## 3 Results  
The data on the anthropometric measurements for elite combat male athletes are displayed in Table 2, namely the general characteristics of professional athletes from combat sports, information on height, body mass, fat-free mass, musculoskeletal mass, fat mass, body mass index (BMI), and muscle-to-fat ratio (MFR). The means \(\pm\) SDs, as measures of the central tendency of BMI and MFR for male athletes playing different combat sports, were 22.6 \(\pm\) 3.5 kg/m\({}^{2}\) and 6.1 \(\pm\) 2.9. The mean fat mass was 15.2 \(\pm\) 5.4% (11.4 \(\pm\) 6.5 kg) for the combat male athletes. While estimating the results of the Bonferroni test, significant differences (\(p\) < 0.05) related to higher body weight (in kg), fat-free mass (in kg), and muscle mass (in kg) were identified in the subgroup of Greco-Roman male wrestlers and later compared to those obtained in the subgroups of boxers and judokas. However, no significant differences were ascertained in fat-free mass (in %), body fat (in %), and MFR in the samples of wrestlers, judokas, and boxers (\(p\) > 0.05; all comparisons); therefore, it may be suggested that the study subgroups were homogeneous according to the characteristics of body composition. Table 3 shows data indicating the cut-off points for the categorization of body fat (in %) in elite male athletes from combat sports. The body fat percentages within the range of between 14.8% and 18.8% were considered normal (equivalent to the 50 th percentile) for combat sports athletes. Values below these scopes were classified as below normal, very low, and extremely low, whereas those that exceeded the median values were rated as above normal, very excessive, and extremely excessive. As shown in Figure 1, a multiple liner regression was obtained to reveal how the magnitude and variation of body fat mass (%) may predict both BMI and MFR in a sample of combat sports athletes. This study has detected that variations in the body fat mass of male athletes could cause variations in both BMI and MFR. More specifically, when body fat mass increases by 1%, BMI increases by 0.5 kg/m\({}^{2}\) (95% CI: 0.3; 0.7; \(p\) < 0.0001) and MFR decreases by a relative unit of 1.3 (95% CI: \(-\)1.5; \(-\)1.0; \(p\) < 0.001). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variable** & **Wrestlers a** & **Judokas** & **Boxers** & **Total** \\ \hline Height (m) & 1.8 \(\pm\) 0.1 & 1.7 \(\pm\) 0.2 & 1.7 \(\pm\) 0.1 & 1.7 \(\pm\) 0.1 \\ Body mass (kg) & 74.9 \(\pm\) 14.9 * & 65.8 \(\pm\) 22.9 & 62.1 \(\pm\) 14.4 & 69.9 \(\pm\) 17.1 \\ Fat-free mass (kg) & 62.7 \(\pm\) 11.1 * & 53.7 \(\pm\) 14.0 & 53.0 \(\pm\) 7.9 & 58.5 \(\pm\) 11.7 \\ Fat-free mass (\%) \({}_{\text{BIA}}\) & 84.1 \(\pm\) 4.2 & 83.8 \(\pm\) 7.4 & 86.6 \(\pm\) 6.4 & 84.7 \(\pm\) 5.5 \\ Musculoskeletal mass (kg) & 58.3 \(\pm\) 10.3 * & 49.9 \(\pm\) 12.8 & 49.4 \(\pm\) 7.1 & 54.4 \(\pm\) 10.8 \\ Musculoskeletal lateral mass (\%) \({}_{\text{BIA}}\) & 78.3 \(\pm\) 4.1 & 78.0 \(\pm\) 7.3 & 80.7 \(\pm\) 6.3 & 78.9 \(\pm\) 5.4 \\ Body fat mass (kg) & 12.3 \(\pm\) 5.0 & 12.1 \(\pm\) 9.4 & 9.1 \(\pm\) 6.9 & 11.4 \(\pm\) 6.5 \\ Body fat mass (\%) \({}_{\text{BIA}}\) & 15.7 \(\pm\) 4.1 & 16.1 \(\pm\) 7.4 & 13.4 \(\pm\) 6.4 & 15.2 \(\pm\) 5.4 \\ BMI (kg/m\({}^{2}\)) & 23.5 \(\pm\) 3.2 & 22.5 \(\pm\) 4.3 & 20.7 \(\pm\) 3.2 & 22.6 \(\pm\) 3.5 \\ MFR & 5.4 \(\pm\) 2.0 & 6.0 \(\pm\) 3.1 & 7.5 \(\pm\) 3.8 & 6.1 \(\pm\) 2.9 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Data were displayed as means \(\pm\) SD; SD—standard deviation; *–Greco-Roman wrestlers; BMI–body mass index; FMR—muscle-to-fat ratio; *–\(p\)-value (<0.05) from the Bonferroni post hoc test; fat-free mass (%), musculoskeletal mass (%) and body fat (%) were estimated with bioelectrical impedance.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Anthropometric characteristic values of the elite male athletes from combat sports.