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Raw Combat: The Underground World of Mixed Martial Arts
They fight in decrepit boxing gyms in the Bronx and Brooklyn, or on mats in hidden martial arts schools in Midtown Manhattan and Queens, each of them warriors in the truest sense of the word. In New York, where ultimate fighting (a.k.a. "mixed martial arts" or "human cockfighting", depending on who you ask) is banned, there exists a culture of a combat, a secret society populated by saintly thugs, mean-spirited pugilists, college students, tough guy wannabes and borderline psychotics, and in surreptitious events like the Underground Combat League they assemble for battle. Then they wage war.
Superstars like Forrest Griffin and Georges St. Pierre fight in sold-out arenas in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and London, fight before thousands in the full, warm embrace of state sanctioning and earn enough to buy new houses and cars and gigantic flat-screen televisions. But the real heroes are those in the trenches, in places where mixed martial arts is vulgar like a curse word. Those men are fighting in gyms or in basements, in the worst neighborhoods imaginable, before at most a hundred spectators, doing the illegal for no money, for no reasons other than a moment of glory and the sheer love of the sport. RAW COMBAT is their story.
RAW COMBAT takes you deep within the underground world of mixed martial arts, providing access to a realm few ever see and insight into the modern gladiators that exist there. There's James, the aspiring fighter from Long Island on a collision course with Mike, an instructor under Tiger Schulmann. There's Kaream, the pro fighter fallen from grace. There's Kimbo Slice, the most successful underground fighter ever, and of course there's Peter Storm, the man behind New York City's illicit fight circuit. RAW COMBAT introduces you to them all, and gives you an unprecedented up-close and personal look at their lives and struggles - and the secret world they exist in.
Superstars like Forrest Griffin and Georges St. Pierre fight in sold-out arenas in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and London, fight before thousands in the full, warm embrace of state sanctioning and earn enough to buy new houses and cars and gigantic flat-screen televisions. But the real heroes are those in the trenches, in places where mixed martial arts is vulgar like a curse word. Those men are fighting in gyms or in basements, in the worst neighborhoods imaginable, before at most a hundred spectators, doing the illegal for no money, for no reasons other than a moment of glory and the sheer love of the sport. RAW COMBAT is their story.
RAW COMBAT takes you deep within the underground world of mixed martial arts, providing access to a realm few ever see and insight into the modern gladiators that exist there. There's James, the aspiring fighter from Long Island on a collision course with Mike, an instructor under Tiger Schulmann. There's Kaream, the pro fighter fallen from grace. There's Kimbo Slice, the most successful underground fighter ever, and of course there's Peter Storm, the man behind New York City's illicit fight circuit. RAW COMBAT introduces you to them all, and gives you an unprecedented up-close and personal look at their lives and struggles - and the secret world they exist in.
- GenresSports
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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March 12, 2012
Outside of the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, M-1, Pride (RIP), WEC (RIP) and any other fairly high-profile pro MMA organizations that I have missed (which there are a bunch) there are people slugging it out and banging in smaller shows trying to make a name for themselves and beyond those smaller pro and amateur shows there are people in New York City (one of two States in the country that still has not made MMA fighting 'legal', (or that's what I've heard, looking on the internet it looks like there are three states where it is not legal, New York, Vermont and Connecticut, but Connecticut is weird because Mohegan Sun has it's own athletic commission and holds sanctioned MMA fights at their casino, so it's sorta legal there if you say the casino is part of Connecticut) who meet in martial art schools, boxing gyms and other venues they can find to hold fights with very few rules, no prize money and most of the time no doctors or EMTs on call. It's called the Underground Combat League (UCL) and it might be the most pure MMA 'organization' if you think of MMA as being a direct descendent of Vale Tudo, the no-holds barred, anything goes fighting competitions from Brazil.
I didn't know anything about the UCL until I came across this book at work a couple of weeks ago. Of course once I did see the book I became instantly fascinated with the idea of it's existence and I vowed to myself that I'd find a way to get to see one of the fights. I figured if I could play poker at an illegal 'club' run by some Russians I could find a way to partake in the other fairly legitimate activity that is legal in other parts of the country but not for us New Yorkers. I haven't actually seen one of these fights yet, but the book and the authors website did help clue me into some other MMA things going on in the Big Apple, things beyond just being able to take classes and spar sometimes (not that I want to fight, I just want to go watch, I'm probably too old to think of trying to actually fight at my age although it's a tempting thought).
It's slightly bizarre that MMA is illegal (illegal being a weird word here) in New York State. Schools run that offer MMA classes, and in those classes you can spar doing MMA. The major components of MMA: Boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Wrestling are all above board activities in New York. There are bjj tournaments, there is professional boxing and muay thai fights held at places like Madison Square Garden, just about every high school in the state probably has a Wrestling program, never mind most of the NCAA schools. There are also tournaments for the more traditional martial arts, like Karate, and Tae Kwon Do. But mixing them all together and letting a fighter chose between disciplines within a fight, that isn't above board, at least not in a sanctioned fight setting (and the New York State Athletic Commission is fairly strict about trying to shut down underground shows). As I said it's a tad bit strange or bizarre to me, especially since we're a long way from the early days of the UFC when Royce Gracie wrecked people in a seemingly effortless manner with his bjj and wrestlers were dropping boxers on their backs and then turning their faces into ground meat. The era of the purely one-dimensional fighter is for all purposes gone, and even the specialists (the 'pure' strikers, the 'pure' submission artists) still know they have to have some skills in the other areas to stand a chance. It's no longer a competition between mismatched disciplines and ineffective flashy martial arts, at least not at any sanctioned level. Of course everything I've said is pretty much common knowledge for anyone who pays any attention to MMA, the opposition is usually fairly uninformed when it comes to their arguments--but on a purely gut level it can be a little shocking the first time you watch someone get ground and pounded, or watch say see last weekends Strikeforce fight where one fighter snaps another fighters arm in a submission hold. That shock holds quite a bit of sway though and it's tough to explain to someone that there is more to the fights than pure barbarity and what looks like homoerotic groping on the ground.
That isn't necessarily true about the UCL though, where it sounds like you still can see a fight between a boxer and one of the power-animal style of martial arts and see which one prevails in an actual fight.
This book is about some of the people who fight in these underground bouts. It's also about what it would mean if MMA did get sanctioned in New York State, and to see that quite a bit of the book deals with quite active and quite regulated fight scene in New Jersey that has no major 'underground' scene, but does have sanctioned amateur fights (with quite a few rules that make the fights sound more like intense sparring bouts than an actual fight) and a variety of professional shows going on. The book also deals with some of the organizations that have made a run at the dominance of the UFC, doomed organizations like the IFL and EliteXC, which made it to network TV years before the UFC and had some of the highest viewed fights in MMA history but still managed to fall apart because of mismanagement and an upset loss in one fight by the one star they had, underground fighting legend and internet sensation, Kimbo Slice.
On an informational level the book is really interesting, especially for someone like me who likes MMA and watches a fair amount of the major events but doesn't have the time / energy / motivation / awareness / mobility / work schedule to look for the smaller shows going on in neighboring states, pay much if any attention to the big MMA forums like sherdog where I'm sure I'd be kept more in the know of what is going on in the less visible areas of the sport or who knows very many other people who are interested (at all) in this unlikely thing that I keep getting more and more fascinated by. Except for some of the big fighters who have come out of the NYC area and that there are some top notch schools in the area, I didn't really know anything about the MMA world of New Jersey, and figured there were probably some fights going on below the radar in New York, but I had no knowledge at all about them.
My problem with the book is that it got confusing at times with the names of people. I had a hard time following who some of the people in the book were, most of the people were only given first names, which I understand because there are some difficulties that can arise for fighters who have taken part in UCL style events in New York (some promoters won't allow fighters who took part in underground fights to fight in their events). I suck at remembering names, so this is mostly my fault, but I would have liked to get little clues to help me recall who people were, especially when they hadn't been mentioned for a few chapters. Similarly, there was a weird vagueness to some other details, like the author would mention that a fighter went on to fight a former UFC champion at an event in some other state, but the UFC champion (or former UFC fighter) wouldn't be named, just referred to cryptically. I'm sure I could have easily googled to find out who the author was talking about but it confused me a little why names weren't given. I wondered if there was some strange UFC rule in place, I've heard that they are sort of controlling to an unusual degree when it comes to what gets written about the organization, but else where in the book names like Forrest Griffin and BJ Penn get used so I don't think that is it.
The names thing got me kind of distracted while reading but it wasn't a huge deal. I think if I had a better memory for names I wouldn't have had this problem at all.
MMA fans in New York are definitely the target audience for this book, it's fun to read about the fights taking place in the corners of the five Boroughs, but there is definitely plenty of material that will interest people who aren't from NYC and are interested in professional fighting in general. The book ends with an attempt to explain why the author is drawn to covering this sort of fighting and I think he does a great job here explaining what it is that is so great about watching an MMA fight, that is something I don't think I've ever succeeded in doing once, even though I've given it my best at least a few times.
I didn't know anything about the UCL until I came across this book at work a couple of weeks ago. Of course once I did see the book I became instantly fascinated with the idea of it's existence and I vowed to myself that I'd find a way to get to see one of the fights. I figured if I could play poker at an illegal 'club' run by some Russians I could find a way to partake in the other fairly legitimate activity that is legal in other parts of the country but not for us New Yorkers. I haven't actually seen one of these fights yet, but the book and the authors website did help clue me into some other MMA things going on in the Big Apple, things beyond just being able to take classes and spar sometimes (not that I want to fight, I just want to go watch, I'm probably too old to think of trying to actually fight at my age although it's a tempting thought).
It's slightly bizarre that MMA is illegal (illegal being a weird word here) in New York State. Schools run that offer MMA classes, and in those classes you can spar doing MMA. The major components of MMA: Boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Wrestling are all above board activities in New York. There are bjj tournaments, there is professional boxing and muay thai fights held at places like Madison Square Garden, just about every high school in the state probably has a Wrestling program, never mind most of the NCAA schools. There are also tournaments for the more traditional martial arts, like Karate, and Tae Kwon Do. But mixing them all together and letting a fighter chose between disciplines within a fight, that isn't above board, at least not in a sanctioned fight setting (and the New York State Athletic Commission is fairly strict about trying to shut down underground shows). As I said it's a tad bit strange or bizarre to me, especially since we're a long way from the early days of the UFC when Royce Gracie wrecked people in a seemingly effortless manner with his bjj and wrestlers were dropping boxers on their backs and then turning their faces into ground meat. The era of the purely one-dimensional fighter is for all purposes gone, and even the specialists (the 'pure' strikers, the 'pure' submission artists) still know they have to have some skills in the other areas to stand a chance. It's no longer a competition between mismatched disciplines and ineffective flashy martial arts, at least not at any sanctioned level. Of course everything I've said is pretty much common knowledge for anyone who pays any attention to MMA, the opposition is usually fairly uninformed when it comes to their arguments--but on a purely gut level it can be a little shocking the first time you watch someone get ground and pounded, or watch say see last weekends Strikeforce fight where one fighter snaps another fighters arm in a submission hold. That shock holds quite a bit of sway though and it's tough to explain to someone that there is more to the fights than pure barbarity and what looks like homoerotic groping on the ground.
That isn't necessarily true about the UCL though, where it sounds like you still can see a fight between a boxer and one of the power-animal style of martial arts and see which one prevails in an actual fight.
This book is about some of the people who fight in these underground bouts. It's also about what it would mean if MMA did get sanctioned in New York State, and to see that quite a bit of the book deals with quite active and quite regulated fight scene in New Jersey that has no major 'underground' scene, but does have sanctioned amateur fights (with quite a few rules that make the fights sound more like intense sparring bouts than an actual fight) and a variety of professional shows going on. The book also deals with some of the organizations that have made a run at the dominance of the UFC, doomed organizations like the IFL and EliteXC, which made it to network TV years before the UFC and had some of the highest viewed fights in MMA history but still managed to fall apart because of mismanagement and an upset loss in one fight by the one star they had, underground fighting legend and internet sensation, Kimbo Slice.
On an informational level the book is really interesting, especially for someone like me who likes MMA and watches a fair amount of the major events but doesn't have the time / energy / motivation / awareness / mobility / work schedule to look for the smaller shows going on in neighboring states, pay much if any attention to the big MMA forums like sherdog where I'm sure I'd be kept more in the know of what is going on in the less visible areas of the sport or who knows very many other people who are interested (at all) in this unlikely thing that I keep getting more and more fascinated by. Except for some of the big fighters who have come out of the NYC area and that there are some top notch schools in the area, I didn't really know anything about the MMA world of New Jersey, and figured there were probably some fights going on below the radar in New York, but I had no knowledge at all about them.
My problem with the book is that it got confusing at times with the names of people. I had a hard time following who some of the people in the book were, most of the people were only given first names, which I understand because there are some difficulties that can arise for fighters who have taken part in UCL style events in New York (some promoters won't allow fighters who took part in underground fights to fight in their events). I suck at remembering names, so this is mostly my fault, but I would have liked to get little clues to help me recall who people were, especially when they hadn't been mentioned for a few chapters. Similarly, there was a weird vagueness to some other details, like the author would mention that a fighter went on to fight a former UFC champion at an event in some other state, but the UFC champion (or former UFC fighter) wouldn't be named, just referred to cryptically. I'm sure I could have easily googled to find out who the author was talking about but it confused me a little why names weren't given. I wondered if there was some strange UFC rule in place, I've heard that they are sort of controlling to an unusual degree when it comes to what gets written about the organization, but else where in the book names like Forrest Griffin and BJ Penn get used so I don't think that is it.
The names thing got me kind of distracted while reading but it wasn't a huge deal. I think if I had a better memory for names I wouldn't have had this problem at all.
MMA fans in New York are definitely the target audience for this book, it's fun to read about the fights taking place in the corners of the five Boroughs, but there is definitely plenty of material that will interest people who aren't from NYC and are interested in professional fighting in general. The book ends with an attempt to explain why the author is drawn to covering this sort of fighting and I think he does a great job here explaining what it is that is so great about watching an MMA fight, that is something I don't think I've ever succeeded in doing once, even though I've given it my best at least a few times.
January 3, 2016
The main failure of this book is that it simply doesn't deliver on its premise. Only a small part of the book is actually about underground fighting and that isn't particularly interesting or compelling. Most of the book is actually about life in the minor leagues of mixed martial arts which is a fine topic for a book but that wasn't why I wanted to read this.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews