Brawl: A Behind-the-scenes Look at Mixed Martial Arts Competition

by Erich Krauss, Bret Aita

A hard-hitting, no-punches-pulled look at the uncompromising world of mixed martial arts fighting, in which masters of every kind of combat are pitted against each other. Chronicling MMA's turbulent history from its inception at the Greek Olympic Games through its glorification in Japan and growing popularity in Europe and the U.S., Brawl offers personal interviews with legendary fighters and 50 b/w photos.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 17, 2011

Reviews

[Kym Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to have read this book just before my first professional MMA fight in 2003. I found that this book was both in depth and inspiring as it covered many of the then super stars of MMA-NHB. To have their stories and fights covered with such prose was at the time and to this day quite refreshing.

Combat Sports writing outside of boxing tends to read a lot like extended magazine articles or advertisements for specific fighters or promotions. Krauss in 'Brawl' however manages to tap into some of the regal writing which is usually only reserved for the better pages of boxing story telling. This is a quality that few have managed to achieve even to this day.

Looking back to 2002, when this book was published, one can appreciate that MMA has come a long way. But often many who did not live through the period especially fail to realise is just how far in the first modern decade of MMA that the sport had evolved in both vastness of talented variety and speed in which its star grew.

The book seeks to cover much of this and covers the period from the first UFC in 1993 to the Zuffa purhcasing of it in 2001. Outside of the UFC and its star stealing marque were the other often forgotten shows such as WCC, Extreme Fighting, WEC, the Japanese and Brazilian Vale Tudos, Shooto, Pancrase, IFC, etc. Not to mention in 1997 when Pride Fighting Championships emerged on the scene to give a tremendous counter balance to the UFC and its Americancentric focus of the sport.

I think that this is a book that should not be left un opened by any serious MMA fan.

88 %

[Joshua Stein · Rating 2 out of 5]

By and large, the book is fine. The writing is a bit exaggerated at some point, and can feel a bit odd fluctuating back and forth between the highly stylized and the more pointed and direct. There are parts of the story that Krauss tells which are very solid, especially during the early years; he deserves applause for gathering some research. Unfortunately, the book lacks the depth of many of the other accounts of the development of the UFC, and so it's hard to recommend in comparison to, say, Art Davies' Is this Legal? or even Ken Shamrock's memoir. While Brawl covers a greater period of time, it feels like it does so at the expense of the real intrigue, relying on the drama of the fights instead.

I'm not really sympathetic to the play-by-play style of the writing. It doesn't really commit to a style. At some points it is serious and at other points comical, but it only really does either of those moods in a superficial way, and doesn't really swing for the fences with it. Because of the volume of fights, and Krauss' desire to cover all of them, it seems like the book winds up glossing over a lot of the material that it'd do really well to cover in more depth.

Overall, I think it's a fine book, and does a little bit to give an idea of the cast of characters in the early years, but I do think that those who are seriously interested in the history will find most of the knowledge pretty superficial and the storytelling less than satisfying. As an introduction, I think that this book does a good job; MMA fans who want to get a grip on the history can learn a good amount from it, and that's a fine audience to target, but it didn't do enough for me.