10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Portrait of an MMA Icon and the rise of MMA as a Sport, January 11, 2009
This review is from: Blood in the Cage: Mixed Martial Arts, Pat Miletich, and the Furious Rise of the UFC (Hardcover)
As one sign that MMA is now mainstream, there is a growing bookshelf dedicated to the sport and its luminaries. In 2008, we saw the autobiographies of Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. Kelly Criger's "Title Shot" is excellent in offering profiles of various elite MMA training centers around the country. That fine book has one glaring omission, though, in that it did not profile Miletich Fighting Systems in Bettendorf, Iowa.
Author and Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim fills that void with a vivid, fascinating and entertaining "Blood in the Cage." "Blood' tracks the parallel emergence and transformation of Pat Miletich with the burgeoning sport of mixed martial arts. The fact that a writer for SI was paid to write an entire book about MMA is another sign that the sport has arrived.
Wertheim offers a flattering but not fawning portrayal of Miletich, a hardscrabble kid who went from tough guy punk to brawler to MMA champ to a trainer of the elite. Miletich and his stable of fighters mirror their Midwest location: hard working, conservative, methodical. The Croation Sensation reached his peak before the UFC hit the big time, but now Miletich trains some of the top competitors in MMA. He is the Yoda or Mr. Miyagi of MMA.
Until someone better comes along, Wertheim has written perhaps the best book yet on MMA and the rise of the UFC. Nor does he idolize the latter, noting the issue of performance enhancing drugs, the closed financial deals and the heavy-handedness of it bald F-bomb dictator, Dana White. Still, reading Wertheim you can almost feel yourself in the octagon, as the book brims with authenticity. (The only blooper I spotted was a point where Wertheim said the Miletich fighters trained with Russian kettle drums. I imagined the fighters auditioning on the percussion with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra ..) You are there on the mats, at least vicariously, without the inconvenience of having to sweat, bleed or barf.
If you are a fan or the MMA or UFC, you may have a hard time putting down "Blood in the Cage." I don't put it down, but instead give it five stars out of five!!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blood, Heart, and Soul in the Cage. Money, and lots of it, in the Pocket!, January 1, 2009
This review is from: Blood in the Cage: Mixed Martial Arts, Pat Miletich, and the Furious Rise of the UFC (Hardcover)
I certainly started the New Year off with the proverbial BANG, by finding this book on New Year's Day at one of my local big bookstores. I hadn't expected this book to be out for another two weeks yet, so imagine my surprise at finding it on the shelf in the martial arts section staring up at me.
Now I fully intended on buying the book, and did so about an hour later, after I had actually read the first 30+ pages while standing there in front of the shelf where I first found it. This book is simply that good.
From the very first line in the introduction, "LEMME BREAK YOUR NOSE" to the very last page, I was captivated by not only the story the author was telling, but also the way in which he told it. The writing style is quite gripping and compelling as I literally hung on every word and couldn't seem to be able to read it fast enough, to which my girlfriend can attest as she had been wandering around the store wondering where I had disappeared to for almost an hour. I had no idea that I had been standing there reading it for that long.
The author takes you on a dual journey of sorts as he details the life of Pat Miletich and the rise of the UFC, which although they started their respective lives at different times, they were destined to come together with the results being not only favorable for each, but also inevitable. Can one truly say that either one would be what they are today without the other? I don't think so.
This book, like
Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting by Jonathan Snowden, gives you an unprecedented and unbiased look at the inside world of MMA that most aren't fortunate, or privileged, enough to get the opportunity to see, let alone experience.
I would highly recommend this book not only to all UFC and MMA fans, but also to the average uninformed person who may only have a faint knowledge of what MMA is all about, or maybe even no real knowledge at all, just what they may have heard from one source or another. I read this book straight through, with a small break to purchase it and drive home where I finished reading it, in about 4 hours and thoroughly enjoyed every moment I spent reading each and every word on every page.
THIS IS A GREAT BOOK!
Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Creator of numerous books and DVD's.
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