdain for press conferences well known and paid for it dearly. The UFC also made a big change in their pay-per-view (PPV) schedule to make a splash in their Fox debut and Jon Jones continued his year of dominance.

September 2011: Of Beauty Pageants, Ballsy Moves And Big Wins

After years of complaining about not making money and feeling disrespected by seemingly everyone involved in his MMA life, Nick Diaz finally had his big opportunity with a pay-per-view main event against UFC Welterweight Champion and top pound-for-pound fighter Georges St. Pierre. A single win would put Diaz in the elite class and make him a big time name in front of a huge audience.

But the thing with Diaz is that he doesn't like to do things the way he's told, especially with media obligations. He skipped out on a promotional trip to Toronto and then no-showed a presser in Las Vegas in the same week, enough for Dana White to do the unthinkable: pull him from his battle with St. Pierre and give Carlos Condit the title opportunity instead. It was a ballsy move and one that had plenty of people talking, including Diaz' manager Cesar Gracie.

In another bizarre twist, Diaz was booked in the co-main event position shortly thereafter against B.J. Penn, who was agitated that the UFC asked him to trash talk in some pre-fight interviews. That set off a bizarre exchange with White which was later settled but once again highlighted the fragile relationship the two share. Things would get stranger later on in the fall, but Diaz' failure to make the "beauty pageant" was the big story in September.

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Speaking of ballsy moves, White made another one when he bumped up the UFC heavyweight championship clash between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos to the UFC on Fox debut instead of UFC 139. It showed that both the UFC and Fox knew the one-hour November debut was an important stage setter for the relationship and that potentially sacrificing PPV dollars for fresh eyes was a risk they were willing to take. Advertisers responded, buying up all the inventory available.

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The question of who could challenge UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones continued to be left unanswered as the youngest champ in UFC history made a fourth round submission win over Quinton Jackson look easy at UFC 135. There was plenty who thought the former champ Jackson would give Jones his stiffest test, but that was far from the case, perhaps signaling the beginning of the end of Rampage's days as a top 205'er. Jones had to fend off two challengers as he booted Steven Seagal from his dressing room earlier in the night.

For the rest of a packed September that included a big year-end fight being booked, join us after the jump.

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As the summer came to a close, the UFC culminated their rise to prominence by signing a deal with Fox that had a ripple effect with fight promotion and their Spike relationship and then went back to their roots with a show in Rio, Brazil that exceeded expectations inside and outside the Octagon.

August 2011: Blame It On Rio

In one of the biggest business stories in MMA history, the UFC inked a seven-year deal with Fox, ending their run with Spike that started in 2005 and bringing MMA action back to primetime network TV. There was no shortage of stories and opinions with threads on how the deal would affect placement of major fights and whether this meant that MMA had finally arrived in the mainstream.

The deal called for four events on "big" Fox, The Ultimate Fighter and other events moving to FX on Friday nights and Fuel TV becoming essentially the UFC network with 2000 yearly hours of original and archive programming. A bonus show would kick things off in November (Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson was speculated early), part of four straight weeks of UFC events.

The impact of the deal will truly be felt in 2012, but the early signs (major advertising and promos during NFL games) was a great sign that Fox was taking the relationship seriously.

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The UFC returned to Brazil for the first time in 12 years with UFC 134, punctuated by three finishes by native sons that electrified the wild Rio crowd. Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva showed why he was such a favorite, defeating Yushin Okami with ease in a second round TKO victory while Mauricio Rua humbled a distracted Forrest Griffin in just two minutes.

But the lasting memory was Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira knocking out Brendan Schaub in an upset that had to be seen to be believed. The crowd went into a euphoric state and was a fantastic lasting moment of the historic return -- a reason why the UFC said they were returning in 2012 with a show at a large open air venue. It was almost enough to make people forget about Nogueira's unfortunate statement about not wanting to train with a gay student.

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After undergoing surgery to remove a foot of his colon and with his future in doubt, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar announced that "he was back" with Dana White acknowledging that his top pay-per-view star was getting back in the gym in hopes for an early 2012 return.

The rest of a busy August in MMA continues after the jump.

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