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Over the past few decades, the UFC has grown in popularity and has attracted a wide range of fighters to its ranks, but in its early days, it had a more “unrefined” feel that pitted different fighting styles and systems against each other. This unusual setup helped create the now iconic world of Baki the Grappler.

During our recent talk with Yuki Yokoi, the assistant general manager of the business IP department at Baki publisher Akita Shoten, he explained how Keisuke Itagaki drew inspiration from early UFC fights when writing Baki the Grappler.

“Back when mixed martial arts was still in its early days,” Yuki Yokoi told us. “Mr. Itagaki even went to cover events such as the first UFC. At that time, there were fighters using styles described as ninjutsu, and the scene had a much more rough, unrefined feel – closer to ‘interstyle combat’ in its purest form. I believe that this directly connects to the excitement in the Baki series of ‘A versus B’: two fighters with completely different styles, entirely different body weights, and no clear basis for comparison – making you wonder, if these two fought, who would win? The series conveys a sense of danger that is harder to feel in modern, regulated combat sports with weight classes and standardized rules.”

The unpredictability of early mixed martial arts helped create one of the most iconic fighting manga of all time, with Baki the Grappler still going strong 35 years after its first chapter was published.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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