The UFC Encyclopedia hits stores today. Fighter signings are happening all across the USA.
SATURDAY, October 22 – 1 pm to 3 pm
Los Angeles – Chuck Liddell
Barnes and Noble
4820 Telephone Road (Ventura)
Boston – Joe Lauzon
Barnes and Noble
800 Boylston Street
Chicago – Anthony Pettis
Barnes and Noble
590 East Golf Road (Schaumburg)
Albuquerque – Donald Cerrone and Leonard Garcia
Hastings Entertainment
6051 Winter Haven Road NW
SUNDAY, October 23 – 1 pm to 3 pm
Indianapolis – Chris Lytle
Books-A-Million
5750 West 86th Street
SATURDAY, October 29 – 1 pm to 3 pm
Las Vegas – Frank Mir
Barnes and Noble
3860 Maryland Parkway
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Strengths: Fantastic Design and Photography. Knowledgeable author takes readers on a great journey through history.
Weaknesses: The sport’s early history is sometimes ignored in favor of modern material.
Overall: A must buy. Should be on every UFC fan’s bookshelf.
The book, as expected, looks great. It’s broken down into two sections, one featuring fighter profiles and another chronicling every UFC event from UFC 1 all the way through UFC 130. In between, the author looks at stray topics like Octagon Girls, announcers, and lists the top 25 submissions, fights, and knockouts in the promotion’s history.
The fighter profiles featuring major stars like Anderson Silva and Royce Gracie, are fairly complete looks at the fighter in question.
Other entries are less complete. If you’re Kimbo Slice, the biggest television draw in UFC history, you get four sentences instead of four pages.
Most controversial are entries on Ken Shamrock and Frank Shamrock. While Gerbasi is fair, you’d never get the idea that the brothers were arguably the sport’s biggest star and greatest champion respectively.
The heart of the book are the summaries of each UFC event. They are all here, from the pay-per-view extravaganzas to the television cards. In addition to event posters and action photography, the result of every UFC fight in history is listed.
The complete coverage of every UFC event is worth the price of admission alone. And while the $50 price tag makes the book almost as expensive as a ticket to a UFC event, early bird buyers can purchase the book right now at Amazon for just $29.76.
