Everything You Need To Know About Pankration

What Is Pankration Fighting?

Pankration is the ancient Greek version of modern-day MMA fighting. Famous Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates were all trained in the art. Plato even went as far as to discuss and write about strategy in Pankration such as always attacking your opponent’s weaker side, something which is still relevant today. The sport was meant to have been discovered by Hercules after he used it to defeat a mythical lion. In some circles, it is also known as Pangration.

In ancient Greece, Pankration was pretty much no holds barred fighting. There were no weight categories with participants only really being divided up into the boys and men groups. Secondly, almost everything was legal with only eye-gouging, genital strikes, and biting being banned. The fights would usually be ended by knockout or submission, although instead of tapping you were meant to raise a finger in the air.

Not too dissimilar from modern-day MMA, the judges could also step in a stop a fight if they thought it was too one-sided. Lastly, fights would have no time limit and could also end in a tie if the judges decided neither man was dominant, so discretion played a role in decisions. It is also rumored that in ancient Sparta, you were allowed to bite and eye gouge your opponents in their version of Pankration.

Some professional MMA fighters have competed in Pankration

In modern-day, despite its dwindling popularity, there are still some well-known fighters such as Matt Huma & Demetrious Johnson who have Pankration backgrounds. Although compared to its history, modern Pankration is a more structured and rulebound version of MMA in which you can be disqualified for knocking your opponent out. It is somewhat ironic that modern-day Pankration is actually less violent than a newer sport (MMA) which was popularized in the 1990s.

If we were to compare the brutal nature of ancient Greek Pankration to contemporary fights, it would be almost unrecognizable. Although this is more or less true for every traditional modern-day martial art or even sports. Over time it seems everything has become less violent even when we think of games such as American Football.

What Is The Purpose Of Pankration?

Today it is to see who is the more technical fighter. There are weight classes and a couple of different rulesets. The idea is simply to outscore or submit your opponent in a controlled manner.

This is quite different from ancient Pankration in which the main goal and purpose were to submit or stop your opponent similar to MMA. The idea behind it would have been to see who was the best all-around fighter. Ancient Greece already had some boxing and very popular wrestlers at the time. This sport combined various disciplines to see who the overall champion was. Whilst there weren’t any professional Pankration athletes back in ancient Greece, it was popular amongst the general population.

Is Pankration Effective in MMA?

Yes, if taught properly. Almost every form of fighting is effective in MMA if it is trained and sparred. Whilst it may not be the most effective style due to its modern-day restrictive ruleset. It is still a brutal and challenging discipline with a mixture of striking, wrestling, and ground fighting. Really if you were to close your eyes and walk into a Pankration gym, you wouldn’t really be able to notice a difference in the techniques and training compared to an MMA gym.

Perhaps the biggest difference between MMA and Pankration is that in Pankration you’re pretty much fighting for points. In MMA, whilst you can sometimes fight for a decision, for the most part, both competitors are looking to end the fight. Modern striking such as Muay Thai and groundwork such as BJJ will put the old techniques of Pankration to shame.

Some Pankration techniques are banned and redundant in MMA

With that being said, it is really quite unfair to compare 2020 techniques to something that was around a minimum 2500 years in advance. If Pankration had continually been popular throughout history, there is no doubt that people would still be using it today and we wouldn’t have MMA since there wouldn’t have been a gap in the market.

Overall Pankration is effective in MMA but there would be little reason to train it compared to going to an MMA gym or cross-training in various other martial arts. The main reason to train Pankration would be for self-defense or if you simply preferred the ruleset and culture compared to MMA. You could always switch from one style to the other since Pankration is so similar to MMA anyway.

Is Pankration An Olympic Sport?

No, but it once was. Pankration was the only sport that got removed from the Olympics when it was re-established in 1896. The full reason why it was taken out is not known, but due to its old brutal rules, we can understand why it was kicked. You were able to choke your opponent by pushing their windpipe in with your hands, this is illegal in both MMA & BJJ. Perhaps as society became more civilized, these old rules became more unacceptable. However, Pankration was an Olympic sport all throughout ancient Greece and really there is an argument for including it in modern-day since it has quite a defined ruleset and is a real physical and mental challenge.

The modern-day requirements for an Olympic sport are really quite strict, it must be practiced in at least 75 countries on 4 continents by men and women. If we are to think of MMA this is easily achievable since it surpasses these requirements with great ease. However Pankration is really not popular outside of the Western world, and even within, it is at best a fringe sport. In recent years MMA has exploded with popularity so if anything, this could become an Olympic sport as Pankration really had its heyday 2500 years ago.

Why Did Pankration Die Out?

The fall of the Roman empire is probably the main reason why Pankration heavily declined in popularity. A lot of other societies at the time were equally as brutal but not in an organized way. Throughout the world, there are all sorts of different sports and martial arts, most of which are very specific. For example, boxing is very popular in Europe, wrestling is very popular on the east coast of America and the Philippines prefers martial arts with weapons. None of these cultures really ever put together multiple styles and disciplines and instead focused on what they were good at.

Another reason is that a lot of Pankration was mostly stand-up fighting. When pictured in old vases and stone carvings, Pankration is typically shown as striking a grounded opponent or submitting them. However, if we look back at the ancient texts of Greek strategists and philosophers ground fighting was not popular at the time. It was thought that you put yourself at a big disadvantage by wrestling with one knee on the ground or even trying to counterpunch your opponent rather than being aggressive.

Society becomes less violent

Following on, up until UFC began, people thought society had become more civilized and has slowly turned away from violent sports. Lots of health and safety have appeared and rules have sprung up that stop people from getting hurt so much. This can be seen in many sports such as Karate & Taekwondo which have now become point-scoring sports similar to modern-day Pankration where people cannot get hurt as easily.

Even if we think about modern-day MMA it is surrounded by doctors and coaches all of who know first aid. The recovery process is better and protective gloves are worn. Perhaps combat sports will make more of a brutal comeback in the future, especially if stem cells are introduced to speed up recovery after fights and make injuries less career-threatening.

What Is The Future For Pankration?

It really depends on what happens with the direction of the sport. If it is to stay within its current ruleset it will forever be a fringe sport that nobody is very interested in. Whilst it will still create some tough competitors, the best of these will surely move into MMA where they can make some money from fighting and have a successful career.

Pankration’s path looks similar to that of catch wrestling. Whilst catch wrestling was once ahead of BJJ in the late ’80s and early ’90s. It has stopped evolving whilst BJJ has become ever more popular and refined. If this is compared with Pankration and MMA, we can clearly see MMA has exploded with popularity and become a lot more advanced year on year.

Pankration has actually been restricted by its ruleset and may have even gone backward since Ancient Greece. Whilst the modern-day athletes will have better strength, conditioning, and nutrition. There is no doubt that a lot of techniques have been lost and forgotten over time due to illegal positions along with a lack of serious competition.

I would seriously doubt that Pankration could ever make a true comeback and it would take an absolutely massive seismic shift in opinion and marketing for it to grow again. It should be honored as the grandfather of MMA and we probably wouldn’t have anything like we do now without it.

To learn more about Pankration – check out this historical book.