Akshay Kumar in Pankration

PANKRATION

Pankration is one of the oldest martial arts and combative sports on record. Pankration, sometimes spelled pancration, or pancratium or even pankratium, was a combination of earlier forms of boxing and wrestling practiced by the Greeks. Some historians trace its origin to the Indian vairamushti system. In Greek mythology it was said that the heroes Heracles and Theseus invented pankration as a result of using both wrestling and boxing in their confrontations with opponents. Theseus was said to have utilized his extraordinary pankration skills to defeat the dreaded Minotaur in the Labyrinth.

Introduced to the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC and founded as a blend of boxing and wrestling, the term comes from an Ancient Greek word literally meaning "all powers". It is also used to describe the sport's contemporary variations. Some consider it as the first all-encompassing fighting system in human history. It is also arguable that pankration competitions in antiquity were the closest an athletic event has come to outright, no-rules, empty hand combat. The object was to force an opponent to acknowledge defeat, and to this end almost any means might be applied. Though rules were enforced by officials with a switch or stout rod. As in Greek boxing, there were no rules against hitting a man when down. More often than not, the contest was decided on the ground, even though, when both fighters were down, hitting was usually ineffective. Biting and gouging were prohibited. Kicking was an essential part of pankration.

Facing one another, opponents tried to bring one another violently to the ground by grappling, hitting, kicking, leg-sweeping, choking, or joint-locking. Hands were bare and generally held open, although the clenched fist was used for hitting. The feet were also bare.

The decisive struggle on the ground was said to be as long and as complicated as it is in modern wrestling. It was to this aspect of pankration that Plato objected, saying it "did not teach men to keep their feet."

In the palaestra, the Greek wrestling school, pankration was given a separate training room, known as the Korykeion.

Up to today, pankration has not yet been recognized as an event in the modern Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not include pankration in its list of "recognized sports". Moreover, the IOC does not include in the list of the Association of the IOC Recognized International Sports Federations any international pankration federation. Inclusion in the latter list would be a first step toward including pankration in the modern Olympic program of events.

Pankration has seen an extraordinary revival in recent decades, especially since the explosive growth of interest in MMA, which closely resembles pankration competitions.