From Judo to Jiu Jitsu, Karate to Taekwondo, the list of hand-to-hand combat and fighting styles that came from Asia seem endless.

Did you know however that possibly one of the oldest martial arts in the world comes from Greece and not from Asia? It's called Pankration and in addition to having influenced many fighting styles all over the world, the art is still being practiced by many aficionados to this very day.

The best fighting and hand-to-hand combative styles closely resemble Greek fighting techniques. If anything, the Greek techniques often rival many of the other styles.

Pankration uses a variety of different techniques that are frequently used in other fighting styles. They include kicking, striking, wrestling, and boxing. Pankration also uses techniques such as the use of pressure points and joint locking; this is how these techniques first became widespread.

The use of physical strength when fighting an opponent is often not the focus in many martial arts styles. In some cases, strength is disregarded completely.

However, lots of Greek fighting techniques rely on a great deal of strength. You need strength for grappling and striking techniques, for example.

Even the name of the Greek fighting style refers to strength. Pankration is formed from two Greek words: "Pan" refers to "all," "kratos" refers to "force" or "strength."

Pankration today exists in a greatly modified form, which in some cases is closer to a hybrid style of kickboxing, than the form that was practiced in ancient Greece.

Believe it or not, many of the mixed martial art modalities we see today actually stem from the early days of the Greek fighting techniques of Pankration.

All the same, this ancient Greek fighting style still survives to this day in different forms, since various fighting styles have adopted its techniques. There are even efforts to try and make Pankration part of the Olympics again.