Michael Staack’s multi-year ethnography is the first and only comprehensive social-scientific analysis of the combat sport ‘Mixed Martial Arts’. Based on systematic training observations, the author meticulously analyses how Mixed Martial Arts practitioners conjointly create and immerse themselves into their own world of ultimate bodily combat. With his examination of concentrative technique demonstrations, cooperative technique train-ings, and chaotic sparring practices, Staack not only provides a sociological illumination of Mixed Martial Arts culture’s defining theme – the quest of ‘Fighting As Real As It Gets’. Rather further-more, he provides a compelling cultural-sociological case study on practical social constructions of ‘authenticity’.

Techniques learned in the dojo rarely work in a real fight. Here the author of A Bouncer's Guide to Barroom Brawling offers a practical solution. Learn how to control the rush of adrenaline into your system and harness it effectively to shut down the bully's antics or pound him into the pavement when all else fails.

A comprehensive and detailed history of the UFC and the men who participate in ultimate fighting showdowns.

She can uncover the biggest celebrity secrets. But now Maya Morgan's hottest story ever is way too up-close-and-personal . . . For once, everything in Maya's life is falling perfectly into place. She's getting serious media cred uncovering the source of a new designer drug doing major glitterati damage. And the new man in her life is giving Maya all the cool bling and attention she craves off-camera. But the truth behind her scoop is about to cut too close to home--and put Maya and her family in the crosshairs. Soon, she'll have to decide just how far she can afford to go to save her family, her career. . .and herself. "Sit up and pay attention--Maya Morgan will knock your socks off." --Earl Sewell, author of The Keysha Diaries "Scandal and mouth dropping entertainment!" --Ni-Ni Simone

Kicking ass and taking notes—what it’s like to be a woman in the ring. Alison Dean teaches English literature. She also punches people. Hard. But despite several amateur fights under her belt, she knows she will never be taken as seriously as a male boxer. “You punch like a girl” still isn’t a compliment — women aren’t supposed to choose to participate in violence. Her unique perspective as a 30-something university lecturer turned amateur fighter allows Dean to articulately and with great insight delve into the ways martial arts can change a person’s — and particularly a woman’s — relationship to their body and to the world around them, and at the same time considers the ways in which women might change martial arts. Combining historical research, anecdotal experience, and interviews with coaches and fighters, Seconds Out explores our culture’s relationship with violence, and particularly with violence practiced by women. "An important addition to women’s martial arts scholarship, Dean provides personal insight into the radical space women occupy in sport fighting. Seconds Out is a must-read for all fighters looking for mentors in the complicated world of martial arts." —L.A. Jennings, author of Mixed Martial Arts: A History from Ancient Fighting Sports to the UFC "Dean brings a fresh new female voice to the topic of combat sports." —Trevor Wittman, renowned MMA trainer, UFC analyst, and founder of ONX Sports "Trained in the discipline and art of both fighting and literature, Dean combines both with style. She honors the fighters, writers, and historians who have come before her and definitively ends the idea of women fighters as a novelty. Seconds Out is a must-read for anyone who feels the call of the bell and reverence for a good fight." —Sue Jaye Johnson

"The Invention of Martial Arts examines the media history of what we now call 'martial arts' and argues that martial arts is a cultural construction that was born in film, TV and other media. It argues that 'martial arts' exploded into popular consciousness entirely thanks to the work of media. Of course, the book does not deny the existence of real, material histories and non-media dimensions in martial arts practices. But it thoroughly recasts the status of such histories, combining recent myth-busting findings in historical martial arts research with important insights into the discontinuous character of history, the widespread 'invention of tradition', the orientalism and imagined geographies that animate many ideas about history, and the frequent manipulation of history for reasons of status, cultural capital, private or public power, politics, and/or financial gain. In doing so, The Invention of Martial Arts argues for the primacy of media representation as key player in the emergence and spread of martial arts. This argument overturns the dominant belief that 'real practices' are primary, while representations are secondary. The book makes its case via historical analysis of the British media history of such Eastern and Western martial arts as Bartitsu, jujutsu, judo, karate, tai chi and MMA across a range of media, from newspapers, comics and books to cartoon, film and TV series, as well as television adverts and music videos, focusing on key but often overlooked texts such as adverts for 'Hai Karate', the 1970s disco hit 'Kung Fu Fighting', and many other mainstream and marginal media texts"--

Three strong-willed women--Reece, a lawyer; Maxie, a struggling journalist; and Charlotte, a real estate agent--encounter the ups and downs of life as they search for true love and fulfillment.

Here is a book crammed full of secret fighting techniques never before divulged in print: the Oriental delayed death touch, the destruction wrought on by the fingertips of an obscure Mexican; the shout of doom; the method so terrible it is practiced only in Russian torture chambers, the niceties of Thugee strangulation; and many more vicious fighting tricks. Suppressed for generations! Twenty of the world's most secretly guarded fighting techniques vividly described in one volume. The average reader will find this book amazing--almost unbelievable. But many thousands of rugged young men currently practicing and writing about Oriental martial arts in the United States will find it invaluable. They know that such techniques exist, but have never before had the opportunity to learn them. Even those who scoff at such amazing arts should read this book with care.

In recent years, mixed martial arts, also known as "ultimate fighting", has become the fastest-growing sport in American society, but it is also considered the most controversial. Based on interviews conducted with forty mixed martial arts athletes, Fighting for Acceptance answers these questions: Who are the ultimate fighters? How did they become involved in the sport? What goes on in their heads while competing? Do the fighters feel a social responsibility to preach nonviolence out of the sport? How do they see themselves fitting into today's society? Authors David Mayeda, a mixed martial arts fan and occasional fighter, and David Ching explore these political and sociological issues through in-depth interviews with fighters such as Randy "The Natural" Couture, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, "Dangerous" Dan Henderson, Jason "MayheM" Miller, Antonio McKee, Frank Trigg, Travis Lutter, Chris "The Crippler" Leben, and Guy Mezger. Fighting for Acceptance is for the sport's fans and its critics alike as it delves into the ramifications of the athletic event. This growing phenomenon is so controversial that many still question if it should even be considered a sport.

‘Fighting Scholars’ offers the first book-length overview of the ethnographic study of martial arts and combat sports. The book’s main claim is that such activities represent privileged grounds to access different social dimensions, such as emotion, violence, pain, gender, ethnicity and religion. In order to explore these dimensions, the concept of ‘habitus’ is presented prominently as an epistemic remedy for the academic distant gaze of the effaced academic body. The book’s most innovative features are its empirical focus and theoretical orientation. While ethnographic research is a widespread and popular approach within the social sciences, combat sports and martial arts have yet to be sufficiently interrogated from an ethnographic standpoint. The different contributions of this volume are aligned within the same project that began to crystallize in Loïc Wacquant’s ‘Body and Soul’: the construction of a ‘carnal sociology’ that constitutes an exploration of the social world ‘from’ the body.