Italian photographer has unique eye for MMA
“They fight in the cage, but at the end, they are friends. They hug at the end of their match. And this is real. It’s not like ‘we have to act because we finished the match.'”
Italian photographer Andrea Roversi went to a local mixed martial arts event to get some images for a friend’s website, and was hooked. He went to over 20 events in Italy over two years, and recognized that the fight is just a step in a long, long process.
The result of his efforts will soon become a book.
I met a guy, he comes from Morocco, and he lives in a gym, said Roversi to CNN’s Kyle Almond. He has a small room inside the gym, and he lives there, and he wakes up and starts to train, and he has a little break, and then he starts again. All day, all night.
Sometimes, quite often, people look at the external, they look at this sport, and say: ‘Oh, they are crazy. Why, they are just violent people.’ But it’s not like this. I know a lot of these guys, and I could say the opposite of this.
They fight in the cage, but at the end, they are friends. They hug at the end of their match. And this is real. It’s not like ‘we have to act because we finished the match.’ It’s real. I feel this.
I was not a fan before. Now, I am. I found much more than a fight, and I like to be there.