Cage Kings Audiobook Libro.fm

A propulsive and wildly engrossing Brad Stone author of The Everything Store account of how the UFC turned mixed martial arts into a multibilliondollar business and global pop culture phenomenon

Decried as human cockfighting by Senator John McCain and dismissed by the New York Times as a payperview prism onto the decline of Western civilization the UFC seemed by 2000 to be bleeding out The cage fighting promotion had been banned in thirtysix states and was struggling to cover production costs for its next event

But three buddies in Las Vegasan ambitious personal trainer and two young casino heirssaw something else in the UFC a vision of the future Over the next two decades the trio would transform the company into one of the most valuable sports properties in the world worth more than the Beatles catalog or the New York Yankees And along the way they would also transform the lives of some of the sports biggest stars both for better and worse

A captivating Christopher Leonard author of The Lords of Easy Money behindthescenes account of a oncereviled subcultures strange path to pop legitimacy Cage Kings embeds you in a world of desperate fighters audacious promoters fanboy bloggers fatherly trainers philosophical announcers hustling sponsors and three improbable twentysomething corporate titans on a darkly comic odyssey to normalize a new level of brutality in American pop cultureand make a fortune doing so For in an era of generational poverty eroding labor rights radical media transformations simmering political grievances and an obsession with winning at any cost the spectacle of two people fighting in a cage for another few months wages suddenly seemed to make sense

Stylishly written and poignantly observed this mustread for fans and the simply curious alike Matthew Polly author of American Shaolin offers a provocative look at how the hollowing out of the American dream and the violence of modern capitalism left us ready to embrace a sport like cage fighting