Watching Wanderlei Silva in “KILL mode”, beating Forrest Griffin in the UFC: Undisputed video game, are two of many adventures documented by mixed martial arts magazine MMA Worldwide in MMA: Unscripted: Behind the Scenes of America’s Hottest Sport
MMA Worldwide is much more than just a magazine spawned from the creative minds of the Pittman family, the concept has become a way of life—the family went all over the U.S. West Coast gyms profiling MMA fighters for a television show that eventually was picked up by HDNet. Rob McCullough, Ricco Rodriguez, the Gracie family and many more were given exposure when MMA was not even considered a sport by the mainstream population.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck the MMA Worldwide crew when the host of the show, Bobby Pittman Jr., suddenly fell ill during one of the filming sessions. Doctors diagnosed the illness as transverse myelitis, a disease very much like multiple sclerosis. The season was put on hold as Bobby was only given three months to live. While he still battles with the illness today, after five days of rehab Bobby courageously went back to work and the show kept on going.
MMA: Unscripted: Behind the Scenes of America’s Hottest Sport is a very short read; this magazine mainly consists of pages that are mainly pictures and all the text is done in one big indent kind of like a kid’s book. The pictures are high quality, although some of the action shots look a little blurry. This best of MMA Worldwide magazine is pretty much a mere taste of what MMA Worldwide has accomplished and has to offer. Numerous times throughout they mention how there is so much more to be seen at www.mmaworldwide.com.
Cross-training with Peter Graham, goofing around with Frank Trigg and showing different fighting techniques with Erik Paulson are exciting, funny and at times gruesome photos. The lack of quotes from the fighters in the magazine is disappointing. The mentioning of Strikeforce and Bellator is a nice break from the almost constant Ultimate Fighting Championship coverage by MMA Worldwide. Besides the excellent photography, the best part of this magazine is there is no limit to the amount of coverage on well-known and unknown foreign fighters MMA Worldwide will cover.
MMA: Unscripted: Behind the Scenes of America’s Hottest Sport.
Concept by Robert Pittman
112 pp.
Triumph Books
Feb, 2010
http://www.triumphbooks.com/products/mma_unscripted/1572436129.php
