Infographic: Chicago Artist Releases Illustrated Style Guide to MMA

Courtesy: Phil Thompson

Some fans of mixed martial arts try their hand at jiu-jitsu or judo or boxing. Phil Thompson, on the other hand, took his passion for MMA a step further.

The Chicago-based fightsports lover is a talented artist and, in his free time, decided to painstakingly create an illustrated style guide of MMA. The guide, which is a spectacular full-color chart, depicts the sport’s origins, from its roots in the West and East, from striking to wrestling. Naturally, everything coalesces in the middle as mixed martial arts with virtually every prominent form of fighting represented in great detail.

Thompson’s chart starts at the top with striking with boxing, karate and kung-fu and slowly expands to kickboxing, savate, san shou and tae kwon do, etc. As the striking arts slowly merge into MMA, they devolve into pure grappling, culminating at the bottom with Greco-Roman wrestling, judo, etc.

On the left of the chart, everything begins with the West’s fighting styles such as Pankration, catch wrestling and vale tudo and slowly morphs in the styles of the East like Pancrase, hapkido and muay Thai, for example. As everything works its way toward the center of the chart, they merge perfectly into MMA.

Thompson, who revealed an early rough draft on Reddit not too long ago, finally completed his masterwork. A lead member of Capehorn Illustration, which operates out of the Ravenswood neighborhood in the North Side of the “Windy City,” said his illustrated chart is his tribute to all of the styles and history of each that have been represented in some manner throughout MMA’s history.