Blood in the Cage: Book Review

"Blood in the Cage: Mixed Martial Arts, Pat Miletich, and the Furious Rise of the UFC" chronicles the history and main players involved in ultimate fighting's sudden, explosive burst of popularity. The story itself is genuinely really entertaining - and this is coming from someone who has no vested interest in the sport. The struggle of going from an underground fighting league to popular pay-per-view television and mainstream appeal makes for a good read, and on that the book delivers very well. The transition from the first matches of horribly mismatched opponents and tournaments that have fighters battling multiple times a night to the highly trained super-athletes on television today is worth more than a passing glance.

The early days of UFC are essentially a twelve year old's dream; a schoolyard argument between "I bet this kind of fighter can beat up this kind of fighter" brought into reality. The author himself speaks to that when determining who are the toughest guys out there in his explanation on who would win between a boxer and a mixed martial artist: "If an MMA fighter slipped the punch and kneed the boxer with a Muay Thai clinch or got him on the ground and manipulated a joint, the fight would be over just as fast [as if a boxer connected on a strong punch]". While it sounds comically similar to ten year olds discussing if The Hulk can take Iron Man in a fist fight, this sort of stuff is where the book flourishes; the basic history of how it came to be and the intensely violent and slimmed down rules of the early days, pitting sumo wrestler against kickboxer, boxer against wrestler, karate master against some other form of karate master.

The book also details the later years when the UFC began to find a foothold legally (the league had tremendous difficulties legitimizing the sport) and when it finally started enticing mass audiences. It also provides compelling arguments about the high levels of safety (relatively, considering what is happening). The story behind the scenes is compelling and the individual fighters adds a great deal of personal interest and appeal.

What the book lacks is an even hand. The author, L. Jon Wertheim, is so obviously in love with the sport he cannot see any flaws behind his rose-coloured (blood-tinted?) glasses. A chapter dedicated to the flaws of the UFC (issues with cheating and rampant substance abuse) is an insignificant footnote, reaching only six pages. Any negatives towards ultimate fighting are either dismissed or mentioned only in part. Just a few chapters after his abridged version of the low-points, he opens with comparing ultimate fighting to "space travel and neurosurgery". Later he likens it to ballet. I understand that there is a tremendous level of technical skill involved in the fighting, but at the core of it it's two men beating the life out of each other in a cage. It's not art. It's not beautiful. It may require countless hours of dedication and training but it's one sport that won't find the nickname "the beautiful game" (even though in the first chapter of the book he calls it "majestic").

Wertheim somehow sees no irony in claiming it's a "sport for Hemingways in a society of Dr. Phils" when on the same page they quote the UFC president as saying the league "is going to be the hugest f***ing thing in the f***ing world since sliced f***ing bread." I haven't read much Hemingway, but I don't recall a strong resemblance to that sentence and anything from "The Old Man and the Sea." This and countless other examples cheapen the book, as it tries to make the UFC something that it most assuredly is not . You cannot call the fighters "authentic and accessible" when later talking about Tito Ortiz's former meth addiction and his proclivity for wearing shirts with slogans such as "I just f***ed your a**" after defeating an opponent. He tells the stories of how these men, perceived as barbarians, are always willing to give autographs - but mentions afterwards they're contractually obligated to do so.

Yes, this book is flawed - but give it a read. It's an undoubtedly interesting topic that amid a few frustrating problems is laid out well. You just have to take everything - including a number of unverifiable Pat-Miletich-is-hardore stories - with a grain of salt. That, and ignore a bunch of lazy metaphors like "applied a chokehold" when referring to gaining a demographic and providing a "stiff jab" to overprotective people as those tend to pepper the pages throughout. But that shouldn't be enough to dissuade anyone from reading it; it's fascinating, for fans and non-fans alike.