Beast
Blood, Struggle, and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts
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Beast
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Narrated by:
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Eric Vale
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By:
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Doug Merlino
About this listen
Mixed martial arts is America's fastest-growing sport - around the country, new gyms open their doors as enthusiastic viewers tune in to UFC matches. Although some dismiss it as brutal combat, its fighters are among the most dedicated athletes in any arena. But MMA also takes a heavy toll on the body, and it's a rare fighter who can earn a living in the sport's top ranks.
Beast follows four high-level fighters at one of the sport's elite gyms, Florida's American Top Team. Doug Merlino had unprecedented access, training alongside the men for two years, traveling to their matches, and eating in their homes. Mirsad Bektic, a young Bosnian refugee who started in karate as a boy in Nebraska, dreams of stardom. Jeff Monson, a battered veteran at 41, is an outspoken, tattooed anarchist enjoying a bizarre burst of celebrity in Russia. Steve Mocco is a newcomer - a former Olympic wrestler from a close-knit, intellectual family. Finally there's Daniel Straus, who, from a life short on opportunity, fights his way up to title contention. All will experience electrifying highs and career lows, and Merlino takes us along every step of the way while also examining the history, culture, business, and meaning of professional cage fighting.
An audiobook for both the uninitiated and the hardcore fan, Beast offers a fascinating journey into an often misunderstood world.
©2015 Doug Merlino (P)2015 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- A Life of Saving Goals and Achieving Them
- By: Ali Benjamin, Tim Howard
- Narrated by: J.D. Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
In the summer of 2014, Tim Howard became an overnight sensation after more than 10 years as one of America's leading professional soccer players. His record-breaking 15 saves for the United States national team against Belgium in the World Cup electrified a nation that had only recently woken up to the Beautiful Game after decades of hibernation. In this inspiring and candid memoir, the beloved US and Everton goalkeeper finally allows himself to do something that he would never do on the field: He drops his guard.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tim Howard Saves more then Goals!
- By Ron on 12-16-14
By: Ali Benjamin, and others
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Open
- An Autobiography
- By: Andre Agassi
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,817
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,527
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6,510
From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography. Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match and every relationship. Never before has the inner game of tennis and the outer game of fame been so precisely limned. In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach, his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and find love at last with Stefanie Graf.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just an Incredible Story!
- By Patrick on 12-13-09
By: Andre Agassi
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Life Is Not an Accident
- A Memoir of Reinvention
- By: Jay Williams
- Narrated by: Jay Williams
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 397
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 351
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 351
Like millions of kids before him, Jay Williams used to pretend he was making the game-winning shot while playing basketball in his Plainfield, New Jersey, backyard. Unlike almost all of those other kids, he kept right on making shots until he became an NCAA champion and two-time national player of the year at Duke and the number-two overall NBA draft pick in 2002.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Taking ownership of mistakes
- By ladybug on 07-20-16
By: Jay Williams
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By the Grace of the Game
- The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream
- By: Dan Grunfeld
- Narrated by: Chris Lutkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Story5 out of 5 stars 67
When Lily and Alex entered a packed gymnasium in Queens, New York, in 1972, they barely recognized their son. The boy who escaped to America with them, who was bullied as he struggled to learn English and cope with family tragedy, was now a young man who had discovered and secretly honed his basketball talent on the outdoor courts of New York City. That young man was Ernie Grunfeld, who would go on to win an Olympic gold medal and reach previously unimaginable heights as an NBA player and executive.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional
- By Patrick Messing on 04-07-22
By: Dan Grunfeld
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The Great Nowitzki
- Basketball and the Meaning of Life
- By: Thomas Pletzinger, Shane Anderson - translator
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story5 out of 5 stars 32
The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the great players in basketball history. With a devastating fadeaway and unexpected agility, the Dallas Mavericks superstar helped to pioneer the modern three-shooting game and became a global ambassador for the sport. Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger traveled with Nowitzki for more than seven years, seeking the secret of his success and longevity. In novelistic detail, Pletzinger tells the dramatic story of how a lanky kid from the German suburbs became a top-five all-time scorer and NBA champion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
- By Anonymous User on 08-22-24
By: Thomas Pletzinger, and others
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Slow Getting Up
- A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile
- By: Nate Jackson
- Narrated by: Nate Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 280
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 252
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 255
Nate Jackson’s Slow Getting Up is an unvarnished and uncensored memoir of everyday life in the most popular sports league in America - and the most damaging to its players - the National Football League. After playing college ball at a tiny Division III school, Jackson, a receiver, signed as a free agent with the San Francisco 49ers, before moving to the Denver Broncos. For six seasons in the NFL as a Bronco, he alternated between the practice squad and the active roster, eventually winning a starting spot - a short, tenuous career emblematic of the average pro player.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Almost unlistenable...AND I'M A DENVER DIEHARD!
- By JROD2133 on 07-02-14
By: Nate Jackson
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Cinderella Man
- James J. Braddock, Max Baer and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History
- By: Jeremy Schaap
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 287
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
Lost in the annals of boxing is the sport's true Cinderella story. James J. Braddock, dubbed "Cinderella Man" by Damon Runyon, was a once promising light heavyweight for whom a string of losses in the ring and a broken right hand happened to coincide with the Great Crash of 1929.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By MA on 06-05-05
By: Jeremy Schaap
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GIMP
- When Life Deals You a Crappy Hand, You Can Fold or You Can Play
- By: Mark Zupan
- Narrated by: Mark Zupan
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Mark Zupan, a quadriplegic, was facing life in a wheelchair and only limited use of all four limbs. Always a winner and a fighter, Mark refused to accept that his injury doomed him to a lifetime of passive acceptance. He fought to regain as much mobility as possible, and his indomitable spirit has helped him create a life that's truly exceptional.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Same story
- By Salish54 on 12-16-21
By: Mark Zupan
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The Pact
- By: Cody Garbrandt, Mark Dagostino
- Narrated by: Dave Hoffman
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 128
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story5 out of 5 stars 115
Cody Garbrandt grew up in a rough town in the Central Appalachian region of Ohio, surrounded by a longstanding culture of fighting - and drugs. Raised in this environment by a single mom (his dad left him at the young age of three to reside in the Ohio State Penitentiary), Cody grew up fighting, and he grew up wild. His future seemed predestined to end in the coal mines or in prison. Thankfully, Cody had visions of something more. His American dream? Mixed martial arts.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Yikes.
- By Rebecca Whitman on 06-20-18
By: Cody Garbrandt, and others
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Their Life's Work
- The Brotherhood of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers
- By: Gary M. Pomerantz
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s won an unprecedented and unmatched four Super Bowls in six years. A dozen of those Steelers players, coaches, and executives have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and three decades later their names echo in popular memory: "Mean" Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Mike Webster, Jack Lambert, Lynn Swann, and John Stallworth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book
- By cap on 07-18-18
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The Cost of These Dreams
- Sports Stories and Other Serious Business
- By: Wright Thompson
- Narrated by: Wright Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 459
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 403
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Story5 out of 5 stars 401
There is only one Wright Thompson. He is, as they say, famous if you know who he is: his work includes the most-read articles in the history of ESPN (and it's not even close) and has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series ten times, and he counts John Grisham and Richard Ford among his ardent admirers. But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just great
- By ACK on 06-02-19
By: Wright Thompson
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The Best in the World
- At What I Have No Idea
- By: Peter Thomas Fornatale, Chris Jericho
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 917
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 828
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Story5 out of 5 stars 826
The Best in the World chronicles some of the incredible and often preposterous highlights of Jericho's recent career, including how Mickey Rourke challenged Jericho to a match then backed out; his escape from the 2010 Icelandic volcanoes in a broken-down, European rental-car shuttle; his encounters with Bob Barker, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Al Sharpton, and Mike Tyson; and his on-again, off-again relationship with WWE chief Vince McMahon.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Among the Best Wrestling Autobiographies
- By VC on 09-04-16
By: Peter Thomas Fornatale, and others
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The Keeper - Young Readers' Edition
- The Unguarded Story of Tim Howard
- By: Tim Howard
- Narrated by: William Harper
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story5 out of 5 stars 17
In this heartwarming and candid memoir, Tim Howard does something he would never do on a soccer field: he drops his guard. As fiercely protective about his privacy as he is guarding the goal for the US national team and for Everton in the English Premier League, Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette's syndrome defied the odds to become one of the world’s premier goalkeepers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Don't judge a book by it's cover.
- By Anonymous User on 08-17-17
By: Tim Howard
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Solo
- A Memoir of Hope
- By: Hope Solo
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 93
Hope Solo is the face of the modern female athlete. She is fearless, outspoken, and the best in the world at what she does: protecting the goal of the U.S. women's soccer team. Her outsized talent has led her to the pinnacle of her sport - the Olympics and the World Cup - and made her into an international celebrity who is just as likely to appear on ABC's Dancing with the Stars as she is on the covers of Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, and Vogue.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Not your normal memoir
- By Rory on 02-14-15
By: Hope Solo
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This Love Is Not for Cowards
- Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juárez
- By: Robert Andrew Powell
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
As Mexico has descended into a feudal narco-state - one where cartels, death squads, the army, and local police all fight over billions of dollars in profits from drug and human trafficking - the border city of Jurez has been hit hardest of all. And yet, more than a million people still live there. They even love their impoverished city, proudly repeating its mantra: "Amor por Jurez." Nothing exemplifies the spirit and hope of Juarenses more than the Indios, the city's beloved but hard-luck soccer team.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it
- By Nathan & Kira Huggins on 04-14-15
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The Boys of Winter
- The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
- By: Wayne Coffey
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 325
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 289
Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the 20th century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to play hockey happily ever after.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great, but...
- By S. B. G. on 02-13-18
By: Wayne Coffey
What listeners say about Beast
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- kenny hundley
- 04-10-16
Needs a better narrator
As an avid mma fan it grew increasingly frustrating to listen to the narrator butcher the pronunciations of such high profile names in the world of mma.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Keaton
- 06-08-21
very interesting.
I’ve never been a fan of MMA or the UFC, but as a martial arts enthusiast, I thought I would give it a shot; I wasn’t disappointed. He gave me a new appreciation for the subject matter and the history of UFC.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anon
- 03-16-17
Pretty good, but....
It's rather embarrassing when an MMA audiobook repeatedly mispronounces ZUFFA and Miletich. These are big names in MMA.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ernesto morales
- 04-10-18
good inside of the world of fighting
I always thought it was as glamourous as shown in tv this book showed me the real face and hardships professional fighters face day to day
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