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How do MMA fights really go down? Fightnomics explores all the data and answers all the big questions of Mixed Martial Arts with a little bit of science and a whole lot of numbers.
Paperback
First published December 9, 2013
17 people are currently reading
229 people want to read
About the author
Kelly Crigger
12 books21 followersI’ve written for a plethora of Mixed Martial Arts outlets and in 2007 wrote Title Shot about my journey through the world of professional fighting. That led to two books about Greg Jackson's fighting techniques. A few years ago I met Zak Bagans and struck up a friendship. We decided to write a book about the paranormal together which hit the New York Times bestseller list in October, 2011 and released a sequel in 2015. I wrote a dark humor book about midlife called Curmudgeonism. My debut novel, The Comfort Station, was released in 2016. I'm also the President and owner of Graybeard Publishing.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 16, 2014
Very interesting. If you like good analysis of the fight game then this one is for you. Already seeing evidence of what the author purposes in the latest events.
February 27, 2015
Didn't learn anything I didn't know already.
2/5 Stars
2/5 Stars
March 19, 2017
How much does age influence a fight? Only relevant if you are more than 4 years younger.
And arm reach? Significant if at least 2 inches longer.
How about age and experience? It makes you less vulnerable to submissions, more vulnerable to KOs.
Or, even better, how much does it influence to have a crowd cheering for you? A lot if you are a Brazilian.
Reed Kuhn takes the Fighmetrics data and analyzes it inch by inch and validates - or exposes - most of the myths regarding MMA. And he goes on to answer many of the questions above. It could've been written a lot shorter though. And I'd like to see this updated with data post-2013 and new data from Fightmetrics - as leg reach.
And arm reach? Significant if at least 2 inches longer.
How about age and experience? It makes you less vulnerable to submissions, more vulnerable to KOs.
Or, even better, how much does it influence to have a crowd cheering for you? A lot if you are a Brazilian.
Reed Kuhn takes the Fighmetrics data and analyzes it inch by inch and validates - or exposes - most of the myths regarding MMA. And he goes on to answer many of the questions above. It could've been written a lot shorter though. And I'd like to see this updated with data post-2013 and new data from Fightmetrics - as leg reach.
April 5, 2016
“A little bit of data can go a long way.”
The above quote hails from Reed Kuhn, author of the new book Fightnomics: The Hidden Numbers and Science in Mixed Martial Arts and Why There’s No Such Thing as a Fair Fight. Kuhn, a former scientific consultant for the United States military, walked away from his career of management consulting to focus on writing this book, which some have compared to Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, a book that helped revolutionize modern baseball statistics.
Kuhn understands the comparisons, and responded in kind during a guest appearance on my podcast, The Verbal Submission, earlier this week:
“Moneyball was more of a story about a guy who used numbers and the Sabermetrics system for a sport. This book is a bit more foundational because I’m trying to define all the variables at play. Fightmetric is quoted quite a bit on TV, but a lot of people don’t really know what the data holds like I do because I work with that data. This is supposed to be covering some of that and it’s also telling a story about what you can do with that whether it’s testing hypothesis, debunking things, proving hidden trends within the fight game that maybe we weren’t even aware of.”
So let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Is Fightnomics worth your hard earned cash?
Short answer: absolutely. Unlike sports like baseball, where you can’t go more than 30 seconds without having a new statistic thrown your way, mixed martial arts is still relatively new, which means statistics have yet to take a foothold in the overall viewers’ conscious. The possibilities are endless, but thankfully Fightnomics starts small and builds along the way.
Early on, the book simply explains what got Kuhn interested in this niche within a niche to begin with, then elaborates to the history of organized combat, bringing all sorts of examples from the old Greek Olympics all the way back to ritualistic displays of dominance in the animal kingdom. Talk about being thorough.
Kuhn plays it smart and doesn’t overwhelm the audience early, focusing on simple statistics at first, like how fights are finished, explaining what goes into the creation of Fightmetric data before advancing to something everyone can understand, striking statistics. Visuals are important, as Kuhn loads up Fightnomics with a plethora of charts, graphs and pictures to reference nearly all important points.
It’s only after the reader has begun to absorb the data that things start to get really juicy. What began with something as simple as the finishing rates of fights quickly evolves into complex issues like specific success rate of different types of submissions and eventually Kuhn begins attacking all different sorts of commonly held notions like the Southpaw advantage, ring rust and how important it is to fight in your home country. Data concerning each topic is analyzed and thankfully, all important conclusions are then bolded to help them stand out.
Nothing is sacred. Kuhn tackles everything from the affect of aging on a fighter to what types of submissions are more likely to result in a fight night bonus. I found it very interesting to learn that while older fighters tend to finish their victorious fights at the same rates as they did in their youth, the complete opposite rings true when they’re on the losing end. As the age of a fighter increases, the chances that they get finished when they lose skyrockets. Perhaps that was a commonly held assertion, but now Kuhn presents the data to back it up.
This type of information is not only important to know if you’re a fan or coach, it could be vital to the MMA gambler. In fact, Kuhn devotes an entire chapter to betting on MMA and how betters can utilize data to make a few bucks. Granted, the Vegas odds are historically an accurate assessment of picking the correct winners, but Kuhn searches for and finds meaning in the instances where the betting public got it wrong.
As solid of a read as it was, Fightnomics isn’t perfect. Granted, my copy was an early review edition, but my inner editor did get alerted every once in a while to occasional grammatical error. Also, the Foreword of the book, written by co-author Kelly Crigger, undercuts some of the important data by incorrectly referring to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Mark Coleman as a former Olympic silver medalist in one of the opening sentences (Coleman won a silver medal in the 1991 World Freestyle Wrestling Championships but placed seventh in the 1992 Summer Olympics). Putting each fight in context is also important. That being said, the overall buffet of information presented far outweighs any minor errors in the early going.
Is Fightnomics for everyone? I enjoyed it immensely, but I have to say no. If you’re the type of fan who embraces the technical aspects of mixed martial arts, you will absolutely love this book. From hardcore MMA fans to curious casuals, this book is definitely for you, but as much as Kuhn wishes it was the case, the “Just Bleed” bloodlusters who are only watching the fights to see the car wrecks are not the target audience.
Overall, however, Fightnomics does a fantastic job of tackling the myths of the sport and presenting new and potentially revolutionary theories. There’s a ton of information to digest here, but it’s worth sifting through to find each golden nugget of truth behind the numbers. Ultimate Fighting Championship just celebrated its 20th anniversary late last year, and with detailed analysis and modern statistics from books like Fightnomics leading the charge, the next 20 years look very bright indeed.
The above quote hails from Reed Kuhn, author of the new book Fightnomics: The Hidden Numbers and Science in Mixed Martial Arts and Why There’s No Such Thing as a Fair Fight. Kuhn, a former scientific consultant for the United States military, walked away from his career of management consulting to focus on writing this book, which some have compared to Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, a book that helped revolutionize modern baseball statistics.
Kuhn understands the comparisons, and responded in kind during a guest appearance on my podcast, The Verbal Submission, earlier this week:
“Moneyball was more of a story about a guy who used numbers and the Sabermetrics system for a sport. This book is a bit more foundational because I’m trying to define all the variables at play. Fightmetric is quoted quite a bit on TV, but a lot of people don’t really know what the data holds like I do because I work with that data. This is supposed to be covering some of that and it’s also telling a story about what you can do with that whether it’s testing hypothesis, debunking things, proving hidden trends within the fight game that maybe we weren’t even aware of.”
So let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Is Fightnomics worth your hard earned cash?
Short answer: absolutely. Unlike sports like baseball, where you can’t go more than 30 seconds without having a new statistic thrown your way, mixed martial arts is still relatively new, which means statistics have yet to take a foothold in the overall viewers’ conscious. The possibilities are endless, but thankfully Fightnomics starts small and builds along the way.
Early on, the book simply explains what got Kuhn interested in this niche within a niche to begin with, then elaborates to the history of organized combat, bringing all sorts of examples from the old Greek Olympics all the way back to ritualistic displays of dominance in the animal kingdom. Talk about being thorough.
Kuhn plays it smart and doesn’t overwhelm the audience early, focusing on simple statistics at first, like how fights are finished, explaining what goes into the creation of Fightmetric data before advancing to something everyone can understand, striking statistics. Visuals are important, as Kuhn loads up Fightnomics with a plethora of charts, graphs and pictures to reference nearly all important points.
It’s only after the reader has begun to absorb the data that things start to get really juicy. What began with something as simple as the finishing rates of fights quickly evolves into complex issues like specific success rate of different types of submissions and eventually Kuhn begins attacking all different sorts of commonly held notions like the Southpaw advantage, ring rust and how important it is to fight in your home country. Data concerning each topic is analyzed and thankfully, all important conclusions are then bolded to help them stand out.
Nothing is sacred. Kuhn tackles everything from the affect of aging on a fighter to what types of submissions are more likely to result in a fight night bonus. I found it very interesting to learn that while older fighters tend to finish their victorious fights at the same rates as they did in their youth, the complete opposite rings true when they’re on the losing end. As the age of a fighter increases, the chances that they get finished when they lose skyrockets. Perhaps that was a commonly held assertion, but now Kuhn presents the data to back it up.
This type of information is not only important to know if you’re a fan or coach, it could be vital to the MMA gambler. In fact, Kuhn devotes an entire chapter to betting on MMA and how betters can utilize data to make a few bucks. Granted, the Vegas odds are historically an accurate assessment of picking the correct winners, but Kuhn searches for and finds meaning in the instances where the betting public got it wrong.
As solid of a read as it was, Fightnomics isn’t perfect. Granted, my copy was an early review edition, but my inner editor did get alerted every once in a while to occasional grammatical error. Also, the Foreword of the book, written by co-author Kelly Crigger, undercuts some of the important data by incorrectly referring to former UFC Heavyweight Champion Mark Coleman as a former Olympic silver medalist in one of the opening sentences (Coleman won a silver medal in the 1991 World Freestyle Wrestling Championships but placed seventh in the 1992 Summer Olympics). Putting each fight in context is also important. That being said, the overall buffet of information presented far outweighs any minor errors in the early going.
Is Fightnomics for everyone? I enjoyed it immensely, but I have to say no. If you’re the type of fan who embraces the technical aspects of mixed martial arts, you will absolutely love this book. From hardcore MMA fans to curious casuals, this book is definitely for you, but as much as Kuhn wishes it was the case, the “Just Bleed” bloodlusters who are only watching the fights to see the car wrecks are not the target audience.
Overall, however, Fightnomics does a fantastic job of tackling the myths of the sport and presenting new and potentially revolutionary theories. There’s a ton of information to digest here, but it’s worth sifting through to find each golden nugget of truth behind the numbers. Ultimate Fighting Championship just celebrated its 20th anniversary late last year, and with detailed analysis and modern statistics from books like Fightnomics leading the charge, the next 20 years look very bright indeed.
Read
November 29, 2023Because our sport evolves so rapidly, this book includes some outdated information and inaccurate conclusions. It is a fun and a tought-provoking read though. I would really like to see a modern version of it.
March 6, 2017
The book was informative and I have learnt a lot about the sport of MMA from it, but I thought it was dragged out a little bit.
May 29, 2015
Reed Kuhn provides some excellent insight in the numbers in the sport of MMA. The book focuses solely on statistics for UFC and MMA organizations that were acquired by UFC, i.e. Strikeforce and WEC. Some of the questions he addresses with statistics are whether the smaller WEC octagon led to more finishes (it did), if reach advantage is really an advantage (it is), whether being southpaw is an advantage (it is, but not for obvious reasons), whether ring rust is a factor, do winning or losing streaks have an outcome on future fights, whether there is a home cage advantage, if missing weight is a disadvantage and many many more.
The information on MMA betting is very enlightening. Unfortunately there was not much of it. I would have liked a more thorough treatment of that topic but I suppose the book does not claim to be focused on MMA betting.
I found that I oftentimes had to trust Reed's analysis and assume that he was working with a large enough sample size to reach the conclusions he was presenting in the book. He does provide a disclaimer at the beginning of the book stating that the book is not a scientific work and sometimes throughout the chapters he provides gentle reminders of that.
I found the chapter on "World Cup of MMA" entertaining but somewhat pointless and silly. The New Zealanders are the best fighters in the world with a staggering win rate of 72%? This is based on a sample size of 4 fighters so it is meaningless.
All shortcomings aside I found the book to be a thrilling ride through the numbers behind the best sport on the planet and hope to apply some of the advice from betting in practice.
The information on MMA betting is very enlightening. Unfortunately there was not much of it. I would have liked a more thorough treatment of that topic but I suppose the book does not claim to be focused on MMA betting.
I found that I oftentimes had to trust Reed's analysis and assume that he was working with a large enough sample size to reach the conclusions he was presenting in the book. He does provide a disclaimer at the beginning of the book stating that the book is not a scientific work and sometimes throughout the chapters he provides gentle reminders of that.
I found the chapter on "World Cup of MMA" entertaining but somewhat pointless and silly. The New Zealanders are the best fighters in the world with a staggering win rate of 72%? This is based on a sample size of 4 fighters so it is meaningless.
All shortcomings aside I found the book to be a thrilling ride through the numbers behind the best sport on the planet and hope to apply some of the advice from betting in practice.
January 11, 2016
Analytics or statistics is all the rage in sports; especially after the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt. NBA is becoming more statistics focused and is opening up the game to a whole different sort of analysis as well as team building. For example, Golden State was said to be built on analytics and is doing awesome compared to other teams.
The problem I have with this book is that I just did not find its analysis in helping me make better sense of how I see fights. Sure, he did use statistics to prove the likelihood of knockouts occurring more in earlier rounds, less submissions happening in later rounds, southpaw fighters having the advantage considering other variables, etc. and provided explanations as to why that is. But that's the whole point - if you already know the fight game (UFC) and have some intuition, you could have come up with this analysis without using statistics. In fact, thinking about the fights through the prism of statistics just makes the sport more boring. I'm sure many fans in basketball may feel the same.
So this book, while somewhat interesting because of its analytical angle, was not really a pleasure to read and I have to admit, I skipped 20% of the book because I just found it uninteresting. If you love MMA and love statistics, this book may be for you.
The problem I have with this book is that I just did not find its analysis in helping me make better sense of how I see fights. Sure, he did use statistics to prove the likelihood of knockouts occurring more in earlier rounds, less submissions happening in later rounds, southpaw fighters having the advantage considering other variables, etc. and provided explanations as to why that is. But that's the whole point - if you already know the fight game (UFC) and have some intuition, you could have come up with this analysis without using statistics. In fact, thinking about the fights through the prism of statistics just makes the sport more boring. I'm sure many fans in basketball may feel the same.
So this book, while somewhat interesting because of its analytical angle, was not really a pleasure to read and I have to admit, I skipped 20% of the book because I just found it uninteresting. If you love MMA and love statistics, this book may be for you.
March 10, 2014
For the geek in every MMA fan, or perhaps, for the MMA fan in the geek! The author was a management consultant by day (he has quit his job to run MMA stats full time) and his statistical skills are legit. He runs various studies, including to test questions such as whether there is a home country advantage (yes but only some), a left hander advantage (yes, and lefties have difficulty even against other lefties), how much tape measures matter (e.g. height doesn't matter unless you also have reach; youth matters a lot because older guys get knocked down more, though their submission defence gets better), explains some fancy metrics (knock down rate, significant strikes attempted per minute, takedowns, etc), whether ring rust exists (yes), and lots of other awesome stuff!
January 10, 2019
Enlightening, but Kuhn is working from some readily available stats and he's not really noticing things that Dan Hardy and other commentators miss. Until we get into biometrics and computer-tracked ring movement, we'll be working off the pretty standard tabulated info, which is easy enough for laypeople to parse ("reach," "significant strikes," "takedowns defended," etc.). A useful overview of all this statistical material in the MMA context, for sure.
October 24, 2014
Reed Kuhn details the results of his statistical analyses of MMA fights. Although this approach will be familiar to many sports fans, it is the most in depth treatment of its kind that I've seen for MMA. Kuhn's findings will be very interesting for fans, MMA bettors, sports statistics aficionados, or anybody looking to gain more insight into what can seem to be a chaotic sport.
June 5, 2014
A book about comparing means.
July 20, 2018
Must read for anyone who likes betting on mma.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews