Unlocking the Cage

Why would anyone willingly step into a cage and fight? Author and former mixed martial artist Mark Tullius wanted answers deeper than toughness, fame, or money. He traveled across the United States, visited one hundred gyms, and interviewed 340 fighters about the experiences that brought them to MMA, the sacrifices required to remain, and what they found inside a sport built around controlled violence. Unlocking the Cage explores childhood, fear, discipline, identity, trauma, family, addiction, ambition, injury, community, and the emotional rewards of fighting. Professional athletes, amateurs, coaches, veterans, parents, dreamers, and people trying to rebuild themselves describe the cage in their own words. Part oral history, part sociology, and part personal investigation, the book offers one of the broadest portraits of mixed martial artists assembled by a single author. To understand the sport, listen to the people willing to fight.