[MERIT]

You're exactly right. When the Gracie's first conceived the UFC they wanted the cage to be electrified and surrounded by a moat filled with man-eating alligators (I wish I was joking, but I'm not). Early "MMA" was little more than tough-man competitions, contended under few or no rules, with no weight classes and no regard for fighter safety. Today's fighters are well-conditioned athletes who cross-train in all areas of fighting: boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, sambo, kung-fu, aikido, etc. Today's MMA is more like a chess match than a street fight.