“Why would anyone want to read a book about mixed martial arts? Especially someone who doesn’t really have all that much interest in the sport?
Well, what’s funny about this book is that the title and cover really convey how I feel about the sport in general. The book itself, as an object, is really kind of a representation of everything good and bad about the sport.
The good parts of the book are mostly the sections that serve as a biography of Pat Miletich, a smalltown bar fighter who finds his way in the world through mixed martial arts. The guy starts out fighting anyone and anything that gives him a hard time, including at one point fighting a jeep. Yes, as in the vehicle.
In a weird way, delving into the world of cage fighting was the beginning of Miletich’s calming down just a bit. His life became more regimented, and he started to build relationships with other people, eventually becoming an excellent and generous trainer as well as a respected fighter.
Which sort of brings us to the bad part of MMA and the book itself.
As Miletich became a better fighter, his skills got to be more technical, but his fights were not as exciting to watch unless you were so into the world of MMA that you could understand exactly what he was doing. Which meant he never really got his due, in my opinion, and the world of MMA passed him by.
So here’s the thing, what I learned from this book. After reading the book and learning a bit more about the history of the sport, I feel like the world of MMA has room for people who are willing to play good versus evil roles in the style of pro wrestlers. It has room for people to have ridiculous ads slapped all over their trunks. It has room for energy drinks and some of the most egregious affronts to the world of fashion that t-shirts have ever made. What it doesn’t seem to have room for is someone like Pat Miletich, which to me kind of explains everything that’s wrong with it.
The promoters of fights, the ones making the money, don’t care about the sport one bit. They just care that people pay to watch it. As long as people will pay, they’re happy.
The sport has definite potential, and underneath the shell of bullshit and outright douchebaggery, there’s a legitimacy and a stable of super, ultra-elite athletes who are doing a hell of a lot of work for a hell of a small paycheck, in most cases.
So the book, as a read, was pretty good. You learn a lot of interesting stuff, and if you ever question the legitimacy of MMA as a sport, it gives you something to think about. Especially as it’s sort of considered the bad boy cousin of boxing, when in actuality boxing is far more damaging long term as fighters are taking repeated shots to the head as opposed to damage to the body or even tapping out before real damage is done.
Here’s what I hate about the book, which is also what I hate about the sport. Why do we have to have this decent book wrapped in a cover and title that is so silly? It’s not really what the book is about, as evidenced by the long subtitle. I honestly found the book to be fairly critical of the UFC overall, which I don’t think was suggested by the title. Just the way we have this sport that’s wrapped in a bunch of nonsense, silly sponsors, horrible music, entering an arena through machine-provided smoke, we have a book that is also wrapped in nonsense and makes a person like me embarrassed to even be associated with it.
I understand that people want to make money. And if MMA went the way that makes sense to me, it would be about as popular as Olympic wrestling. Same deal with the book. They had to sell it to SOMEONE.
But for my money, I feel like there are plenty of activities and products that appeal to assholes, and it sure would be nice if there was something out there for the rest of us.
The real tragedy of the sport and this book is that the only way for them to sell is to submit to a terribly flawed market system that ends up polluting the end product. It’s such a waste.”