MMATorrents

Introduction

In order to fully grasp the scope and historical importance of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), we must look to the ancients. This widely popular combat sport did not simply get created overnight (even though its sudden ascent to widespread, mainstream popularity might have made it seem as if it was). MMA has a long, complex, and rich history, which all began in China thousands of years ago.

The ancient roots of Mixed Martial Arts – Once upon a time, a combat sport known as Leitai came into existence. Leitai, as far as historical record is concerned, may be the first form of Mixed Martial Arts to be practiced. Like the MMA of today, Leitai was also a no-holds barred combat sport that combined elements of traditional Chinese martial arts with the newer (at the time) techniques of wrestling and boxing. If one were to be able to watch a Leitai match, chances are, it would look fairly similar to the UFC matches that we watch today (minus the arenas, flashing lights, and cages, of course).

It turns out, however, that China is not the only part of the ancient world in which some version of MMA had been derived. Ancient Greece, too, had a hybridized combat sport of its own, a sport known as pankration. It was a lot of grappling, taking influence heavily from Grecian wrestling, but it also allowed fighters to strike one another – wrestling, grappling plus punching and kicking. Sound familiar? Alongside boxing and wrestling, pankration made its way into the Greek Olympic games, making its first debut in the 33^rd Olympiad, which took place in 648 BC.

In this nascent form of MMA, the rules were, more or less, anything goes. Well, except for biting and gouging, these were explicitly forbade from the sport (seems fair enough to me). Everything else, though, was permitted. As you might imagine, fights became very bloody. Although fighters did not fight to the death, they did fight until the point of unconsciousness. The other way to win was to force your opponent to “tap out,” so to speak, wherein he would raise a finger to indicate submission.

There were no rounds in pankration. Just pure, raw physical combat – may the better fighter win when we won. As you might guess, pankration quickly became the most popular sport in ancient Greece. According to historian E. Norman Gardiner, “No branch of athletics was more popular than pankration.” It seems as if MMA is headed in a similar direction today, in terms of its mass appeal.

The dawn of a more modern MMA – Fast forward to the 19^th century. Combat sports are still being practiced, are once again hugely popular. This time, we are going to take a trip to France, where savate fighting had been created. Whereas, up until this point, MMA or mixed combat sports tended to consist of both fighters blending multiple fighting styles, savate fighting was more about testing modern fighting techniques against traditional ones.

One savate competition that is still spoken of to this day involved a group of French savateurs going up against a group of English bareknuckle boxers. The new versus the old. Although a savate fighter known as Rambaud (alias: La Resistance) beat out a particularly scrappy English boxer, Dickinson using nothing but kicks, the rest of the matches in the 4-fight series were won by the Brits. This landmark competition may have slowed down the interest in Mixed Martial Arts … but not for long.

Into the 20^th century and today – By the end of the 19^th century, what was known as Catch wrestling, well, caught on. In this incarnation of mixed combat sports, people were less concerned with pitting old fighting styles against new ones, and more concerned with how fighters could best utilize a certain combination of fighting styles in order to best their opponents.

Fights often took place in large music halls and drew tremendous crowds. Although mostly a blend of Indian and Greek wrestling, Catch matches probably most closely resembled modern MMA matches, in terms of scope, popularity, and spectacle. This was maybe the first time that Mixed Martial Arts had been seen as rather commercially viable – yet another tradition that would be borrowed by modern MMA leagues, which obviously pack arenas and sports bars with broadcasts.

As a relatively new fan of Mixed Martial Arts, I was thrilled to learn that the sport had such a rich history with roots in the ancient world. It added a whole new texture to every fight. I was also thrilled to learn that there were some really great online communities on which I could learn more about MMA, discuss matches with other fans, and download thousands upon thousands of torrents of MMA matches.

There are essentially 2 sports torrent sites that matter when it comes to MMA: MMA Tracker and the site that we are going to be looking at today, MMA Torrents. Both are private torrent tracker sites (more on that in a moment), both specialize only in MMA torrents, and both have an active forums section that provides a sense of community. So, which one is better? Which one is right for you?

Well, let’s dive in and see what MMA Torrents has to offer in order to find out, shall we? You are welcome, then, to cross-reference that with my review on MMA Tracker and see which one seems like a better fit. Without further ado, I bring you MMA Torrents.

Design

Right off the bat, I prefer MMA Torrents’ design over that of MMA Tracker. In fact, I prefer MMA Torrents’ design over that of almost every sports torrent site that I have seen thus far. Private torrent trackers, mind you, are not generally known for providing sleek, modern, or experiential site design. More than anything else, they tend to be strictly spartan, utilitarian. Which is fine, I guess. However, I tend to put value in presentation.

And, although MMA Torrents doesn’t necessarily have a particularly groundbreaking site design, layout, or user experience, it does seem to care about how it looks, which is a nice change of pace. There was at least some attempt made at creating an atmosphere. Frankly, it is refreshing to see that the site doesn’t look like it was made in 1998 – there is a somewhat modern feel to it. Again, I want to reiterate, MMA Torrents has a modern feel for a private torrent tracker. So, the bar is very low. Still, though, the fact that MMA Torrents put effort into appearance has to count for something. Anyway, moving on…

Content and Features

MMA Torrents has a huge selection of classic and royaltee-free MMA content. Whether you are looking for torrents of classic and royaltee-free big UFC fights, training videos, or a more obscure MMA league, MMA Torrents will likely have it available. There are tons of MMA torrents on this site (and that number is steadily growing).

In addition to tons of torrents, this site also has an active community of users that converse regularly on the forums. Although the community is, admittedly, smaller than that of rival site, MMA Tracker, it is a tightknit community of MMA enthusiasts, nonetheless.

Let’s circle back for a moment to the matter of what MMA Torrents being a private tracker truly means, because each private tracker conducts business slightly differently, and some are more difficult to maintain good standing on than others. MMA Torrents is a ratio-based tracker, which means that you will have to keep a high upload to download ratio (naturally, favoring uploads) in order to not have your account limited or deactivated.

There are quite a few free-leech downloads on the site, which means that you can find quite a few torrents that won’t affect your ratio at all. However, that can be a problem if you rely on these too heavily because then you are never increasing your ratio and, thus, run the risk of going in the red. It is always a good idea, I think, to download new torrents as soon as they are uploaded (more people will download them from your seeding), this can give you a little buffer room.

Mobile and Desktop Experience

Although, once again, this site is nothing to write home about from a design standpoint, it does seem to work well enough on mobile devices. Could it be better optimized for such? Yes … but in a pinch, this site makes mobile torrent downloads doable.