Sambo is a combat sport, and a recognized style of amateur wrestling governed by the UWW in the World Wrestling Championships along with Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling. Practiced worldwide, sambo is a martial art with Soviet origins. Many of its techniques have been incorporated into other combat sports such as mixed martial arts.

It originated in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union during the 1920s. The word sambo is an acronym of samozashchita bez oruzhiya (Russian: самозащита без оружия), which literally translates to 'self-defence without weapons'.

Sambo is a martial art and combat sport developed and used by the Soviet Red Army in the early 1920s to improve their hand-to-hand combat abilities. The sport incorporates various styles of wrestling and other self-defence systems such as kick-boxing and fencing.

Soviet martial arts expert Vasili Oshchepkov is credited as one of the founding fathers. Viktor Spiridonov, a military officer with background in several different styles of wrestling spanning across the Soviet Union, is also considered an important founding member of sambo.

Spiridonov and Oshchepkov independently developed two different styles, which eventually cross-pollinated and became what is known as sambo.

Sambo is relatively modern since its development began in the early 1920s by the Red Army and other forces to improve hand-to-hand combat abilities of their servicemen. It was intended to merge the most effective techniques of other martial arts.

The pioneers of sambo were Viktor Spiridonov and Vasili Oshchepkov. Both were trained military men with access to frequent state-sponsored travel opportunities where they were able to experience various local wrestling styles and add new techniques to their arsenal. Oshchepkov even spent several years living in Japan and training in judo under its founder Kano Jigoro. Oshchepkov died in prison as a result of the Great Purge after being accused of being a Japanese spy, and judo was banned in the USSR for decades until the 1964 Olympics, where sambists won four bronze medals.

Both men were trained military officers with backgrounds in several styles of combat wrestling that were prevalent in different regions of the Russian Empire (later the Soviet Union) and abroad. Combining these styles together, the popular international style of catch-as-catch can wrestling (known as "free wrestling" in Russian at the time) and Japanese judo wrestling, their respective styles gradually morphed into a new style of wrestling that was more suitable for the Soviet military's hand-to-hand combat needs.