Pankration is an ancient martial art which mixes wrestling and boxing. The sport can be traced as far back as the second millennium BCE in the territory of ancient Greece. Its name derives from the ancient Greek words pan (all) and kratos (strength, might, power) and literally means “all of the might"
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not list pankration among Olympic sports, but FILA, which governs the Olympic wrestling codes, also sanctions pankration as a "form of Mixed Martial Arts".[17] Pankration was first contested at the World Combat Games in 2010.[18] Now the international federation is United World Wrestling. Under UWW the Pankration competitions have two styles
Very often the Pankration fighters got nicknames according to their preferred technique of defeating opponents. One pankratiast from the city of Sikyon was called “Fingertips” because of his habit to break his adversary’s fingers at the start of a bout. Special local features also existed. The Spartans, for example, were famous for their heavy foot sweeps used to knock down their rivals.
There were not many rules to Pankration, but there were different stages, Upper and Lower Pankration. In Upper Pankration, the main goal was to knock down the opponent, so punches, kicks and all kind of lethal blows were usually used. The second phase, Lower Pankration, started with the first falling on the ground of some of the competitors. Here grappling, joint locking, and even strangulation were used as more effective methods of fighting on the floor.