2008

In my last two articles, I covered building a foundation for understanding betting on MMA fights. This article builds on that foundation, so if you missed the first two issues of FIGHT!, get your hands on a back issue. You can also find…

Alex Varkatzas, lead singer of the metal band Atreyu, is a slender man, but his voice fi lls arenas. On May 27, 2006, it fi lled the Staples Center in Los Angeles before the main event of Ultimate Fighting Championship 60: Hughes vs.…

November 1993, I sat shocked at what I had just witnessed. A 185 pound Jiu-Jitsu fighter named Royce Gracie had just won the first-ever televised mixed martial arts tournament, The Ultimate Fighting Championship. After having practiced…

The first time Dana White met Brock Lesnar, he was transfixed. “He’s a monster,” the UFC president recalled in an interview with FIGHT! Magazine. “Seriously, the first time I ever met him, this is going to sound…

“These fighters are scary in a way that boxers and kick-boxers aren’t. They are savage…Whoever wins the fight, the unspoken signifier of victory is, I could have killed you. There are no excuses in the rules. If we were…

In The Godfather , Don Vito Corleone asks Johnny Fontaine if he spends time with his family, proclaiming that a “man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.” Well, a sport can never be a real sport…

BJ Penn seems to exist apart from other fighters. He does things that should be impossible, like moving up in weight and taking the belt, or being the only American to win Mundials (the world series of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) ever. And he…

“It’s called the Mongolian Attack…” I am watching Greg Jackson as he instructs Keith Jardine and Tait Fletcher on one of Jackson’s famously arcane mixed martial arts techniques before they begin a sparring…

5. THE RUAS (Brothers Mauricio “Shogun” and Murilo “Ninja”) Impact on MMA: The Ruas haven’t been around for very long (Mauricio is 25, Murilo is 27). That said, beyond their talent and participation in an…

Liddell and Jackson started out at a methodical pace. Each fighter circled, cut angles, felt the other out, waiting to see who was going to make the first move or mistake. Suddenly, two minutes into the fight, Chuck threw a wild left hook…