Cage Kings

How an Unlikely Group of Moguls, Champions, & Hustlers Transformed the UFC into a $10 Billion Industry

By: Michael Thomsen

Narrated by: Patrick Harrison

Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

A “propulsive and wildly engrossing” (Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store) account of how the UFC turned mixed martial arts into a multibillion-dollar business and global pop culture phenomenon.

Decried as “human cockfighting” by Senator John McCain and dismissed by the New York Times as a “pay-per-view prism” onto the decline of Western civilization, the UFC seemed by 2000 to be bleeding out. The cage fighting promotion had been banned in thirty-six states and was struggling to cover production costs for its next event.

But three buddies in Las Vegas—an ambitious personal trainer and two young casino heirs—saw something else in the UFC: a vision of the future. Over the next two decades, the trio would transform the company into one of the most valuable sports properties in the world, worth more than the Beatles catalog or the New York Yankees. And along the way, they would also transform the lives of some of the sport’s biggest stars, both for better and worse.

A “captivating” (Christopher Leonard, author of The Lords of Easy Money) behind-the-scenes account of a once-reviled subculture’s strange path to pop legitimacy, Cage Kings embeds you in a world of desperate fighters, audacious promoters, fanboy bloggers, fatherly trainers, philosophical announcers, hustling sponsors, and three improbable twentysomething corporate titans on a darkly comic odyssey to normalize a new level of brutality in American pop culture—and make a fortune doing so. For in an era of generational poverty, eroding labor rights, radical media transformations, simmering political grievances, and an obsession with winning at any cost, the spectacle of two people fighting in a cage for another few months’ wages suddenly seemed to make sense.

Stylishly written and poignantly observed, this “must-read for fans and the simply curious alike” (Matthew Polly, author of American Shaolin) offers a provocative look at how the hollowing out of the American dream and the violence of modern capitalism left us ready to embrace a sport like cage fighting.

©2023 Michael Thomsen (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"In this blistering story of an industry where profits are predicated on bodily harm, the sweet science is in Michael Thomsen’s reluctant rhapsodizing about the uniquely American bloodlust behind it all." —Sean Howe, New York Times bestselling author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story "

"Propelled by pure adrenaline, with a storyline as captivating as two people brawling for survival inside a cage. But this spectacle never loses sight of the bigger picture, which is that UFC fighting is a perfect metaphor for American capitalism today. Michael Thomsen takes the gloves off to tell this story, striking each blow with the precision of an artist." —Christopher Leonard, New York Times bestselling author of The Lords of Easy Money

"A deeply reported, compulsively readable account of how a bunch of not exactly conscience-burdened men turned a dubious idea into an outlaw sport that gushes cash as well as human brain matter." —Charles Leerhsen, New York Times bestselling author of Down and Out in Paradise

if you dislike UFC and it's fans this is for you

How to write a book and completely insult the topic (UFC) and insult it's readers most who pay for this book are likey UFC fans.

First it starts with a little Trump bashing because you have to do that now days right, but whatever that's easy enough to look past however trite it may be however after just a few chapters I knew I had been duped.

What I could not look past is the complete trashing of the UFC and it's fans. For example this author believes the UFC first became popular back in the day only because white guys couldn't win at any other sports but fans could watch a white person win in the UFC so it became popular, no joke that's what it says. Also apparently the UFC is for Walmart shoppers and that's apparently bad, sorry not everyone can afford goods from Whole Foods and Macy's. Definitely not very smart to offend your readers who the heck do they think is going to buy this book.

I'm just a casual UFC fan who is old enough to have been around since the first UFC pay per view but nowadays I don't keep up with who is who in the UFC, I know the big names and occasionally watch a fight so if I find this offensive and demining I can't imagine how hardcore UFC fans and especially the fighters would feel about this. Not good

If you hate the UFC it's fans and people who shop at Walmart this book is for you.