Filipino martial arts (FMA) refer to ancient Malay and newer modified fighting methods devised in the Philippines. It incorporates elements from both Western and Eastern Martial Arts, the most popular forms of which are known as Arnis, Eskrima, and Kali. The intrinsic need for self-preservation was the genesis of these systems. Throughout the ages, invaders and evolving local conflict imposed new dynamics for combat in the islands now making up the Philippines. The Filipino people developed battle skills as a direct result of an appreciation of their ever-changing circumstances. They learned often out of necessity how to prioritize, allocate and use common resources in combative situations. Filipinos have been heavily influenced by a phenomenon of cultural and linguistic mixture. Some of the specific mechanisms responsible for cultural and martial change extended from phenomena such as war, political and social systems, technology, trade and practicality.
Arnis, also known as Kali or Eskrima/Escrima, is the national martial art of the Philippines. The three are roughly interchangeable umbrella terms for the traditional martial arts of the Philippines, which emphasize weapon-based fighting with sticks, knives, bladed weapons, and various improvised weapons, as well as "open hand" techniques without weapons.
A bolo punch is a punch used in martial arts. The bolo punch is not among the traditional boxing punches.
A bolo is a large cutting tool of Filipino origin similar to the machete. It is used particularly in the Philippines, the jungles of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as in the sugar fields of Cuba.
Doce Pares is a Filipino martial art and a form of Arnis, Kali and Eskrima, that focuses primarily on stick fighting, knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat but also covers grappling and other weapons as well. In reality, the stick is merely considered an extension of the hand, and is meant to represent almost any weapon, from sticks to swords to knives to anything else you can place in your hand and use as a weapon in the modern context. Doce Pares was founded in 1932.
San Miguel Eskrima is one of the major systems of eskrima, a martial arts from the Philippines. Founded by Filemon "Momoy" Cañete of the Doce Pares Club, SME served as vehicle for his own personal expression of the art and methodology of the club of which he was a co-founder and instructor. The name San Miguel is taken from Michael (archangel), the slayer of Satan, and is one of the major strikes used in Eskrima.
Kinamutay, commonly but incorrectly orientalized kino mutai, is a specialized subsection of some martial arts that emphasizes biting, pinching, eye-gouging, and other forms of "dirty" fighting techniques. Kinamutay involves extensive use of grappling and manipulation of nerve and pressure points, so as to allow the kinamutay practitioner to inflict pain and control the opponent while applying the techniques. Although in Cebu it is culturally associated with women's catfighting, the techniques used are effective against opponents of all sizes.
Kombatan is a Filipino martial arts system. The founder of the system was GGM Ernesto Amador Presas. The current head of the system is Ernesto Presas Jr. The style is known for its double stick techniques, but it features other stick and blade techniques, as well as empty-hand methods.
Gabriel "Flash" Elorde was a Filipino professional boxer. He won the lineal super featherweight title in 1960. In 1963, he won the inaugural WBC and WBA super featherweight titles. He holds the record at super featherweight division for longest title reign, spanning seven years. Elorde is considered one of the best Filipino boxers of all time along with eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao and Pancho Villa, flyweight champion in the 1920s. He was much beloved in the Philippines as a sports and cultural icon, being the first Filipino international boxing champion since middleweight champion Ceferino Garcia.
Pekiti-Tirsia Kali is a style specific to Filipino Martial Arts. Pekiti-Tirsia Kali was founded in 1897 and is the system of the Tortal family. The sole heir and guardian of this system is Leo Gaje. Pekiti-Tirsia is strictly a combat-oriented system, as opposed to a sport-focused fighting style. It is a fighting system that focuses on edged, impact and improvised weapons. PTK has been adopted as the preferred combative training program by elite military and law enforcement units around the world. It claims to be a very lethal fighting method for self-defence.
Edgar Sulite was a teacher of Filipino martial arts. He was the creator of Lameco Eskrima and trained such notables as Dan Inosanto, Ron Balicki, Larry Hartsell, Fred Degerberg, and Diana Lee Inosanto.
Lameco Eskrima is the system of Filipino martial arts founded by Edgar Sulite based on his training and experience with various Philippine Martial Arts masters, with heavy influence from Jose Caballero and Antonio Ilustrisimo.
Ciriaco "Cacoy" Cañete was a Filipino martial artist of the Doce Pares Eskrima Club. He was the last surviving member of the club, which was founded in January 1932. He was also a 12th degree black belt. His version of the Doce Pares Eskrima system is known as Cacoy Doce Pares. In 1951 he developed a personal system of his named Eskrido.
Master Santiago “Sonny” Umpad was a Filipino eskrimadors. He was born in Bogo, Cebu, Philippines. As a young man, Umpad was exposed to the traditional Filipino martial arts of Eskrima; in his region the term “estocada” was also used to describe these arts. Umpad gave full credit to the Balintawak Eskrima and Doce Pares systems, which made up much of his early training. When he went to the United States, he continued his training with Master Raymond Tobosa in the art of Villabrille Kali.
Bob Breen is an author and professional martial artist who began martial arts training in 1966. He has trained under a significant number of senior martial arts experts and respected figures in the martial arts world. He has published 10 books since 1988.
Richard Bustillo was a Filipino-American martial arts instructor from Hawaii who was a student of the late Bruce Lee and an authority on Jeet Kune Do Concepts and Filipino Martial Arts.
Arnis in popular culture reflects the impact that the Filipino martial arts of Arnis/Eskrima/Kali have made outside of the martial arts community. The three terms are roughly interchangeable and for the purpose of convenience, the term Arnis will be used throughout the article. These arts emphasize weapon-based fighting with sticks, blades, improvised weapons and hand-to-hand fighting which is formally known as Mano Mano or Pangamut. Because of this training with live weapons, elements of Arnis have made an impact in film, video games, television, and comic books. Arnis is often used to train actors and stuntmen how to handle similar weapons for use in movies.
The history of boxing in the Philippines is the history of boxing and the evolution and progress of the sport in the Philippines. In the Philippines, boxing is considered one of its most popular sports together with basketball due to the many accolades it has brought to the country, having produced 44 major world champions, one of the most in the world. Despite not having won a gold medal in boxing, the Philippines has had multiple Olympic standouts, with 8 out of its 12 total Olympic medals coming from boxing, along with some of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. Filipino greats like Pancho Villa, Flash Elorde and Ceferino Garcia are members of the two highly respected boxing hall of fames - International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) and World Boxing Hall of Fame (WBHF) thus, giving the Philippines the most number of boxing hall of fame members out of Asia.
The Dog Brothers are a group of martial artists specializing in Filipino Martial Arts. The group is notorious for their annual "Gathering of the Pack" collectives, in which dangerous weapon-based sparring matches are conducted, which they have patented as "Real Contact Stickfighting".
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