Pankration

Pankration (; ) was an unarmed combat sport introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC. The athletes used boxing and wrestling techniques but also others, such as kicking, holds, joint locks, and chokes on the ground, making it similar to modern mixed martial arts. The term comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "all of power" ().

thumb|The Palaestra at Olympia|palaestra at [[Olympia, Greece]] A palaestra or palestra (, or ; ) was any site of a Greek wrestling school in antiquity. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, occurred there. Palaistrai functioned both independently and as a part of public gymnasia; a palaestra could exist without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium existed without a palaestra.