Mixed martial arts as a sport
Common Fictional martial arts
Many works of fiction such as movies and books have characters that practice martial arts. Usually they practice mix martial arts, such as Judo karate or Aikido, but sometimes a martial art is made up for dramatic purposes or to lend a fictional world a sense of authenticity. This is a list of such martial arts, sorted by the medium of the fictional work they appear in.
Bartitsu — Japanese wrestling style used by Sherlock Holmes, either a typographical error for, or a deliberate bowdlerization of, Bartitsu.
Cards as Weapons — mock martial art of throwing playing cards with extreme force and accuracy, as presented in magician/card-scaler Ricky Jay’s book of the same title. It has since been used in many pieces of fiction as the martial arts of choice for a gambling rogue character, usually using razor-sharp shuriken designed like playing cards for their attacks. The Magician (TV series) with Bill Bixby features steel playing cards used in this manner, and also in many Chinese television series, when cards can be used to cut. Something similar is practiced by the Marvel Comics hero Gambit, who throws playing cards and relies on his ability to make anything he touches explosive do the damage.
Sinan Ju — a Korean martial art handed down for many generations in the Destroyer series. It is considered the forerunner to most real-world martial arts and is called “the sun source” by its practitioners.
Ti Kwan Leep is a parody martial art used by sketch comedy group The Frantics. The signature move in Ti Kwan Leep is a “boot to the head”.