Pankration was the ancient Olympics' near no-holds-barred sport

Among the fiercest events of the ancient Olympic Games was pankration, a fusion of boxing and wrestling introduced in 648 BC. The name means roughly “all power,” and contests allowed striking, kicking, throws, joint locks and chokes — both standing and on the ground. The rules were strikingly few: essentially only biting and eye-gouging were forbidden. A bout ended when one fighter submitted, often by raising an index finger, or could no longer continue.

The danger was real, and the sport produced legends to match. The most famous is Arrhichion of Phigalia, recorded as winning at the very moment he died. Caught in a chokehold and fading, he is said to have wrenched his opponent’s ankle so violently — dislocating or breaking it — that the man flashed the submission signal in agony. By the time judges separated them, Arrhichion was dead, but his opponent had quit first. He was crowned victor posthumously.

Contests were savage, with hitting, kicking, twisting of limbs, strangling, and struggling on the ground all permitted.

Victorious pankratiasts were celebrated figures. They received no cash at Olympia but the coveted kotinos, a wreath of wild olive, and lasting civic honor — statues, odes, sometimes free meals for life back home. Champions like the wrestler-turned-pankratiast Theagenes of Thasos became near-mythical.

The through-line to modern mixed martial arts is direct. Pankration paired striking with grappling under almost no restrictions, exactly the blend the UFC revived in the 1990s. The difference is regulation: today’s unified rules add weight classes, gloves, timed rounds, a long list of fouls and a referee empowered to stop a fight — the safeguards an Arrhichion never had.