Later the style was improved upon and adapted by Mitsuyo Maeda - another Japanese migrant to Brazil - and his disciples, including Carlos Gracie, patriarch of the Gracie family. The Gracie family became synonymous with mixed martial arts (MMA) and were fundamental to the founding of the UFC in 1993.

Yet, the UFC would struggle for more than a decade to gain traction and become the mainstream success it has become today, instead, MMA would find its home back in Asia, back where martial arts began.

ASIAN HOMECOMING

Pride Fighting Championships would become one of the most popular promotions in MMA during the 1990s and 2000s.

Offering audiences the unique blend of traditional Chinese and Japanese martial arts with the modern MMA styles, the promotion was a hit across East Asia and the wider world. Founded in Tokyo, Japan, the promotion would go on to usurp the popularity of boxing in its home country and other part of east Asia. Pride FC featured athletes from around the world including Americans and Brazilians as well as Europeans.

Suddenly, modern MMA found itself a mainstream home back where the traditional martial arts began. TV deals rolled in and so did the crowds. In 2002, Japan's national stadium hosted a record crowd of 91 thousand people for a Pride Shockwave event that broke records around the world.

The event was truly global, paired alongside Asian martial artists were Croatian kickboxers, American wrestlers and Brazilian experts at BJJ. It was the competition between styles that Omori had been fascinated by almost a century earlier but on a huge scale.

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