The Evolution of Kos

Love him or hate him, Josh Koscheck’s rise from serial wrestler to one of the most complete fighters in the UFC can’t be anything but respected. “To be honest, I’m not sure I even want to do this,”Josh…

On The Utility of Struggle and The Art of Rising

I. MOTORCYCLE HILL “You must make friends with suffering!” Greg Jackson shouts to a group of about 15 professional fighters and one aging, but aspiring, participatory journalist as we all struggle up a diabolically…

The Finisher

The Trident Bookstore and Café is just how it sounds - a sleepy, pseudo hippie hangout on the west side of Boston set in an old Brownstone with several floors of reading material and acoustic tunes to enhance your reading experience.…

Command Performance

ZAYED’S DREAM Highway E 11 cuts 79 miles through the great Rub’ al Khali desert between the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. FIGHT! Staff Photographer Paul Thatcher is piloting a tiny blue rental car as we speed down…

Hall of Fame 2010

Major League Baseball has Cooperstown. The National Football League has Canton. MMA has FIGHT! Magazine. Ok, ok, so we’re not quite as prestigious as Cooperstown, but great mixed martial artists needed a place where they could be…

Don't Judge Me

I am cornering my team in an MMA event, and I look at the judges and think: These people cannot possibly be qualified. Two of the judges are men who are older than dirt and the other is a woman with a bouffant hairdo. Give me a freaking…

The Circle of Fight

Seedy bars, seedier strip clubs, hospital rooms, and crazy after-parties—I have spent the night after fights at all of these locations. Fights are the culmination of years of blood and sweat. From the moment the fight ends until…

Using The Force

At 11-0, Ryan “Darth” Bader has quickly become a force in the UFC light heavyweight division. Now, he’s taking the biggest gamble of his career—leaving Arizona Combat Sports and creating his own gym with friends CB…

Here For The Brawl

Utter the name Leonard Garcia to die hard MMA fans, and they will likely smile before launching into a verbal tornado of praise and admiration that parallels the very fighting style of Garcia himself. Whether it’s a…