Pankration is a fighting sport that originally combined boxing with wrestling. In that sense, pankration events were somewhat similar to today's mixed martial arts events ( and modern day pankration events mirror this as well ). Further, pankration style fights could be ended by either submission or incapacitation. Though a combatant could signal submission by raising their hand, oftentimes losers were noted because they had either been killed or fallen unconscious.
Pankration matches had only two rules in early times - no eye gouging or biting. Further, like the initial UFC events, there were no time limits or scorecards. Even better, if by the end of the day a winner had not come to the forefront, the two combatants would delve into a blow by blow scenario until a winner was declared.
In other words, these guys were tough!
It should probably be noted that the toughest of these fighters was rumored to be a man by the name of, Dioxippus. Dioxippus was an Olympic champion who, beyond the Olympics, was apparently able to defeat one of Alexander the Great's famous fighting soliders ( named Coragus ). It appears that Dioxippus did this with only a club in hand while his adversary had a more complete arsenal of weapons and was dressed in full armour. Looks like they lost the whole meaning of hand to hand combat with that one, huh?
The modern form of pankration seems to owe a debt of gratitude to a man by the name of Jim Arvanitis. Arvanitis ( mentioned earlier in this article ) was a Greek American that showed significant interest in the ancient martial sport of his homeland, and therefore developed a full martial arts system based on it called Mu Tau Pankration. Even more impressive, he pioneered this movement nearly alone decades before the first UFC event took hold.
Today pankration events are held all over the world.
In the 1990's, perhaps in a large way due to certain karate practitioners and the emergence of mixed martial arts in general, a movement to bring pankration back to the Olympics emerged. However, this Greek born movement lost steam due to several factors.
Still, all was not lost. In the year 2000, a man by the name of Craig Smith formed the World Pankration Federation. The hope in doing so was to further the sport of pankration for the athletes participating in it.
One thing, of course, that would further their pursuits more than anything else would be a reintroduction to the Olympic Games.
