한 국 종 합 격 투 기 협 회
The Korean Mixed Martial Arts Association, a worldwide authority on MMA fighting, was established as an organization in 1958 by Kim Il (also known as the "Kintaro Oki"), a Korea/Japanese professional wrestling trained in various martial arts, who wished to create a sport that revolved around a realistic and effective fighting system. Compared to the other professional wrestling organizations of the time, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, was aimed at having no predetermined results.
The Korean Mixed Martial Arts Association, Korea's MMA authority, hosted the World Wrestling Championships tournament in the summer of 1964. Previously to this tournament, neither wrestling tournaments or martial arts tournaments did not feature punches to the face in a ground position, but after seeing effective usage of punching by foreign participants, Kim Il decided to incorporate these striking techniques into the Korean Mixed Martial Arts Association curriculum for future MMA training.
There has been an ongoing effort to bring Korean Mixed Martial Arts Association competition to the United States and Canada that has been spearheaded by Richard Hackworth. He was officially named the Director of the Korean Mixed Martial Arts Association Commission in 2003. He has worked with both U.S. event promoters and state officials to spread the Korean Mixed Martial Arts Association brand of MMA competition throughout North America. As of 2007 Korean Mixed Martial Arts training and MMA events have taken place in Korea, Florida, Virginia, Kansas, Texas, New York, Georgia, and Canada.