The Most Famous

MARTIAL ARTS from United Kingdom

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This page contains a list of the greatest British Martial Arts. The pantheon dataset contains 179 Martial Arts, 2 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 16th most number of Martial Arts behind Türkiye, and Canada.

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary British Martial Arts of all time. This list of famous British Martial Arts is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Alistair Overeem

1. Alistair Overeem (b. 1980)

With an HPI of 53.71, Alistair Overeem is the most famous British Martial Arts.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages on wikipedia.

Alistair Cees Overeem (born 17 May 1980) is a Dutch former professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He is a former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Dream Heavyweight Champion, K-1 World Grand Prix Champion, and was the first fighter to hold world titles in MMA and K-1 kickboxing at the same time. Overeem is also a one-time challenger for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

Photo of Michael Bisping

2. Michael Bisping (b. 1979)

With an HPI of 48.20, Michael Bisping is the 2nd most famous British Martial Arts.  Her biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (; born 28 February 1979) is an English former mixed martial artist, sports commentator, analyst, and actor. He competed in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A professional competitor from 2004 to 2017, he held the UFC middleweight title, the Cage Rage light heavyweight title, and won the light heavyweight tournament of The Ultimate Fighter 3. At UFC 78, Bisping became the first British fighter to compete in a UFC main event. In 2013, he became legally blind in his right eye after fighting Vitor Belfort, in which a fight-ending head kick had left Bisping with a detached retina. Three years later, Bisping won the UFC middleweight title by knocking out Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, becoming the first British fighter to win a UFC Championship. He defended his title against Dan Henderson at UFC 204, but lost it to Georges St-Pierre the following year at UFC 217. After his knockout loss to Kelvin Gastelum three weeks later, Bisping retired from the sport. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame on 5 July 2019. Bisping has also embarked on an acting career, starring in films such as XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), Triple Threat (2019), and the upcoming Red Sonja. He also portrayed Roy Shaw in the British sports drama film My Name Is Lenny (2017). On television, he has appeared in series such as Strike Back, Twin Peaks, MacGyver, Magnum P.I. and Warrior.

People

Pantheon has 2 people classified as British martial arts born between 1979 and 1980. Of these 2, 2 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living British martial arts include Alistair Overeem, and Michael Bisping.

Living British Martial Arts

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