⚽ Combat Sports Trivia Questions & Answers
Boxing, MMA, wrestling and the champions of the ring and cage. Below are 30 free combat sports trivia questions with answers — part of Sport trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Sport quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Combat Sports trivia questions
Q1. How many sides does the fenced cage used in UFC bouts have?
Answer: Eight
💡 The eight-sided cage is trademarked by the UFC and gave the promotion its nickname, 'the Octagon'.
Q2. Which Olympic sport is contested with a foil, epee, or sabre?
Answer: Fencing
💡 Foil and sabre use 'right of way' to award a touch, but epee does not, so both fencers can score at once.
Q3. What is the national sport of Japan?
Answer: Sumo wrestling
💡 Sumo dates back over 1,500 years and has deep Shinto religious roots, with many rituals before each bout.
Q4. Which boxer was known as 'The Greatest' and 'The Louisville Lip'?
Answer: Muhammad Ali
💡 Muhammad Ali refused military service in 1967 on religious grounds and was stripped of his titles. He lost three and a half years of his prime career before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971.
Q5. At WrestleMania III in 1987, Hulk Hogan won by bodyslamming which 500-pound legend?
Answer: Andre the Giant
Q6. In the 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle,' Ali stunned the boxing world by knocking out which champion?
Answer: George Foreman
💡 Ali used his 'rope-a-dope' tactic, letting Foreman tire himself out before the eighth-round knockout.
Q7. Which fighter became the youngest heavyweight champ ever, at 20 in 1986, by beating Trevor Berbick?
Answer: Mike Tyson
💡 Tyson broke the record previously held by Floyd Patterson, who won his title at age 21.
Q8. How long is a single round in a professional championship boxing match?
Answer: Three minutes
💡 The three-minute round comes from the 1867 Marquess of Queensberry rules, which also introduced padded gloves.
Q9. What is the name for a boxing stance that leads with the right hand and right foot?
Answer: Southpaw
💡 Most southpaws are left-handed, keeping their stronger hand back for the power punch.
Q10. In judo, what is the instantly match-winning full-point score called?
Answer: Ippon
💡 Two waza-ari add up to one ippon, which also ends the contest immediately.
Q11. What colour belt is the widely recognised mark of expert rank in judo and karate?
Answer: Black
💡 In judo the very highest grades actually wear red or red-and-white belts.
Q12. Which heavyweight retired in 1956 at a perfect 49-0, boxing's only unbeaten champion ever?
Answer: Rocky Marciano
💡 Marciano's 43 knockouts in those 49 fights gave him the highest KO percentage of any heavyweight champ ever.
Q13. Conor McGregor won the UFC featherweight title over Jose Aldo in a then-record how many seconds?
Answer: 13 seconds
💡 It broke Ronda Rousey's own record of a 14-second submission set months earlier.
Q14. At just 23 in 2011, which fighter beat 'Shogun' Rua to become the youngest UFC champion ever?
Answer: Jon Jones
Q15. What is sumo's highest rank — one that, unlike every other rank, can never be lost to demotion?
Answer: Yokozuna
Q16. Taekwondo debuted as a demo event in 1988, then became a full Olympic sport at which Games?
Answer: 2000 Sydney
Q17. Olympic wrestling is contested in freestyle and which style that restricts holds above the waist?
Answer: Greco-Roman
Q18. Anthony Joshua won Olympic super-heavyweight boxing gold for Great Britain at which Games?
Answer: London 2012
Q19. At UFC 1 in 1993, which Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter submitted three bigger foes to win it?
Answer: Royce Gracie
Q20. Which fighter retired undefeated at 29-0 as UFC lightweight champion in 2020?
Answer: Khabib Nurmagomedov
💡 He won his final bout at UFC 254 with a broken foot before announcing his retirement.
Q21. How many major world sanctioning bodies must a boxer hold to be 'undisputed'?
Answer: Four
💡 The four are the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO; holding all at once is one of boxing's rarest feats.
Q22. Which Canadian won UFC titles at both welterweight and middleweight?
Answer: Georges St-Pierre
💡 He took the middleweight belt in 2017 after a four-year absence, beating Michael Bisping.
Q23. Which boxing great inspired the phrase 'pound for pound', shorthand for pure skill?
Answer: Sugar Ray Robinson
💡 Writers coined it because the only fighters who could test him were bigger men from heavier divisions.
Q24. A modern world-title boxing bout is scheduled for a maximum of how many rounds?
Answer: 12
💡 Title fights were trimmed from 15 rounds to 12 in the 1980s on safety grounds.
Q25. What is the name of the raised clay ring in which a sumo bout is fought?
Answer: Dohyo
💡 Its name combines the characters for clay and the rice-straw bales that mark its 4.55-metre circle.
Q26. Which trainer stopped Joe Frazier before round 15 of the 1975 'Thrilla in Manila'?
Answer: Eddie Futch
💡 Ali himself was ready to quit on his stool moments before Futch stopped it, later calling the fight 'the closest thing to dying that I know of.'
Q27. Which Japanese educator founded judo in 1882, opening the Kodokan school with just twelve mats?
Answer: Jigoro Kano
💡 Judo became the first Japanese martial art to become an official Olympic sport, for men in 1964.
Q28. Tyson Fury finally knocked out Deontay Wilder in their decisive 2021 trilogy fight — in which round?
Answer: 11th round
💡 The Ring magazine named it Fight of the Year for 2021.
Q29. Bruce Lee founded which hybrid fighting philosophy in 1967, meaning 'way of the intercepting fist'?
Answer: Jeet Kune Do
💡 It blended boxing footwork, kung fu kicks, and fencing technique into one practical system.
Q30. Karate, an Olympic sport in 2020, was originally developed on which Japanese island?
Answer: Okinawa
💡 Karate appeared only once at the Games, dropped for Paris 2024 in favour of breaking.
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