It's easy to do well when all you know is success, but it shows what your really made of when you get beaten.

There is the over-used saying (this isn't the only one, the commentators are full of them) that a fighter learns a lot about himself after his first loss. He's a golden boy who took one punch to the chin and never fully recovered his confidence. Even if he wins the fight he has still lost it before he ever stepped into the ring. Reading the book you'll probably find yourself hoping that the main character will pull off the upset longshot victory (and maybe he does), but this isn't a story about the brassy motivated Rocky type, it's the story of a loser. *(I'm including some more MMA stuff in this footnote, and not littering the actual review with it). And because the fight world loves rematches these two are being set to fight again. The newbie who made him kiss the canvas is now the champ who destroys everyone who comes his way. Fear? Uncertainty? And he went from promising up and comer to an average grinder who won some and lost some but never looked the same in the cage again. After that he lost something in his fight game. He went undefeated for a bunch of fights until he lost to some new kid who everyone expected him to walk all over. Earlier in the fighter's career he'd been the promising up and comer. The basic gist of the novel is a on the decline fighter is scheduled to fight the current champ of a small-name organization.

And it's also not the kind of book that should the cover it does. Why this one? Because it's not really a book about fighting (or it is but not really about fisticuffs, if you want to call dealing with the demons in your head fighting, than yes this is about that). I'm assuming you don't care about MMA, and probably think it's stupid/barbaric/a blood sport/gay/not a real sport like boxing/just another professional wrestling organization. If you are going to read one book about MMA I'd probably recommend this one to you.

Got fight by forrest griffin