Mixed martial arts are usually called mixed martial artists, and people who compete in the sport are usually called mixed martial arts fighters. Typically, mma is promoted as a way for two people to fight each other in a manner as close to an unregulated fight as is possible without recklessly endangering the fighters. Although in its first appearance in the usa this environment was originally billed as a way to match up martial arts against each other, cross-training is the norm for mixed martial artists, and a kind of hybrid form of fighting has emerged in the sport. Mma is one of the, if not the single, fastest growing sports in the. See OC mixed martial arts.

The term “mixed martial arts” should not be confused with “hybrid martial art”, as mixed martial arts refers to a combat sport and ruleset for the sport, but is not currently an actual martial art itself. This may change in the future, as several methods of fighting and several arts are consistently found to be effective in mma and thus are consistently trained, leading to a convergence in the type of training for and fighting found in competitions, particularly high-level competitions.