Mongolian wrestling is a martial art and a traditional style of Folk wrestling that has been practiced in Mongolia for nearly 7,000 years.

It is considered on of the “Three Manly Sports” along with horsemanship and archery.

Wrestling matches are held in the open on a grassy field, or on bare dirt. There are no weight classes. The object of a match is to get an opponent to touch his back, knee or elbow to the ground by using a variety of throws, trips and lifts (mekh).

Today. the most dangerous locking and breaking techniques are banned.

The ancient Mongol martial arts was devastatingly powerful.

Mongolian wrestling is very offense-minded. A Mongolian wrestler is either attacking or pretending to yield to set up a counter-attack. The style does not prefer a particular stance because unpredictability is considered a large asset and stance can yield predictability of movement. The main objective in Mongolian wrestling is to take the opponent’s legs out from under him and take his balance and base of power away. The best way of doing this is to trap the arm and use it as a lever to manipulate the body to move in a certain direction.

While jiu-jitsu is a style that thrives on the ground and in submission grappling, Mongolian wrestling emphasizes that a fighter should never go to the ground by choice. Once the opponent is knocked down, he should be disabled. The other tactic was that a restraining hold should never be applied without a strike preceding it. Mongolian wrestling preferred ridge-hands and palm heel strikes instead of traditional punches as well as leg seizing, body locking, and hooking.

Grandmaster Villari integrates Mongol neck locks, back breaks, and throws into his fighting art at very advanced levels.

Sambo, meaning “self-defense without a weapon” in Russian, is a relatively modern martial art, combat sport and self-defense system developed in the Soviet Union.  The Sambo roots come from Japanese Judo and traditional folkstyles of wrestling such as Georgian Chidaoba, Armenian Koch and Mongolian Khapsagay.

Sambo, which is sometimes called Sombo or Cambo, became recognized as an official sport by the USSR All-Union Sports Committee in 1938.  The founders of Sambo, Vasili Oshchepkov and Viktor Spiridonov both independently developed two different styles.  Spiridonov’s style was a soft, Aikido-like system. Anatoly Kharlampiev’s style (a student of Victor Spiridonov) revolved more around the sport aspect of Sambo.  Kharlampiev, is often officially recognized as the founder of Sport Sambo.

Contrary to common belief, Oschepkov and Spiridonov did not work with one another on the development of their hand-to-hand systems. Their independent notions of hand-to-hand combat merged through cross-training between students and formulative efforts by their students and military staff.

Sambo was in part born of native Russia, but included other regional styles of grappling and combative wrestling.  Both founders of Sambo deliberately sifted through all of the world’s martial arts available to them to create their military’s hand-to-hand combat system.  Particular techniques from foreign disciplines such as European wrestling, French S, and Greco-Roman wrestling were also incorporated.

Generally, there are 3 recognized competitive sport variations of Sambo;  Sport Sambo, Combat Sambo and Freestyle Sambo – each with their own set of specific rules.

Sport Sambo is similar to amateur wrestling or judo in style. The competitions are similar but with some differences in rules and protocol.  Sport Sambo, for example, allows various types of leg locks but does not allow chokeholds.  It’s focus is on throwing, ground work and submissions -  in contrast with Judo.

Combat Sambo resembles todays mixed martial arts that incorporate extensive forms of striking and grappling where (unlike Sport Sambo) choking is legal.  Like Sport Sambo, competitors in Combat Sambo wear jackets, and because there is extensive striking involved, they must also wear hand protection (and sometimes shin and head protection.)

Freestyle Sambo rules differ from traditional Sport Sambo in that they allow choke holds and other submissions such as neck cranks and twisting leg locks that are not permitted in Sport Sambo.  Like all Sambo, Freestyle Sambo focuses on throwing skills and fast ground work. No strikes are allowed in Freestyle Sambo. The ASA created this rule set in order to encourage judo and jujitsu practitionors to participate in Sambo events.

Aside from the sport aspect, Sambo is taught to many professionals in various areas of our community.  Some of these include the police, border guards, psychiatric hospital, secret police, military, and commandos.

Some well known Sambo fighters of today include Igor Kurinnoy , Fedor Emelianenko, and Andrei Arlovski.