A week or so ago, the people at Hydra Head Records asked me if I would be I interested in receiving a copy of an audio book titled, “Fight: Everything You ever Wanted to Know About Ass Kicking, but were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked For Asking”, authored by award winning journalist and competitive martial artist Eugene S. Robinson.

My response? Bring it on. Free MMA stuff is always good in my book.

I got the package today. My first initial response was “Damn… I have not purchased a CD in a very long time”. They didn’t skimp on the packaging. The Audio book is a 2CD set complete with a pretty cool sleeve. When I was a kid, I would viciously tear the CD out of its packaging, in many cases destroying the plastic casing, so I could immediately troll through the sleeve. Out of instinct, I did the same thing with Robinson’s audio book.

The dedication immediately caught my eye. It reads “For all of my enemies. Every single one of them. Without you, none of this would have ever been possible.”

Awesome. I can’t wait to listen. Before I get into the audio book, here is a little info on the author.

A mixed martial artist in every sense of the word, Robinson has studied boxing, Kenpo karate, Muay Thai, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He has written for GQ, Grappling, LA Weekly, Vice, Hustler, Decibel, and the best show ever, in my opinion, The Wire.

Let’s get into the book:

Robinson talks about fighting from a fighter’s perspective. He talks about underground street fight clubs ala “Fight Club”, sanctioned MMA fights, fighting with knives and guns, prison fighting, and military style combat. Fighting for glory in the middle of the ring, or fighting for your life in a back alley of a dimly lit street.

Let’s face it, it takes a certain type of mentality to fight another human being, locked inside the confines of a chain link fence or ring, guarded by a referee, opposing another human being who is ready to knock your block off. Most people would rather sit on their couches and comment about a fight then walk into a dojo somewhere and throw a few low kicks at another living, breathing human being. The story told by Eugene Robinson is a tale of complete warfare from a man with a true warrior spirit. Some of his stories make an MMA fight seem pretty run of the mill compared to some of the forms of hand to hand combat discussed in the book.

Rest assured, though, MMA plays a major role in this audio book. Robinson talks about the early days of the UFC, Pride, and King of the Cage. He talks about training sessions with Kevin Randelman, Maurice Smith, and Mark Coleman. After watching Royce Gracie submit his way to a UFC championship, he discusses his desire to immediately learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He discusses helping Cung Le learn a solid MMA ground game in exchange for lessons in some of the unorthodox kick boxing style of the current Strikeforce middleweight champion.

One of my favorite lines from the book is when Robinson talks about Kenpo Karate :

…after studying a year of Kenpo Karate, where he might as well been studying interpretative dance…

If you are a fan of fighting, all types of fighting, this is audio book is for you. It’s well spoken, interesting, intense, and pretty funny.