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Martial Arts Reality Superfighting (MARS) was an mixed martial arts (MMA) competition held on November 22, 1996, in Birmingham, Alabama. The show was broadcasted on television in the US and internationally and it was created by John Keating and Tom Huggins.

The event
The main event featured a now famous fight between Renzo Gracie and Oleg Taktarov, and the marketing focused on the fact that neither of them had ever been submitted. The fight was significant at the time: Renzo had recently won the World Combat Championship tournament easily, making him a very popular fighter; and Oleg had recently won UFC 6, making him an UFC champion and also very famous in the world of MMA.

MARS also featured two other superfights and a full eight men tournament, with notable fighters who would go on to be famous in the MMA world, such as: Chris Haseman, Carlos Barreto, Tom Erickson, Mario Sperry and Murilo Bustamante.

The event was also famous in MMA because of the Atlanta Pit Fights, that were held as tryouts for the MARS show and which featured the first fights of MMA legends, such as Don Frye and Jeremy Horn. Videos of these auditions are still sought and prized among collectors today. The event also featured a second eight men tournament called the Shooting Stars Tournament and two alternate fights, held on the same day and the same arena, but not broadcasted. The footage of this tournament has been referred to as the “holy grail" of MMA fight footage by collectors.

The event is considered one of the most influential events in the history of MMA, particularly in Brazil, where its anniversary was celebrated with a special show on cable channels SportTV and Combate.

History
In late 1994, John Keating created a company called Extreme Combat with the intention of producing MMA events, similar to the UFC. To accomplish this goal, he hired John Perretti to help him put it together. However, the two parted ways acrimoniously, with Perretti going on to work for David Zuckerman at Battlecade. Then, Keating hired Howard Petchler, but the two also separated badly, with Petchler going on to become the CEO of International Fighting Championships.

At this point, with no progress or fighters under contract, Keating brought Thomas Huggins on board, who had already been working with the UFC and other MMA shows. Tom owned a management company with his partner, Sérgio Monteiro, called Top Fighter Promotions, which managed many famous Brazilian fighters and had been dealing with him to obtain some of his fighters for the show. Huggins relocated to Atlanta to work out of the Extreme Combat office, as Keating didn’t involve himself in the operations of the company.

The name of the project, Extreme Combat, was changed because of the similarity with the name of the company Extreme Fighting, and so the name MARS was selected as an acronym for Martial Arts Reality Superfighting, in part due to the fact that, in that moment, MARS was a popular subject in the media worldwide and, also, because Mars is the god of war.

The format of the show was also changed to differ from Extreme Fighting: the selected one was to be a full eight men tournament, like the UFC format, as well as three specific “superfights”, similar to the format used by Extreme Fighting, thus intended to satisfy fans of both formats. The format was particularly different: there was a restriction that every fighter in the tournament had to be from a different country and each one had to practice a different martial art, with no duplications. This was meant to be a marketing tool, to draw in more martial arts fans and engender more support from the then influential martial arts magazines.

In the superfights, a different restriction was decided upon wherein they would each feature a Brazilian fighter against a Russian fighter to match the main event of Renzo Gracie against Taktarov. This then became the primary marketing message of Russia against Brazil. It was also decided that there would be a second tournament and two alternate fights held, which would be called the Shooting Stars tournament, in keeping with the MARS marketing theme. It was intended to showcase talent that would then be contenders for future shows.

This, however, meant that Huggins had to prospect and sign twenty six individual fighters for one event, which was more fights than any event had ever held. At the time, It was a major obstacle, because the sport was new and fighters were difficult to find, even for the UFC, and there was now competition for the limited number of fighters.

It was also decided that, unlike the UFC, they would personally audition fighters who wanted to fight in the event. This process led to the creation of what is now called the Atlanta Fights - or the Atlanta Pit Fights -, which were a series of auditions held in a warehouse that Huggins also had to arrange and organize and were taped. The show was successfully held, despite the complex nature of its format, and the two fights became famous and are still referenced today. The first standout fight was the final one in the tournament, between the finalists Tom Erickson and Murilo Bustamante, which was an extremely tactical fight, despite the weight difference. The fight was declared a draw after 40 minutes of fighting - the MARS show didn’t use judges. The next standout was Renzo Gracie’s dramatic defeat of Oleg Taktarov in one minute and two seconds, with a knockout from an upkick that probably lead the Russian disoriented and unaware of what had happened, after he awoke not seeming to know why the fight had been stopped.

The event has many interesting historic notes within the MMA community:


 * The referee for the event was Fred Letuli, who was also the son of Chicago based Battle of the Masters promoter Tom Letuli
 * It is also worth noting that originally Monte Cox, who was in the beginning of his career as a promoter, had been retained by Tom Huggins to be the local promoter for the event, but Keating’s attorney decided not to use him. Monte would go on to be one of the most prolific MMA promoters in the United States
 * There was another fight intended to be on the show, between John Lewis and Pat Miletich, who was managed by Monte Cox, and for that it was not approved for the show
 * The event was covered in magazines worldwide and well received by the fans, but no second event was ever held, as Huggins left the organization after completing the first event