The first edition of the FILA World Grappling Championship took place in Antalya (TUR) from 7 to 9 September 2007 and gathered together all the wrestling styles that do not appear on the Olympic programme. The Games drew about 200 participants from 22 nations and were a true success. The athletes of Sambo, beach wrestling, Grappling, and Pangration Athlima did not only receive the title of winner of the Games, but also the title of World Champion in the discipline concerned. The United States dominated the Grappling competition by winning all the first places, the titles in the other disciplines were more equally distributed among the nations.
The championship was enhanced by demonstrations of belt wrestling, Kourash and Sumo that suggested a great development of this event in the future. The Festival of traditional wrestling was also a big success among the Turkish spectators who could encourage more than 400 traditional oil wrestling competitors.