THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO ULTIMATE FIGHTING
Rich Franklin with Jon F. Merz
(Alpha, 2007, 277 pgs., $19.95)
If you consider yourself an MMA idiot, as I often do, you will probably appreciate “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ultimate Fighting.” If you are getting set to watch your first UFC pay-per-view, you may want to pick up this manual and study it a little.
It’s light reading, but for the newbie, it’s got some value as a ready reference. It is written (with help from Jon F. Merz) by Rich Franklin, the former UFC champ who knows this territory, as his background is as a teacher. Yes, it’s a UFC book, and so the brief history of mixed martial arts is slanted heavily toward the UFC. But you’re going to get a pretty good idea of what it is and where it came from. The basic rules and regulations are covered, so that you come to the firm understanding that, for example, eye-gouging, which might be a staple of the WWE, isn’t allowed
here.
There is also a concise explanation of the various disciplines involved in a “mixed” martial arts competition - including Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling (freestyle and Greco Roman versions), boxing, kick-boxing and judo.
And more than half the volume is dedicated to strategy and technique, going through a rather detailed illustration (for the idiot, that means there’s a lot of pictures) of all the various holds and maneuvers, so that when you’re watching that UFC pay-per-view with other newbies, you can sound a lot like Joe Rogan.
As a bonus, you get a complete chapter on “The Rich Franklin Story,” which, I imagine, was part of the deal he negotiated to write this thing.
There are useful sidebars throughout, coming in the form of “FightSpeak” (UFC terms defined and explained), “Fighter Facts” (stats and trivia related to the UFC and its competitors) and “Notable Fights” (which takes the reader through UFC history). And there are a load of brief thumbnails on fighters past and present, including Anderson Silva, Randy Couture, Royce Gracie, Tank Abbott, Kenny Florian, Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Mark Coleman, B.J. Penn and many more.
Franklin’s handiwork may not make you as strong of an expert as Larry Goldberg, but there won’t be any more idiot-itis after reading this book.
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