evilclown Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 As you may have read, former UWFi broadcaster Jeff Blatnick passed away last week. In an interview with me, Jeff told a great story about how he coined the term MMA during a UWFi PPV broadcast in the early 1990's, then later dragged it out to replace "no holds barred" when he was the UFC's color commentator. It's a good story, but there are some skeptics out there. Unfortunately, I only have the Japanese commercial tapes for those shows and not the U.S. PPV versions. Does anyone have these U.S. broadcasts? Are they available for me to borrow or steal? Do you happen to recall Blatnick referencing mixed martial arts? Can you capture that snippet of footage if so? This seems like a neat mystery and I don't want to be part of any posthumous mythologizing if I can help it. Help appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Jeff told a great story about how he coined the term MMA He didn't invent it if that's what he meant. Meltzer's talked about it a bunch recently, short version, the term MMA had existed for years as that's what Inoki used to call his mixed matches vs Karate guys & boxers n shit & the term may have gone back further then that. When Blatnick went over to Japan he heard it thear and then years later he did sugest it to UFC when they were looking for something to replace no holds bared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Inoki's fights were called Ishu Kakutogi Sen, which is MMA in concept but not in direct translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D3UzA...+arts&hl=en Yeah... that one stuns the hell out of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilclown Posted October 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Jeff told a great story about how he coined the term MMA He didn't invent it if that's what he meant. Meltzer's talked about it a bunch recently, short version, the term MMA had existed for years as that's what Inoki used to call his mixed matches vs Karate guys & boxers n shit & the term may have gone back further then that. When Blatnick went over to Japan he heard it thear and then years later he did sugest it to UFC when they were looking for something to replace no holds bared. I've talked with Dave about it. That's one of several stories. I'm looking for substantiation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilclown Posted October 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D3UzA...+arts&hl=en Yeah... that one stuns the hell out of me. Wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilclown Posted October 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Inoki's fights were called Ishu Kakutogi Sen, which is MMA in concept but not in direct translation. Tell me more....is there Japanese media with this written out somewhere online? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D3UzA...+arts&hl=en Yeah... that one stuns the hell out of me. Wow. I don't know quite what to make of it, since it was the only hit in Google's news archive. But it's used in such a throwaway fashion by the writer that you do wonder... what the heck. You've probably done as much work looking through old writings on the subject where if it were semi-commonly used, *you* would have run across it somewhere. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilclown Posted October 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D3UzA...+arts&hl=en Yeah... that one stuns the hell out of me. Wow. I don't know quite what to make of it, since it was the only hit in Google's news archive. But it's used in such a throwaway fashion by the writer that you do wonder... what the heck. You've probably done as much work looking through old writings on the subject where if it were semi-commonly used, *you* would have run across it somewhere. John I went to contact this guy and he passed away a few years ago. And this is how fun mysteries collapse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Inoki's fights were called Ishu Kakutogi Sen, which is MMA in concept but not in direct translation. Tell me more....is there Japanese media with this written out somewhere online? Not really sure what you're after... The kanji for Ishu Kakutogi Sen is 異種格闘技戦 Inoki didn't coin this term as such contests existed long before his fights. These days MMA is usually called 総合格闘技 (Sougoukakutogi.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilclown Posted October 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Inoki's fights were called Ishu Kakutogi Sen, which is MMA in concept but not in direct translation. Tell me more....is there Japanese media with this written out somewhere online? Not really sure what you're after... The kanji for Ishu Kakutogi Sen is 異種格闘技戦 Inoki didn't coin this term as such contests existed long before his fights. These days MMA is usually called 総合格闘技 (Sougoukakutogi.) A Japanese source tells me that they have been referring to mixed matches as Ishu Kakutogi Sen (異種格闘技戦) since Inoki-Ruska in 1976. Do you believe it to predate that bout? What I'm looking for is maybe a poster or VHS tape cover or some piece of media showing Japanese promotions were using this rough translation (mixed martial arts) before the UFC or Extreme Fighting, or even the Pittsburgh Penguins! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 Recommendable talk of Meltzer's MMA judging stint, classic UFC talk and Jeff Blatnick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe...Z9Fsmo4#t=5840s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 Heh, Meltzer name droping AJW shoot fights = awesome.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted November 2, 2012 Report Share Posted November 2, 2012 Inoki's fights were called Ishu Kakutogi Sen, which is MMA in concept but not in direct translation. Tell me more....is there Japanese media with this written out somewhere online? Not really sure what you're after... The kanji for Ishu Kakutogi Sen is 異種格闘技戦 Inoki didn't coin this term as such contests existed long before his fights. These days MMA is usually called 総合格闘技 (Sougoukakutogi.) A Japanese source tells me that they have been referring to mixed matches as Ishu Kakutogi Sen (異種格闘技戦) since Inoki-Ruska in 1976. Do you believe it to predate that bout? What I'm looking for is maybe a poster or VHS tape cover or some piece of media showing Japanese promotions were using this rough translation (mixed martial arts) before the UFC or Extreme Fighting, or even the Pittsburgh Penguins! I think the root term is Ishu Shiai (異種試合). I will have a look for any media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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