American Combat Association
The American Combat Association is a small mixed martial arts company founded by Olympic wrestler, world Abu Dhabi champion and undefeated MMA fighter Kamal Shalorus and competitive submission grappler, mixed martial arts fighter, American professional wrestler and trainer Matthew "The Granimal" Granahan . 1
Organization
The organization is significant because it is the only mma organization in America to sanction catch wrestling matches. Catch wrestling matches were popular from the period after the civil war until the 1920s and through the early 1960s in America's carnivals with wrestler's like Billy Wicks and Frankie Cain who are interviewed on the American Combat Association website.
The ACA is dedicated to preserving traditional martial arts in America through sanctioning traditional catch rules wrestling matches, boxing matches and boxer versus wrestler matches and has received recognition for returning to the roots of American mixed martial arts from the Godfather of Grappling Gene Lebell and New Revolution Grappling 2 whose motto is "traditional values, modern tactics" The ACA hosted their first live event in April 2009 in Sanford, Florida 3 The ACA is also sponsoring World's Collide, the first ever mixed martial arts event in South Carolina. South Carolina recently legalized mma and the World's Collide event will be a combination of boxing and mixed martial arts Erik Paulson also appears on the American Combat Association website and Erik recently finished a book with ACA President Granimal on the History of American Submission Wrestling called Rough and tumble. 4
RULES
What makes the ACA very different than other mma organizations is their rules which are rooted in traditional catch as catch can wrestling. Shalorus credits his desire to return to the traditional Iranian wrestling style Varzesh-e Pahlavani which was one of The Primary influencers of the American catch wrestling style. Shalorus feels that Gholamreza Takhti, a practitioner of Varzesh-e Pahlavani was the greatest Persian wrestler of all time. ACA grappling tournaments are held under strict catch wrestling rules where matches have a 15 minute time limit, all submissions are legal and competitors can win by either a 5 count pinfall or submission. There are no judges for these contests and if a match goes the full 15 minutes a 5 minute overtime commences. If there is still no winner the match is declared a draw.
ACA's boxing matches use a shortened round time of 3 minutes and each bout consists of 5 rounds. ACA's mma fights only allow punching on the feet and there is no kicking, kneeing or elbowing allowed. Once a fight goes to the ground it is essentially a catch wrestling match where a competitor can win by 5 count pinfall or submission. 5