- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Gotham (Nov 22 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1592405991
- ISBN-13: 978-1592405992
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 635 g
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#236,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #36 in Books > Sports > Individual Sports > Mixed Martial Arts
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“Polly earned my respect. He's got a ton of heart. He did the work and played the part.”
(Randy Couture, former UFC heavyweight champion )“Matt Polly's “Tapped Out” succeeds where all other MMA-related books fail: it tells a fight story for both the male and female reader.”
(MMAConvert.com )“Tapped Out manages to humanize a sport once demonized as “human cockfighting” by deconstructing the stereotype of the martial-arts tough guy.”
(The New York Times )“You have to give credit to the author for making a huge investment in proper training, the opportunity cost that he could have spent on more lucrative gigs, as well as the emotional pain Polly endured on the road to glory.”
(TheSweetScience.com )“He’s a fighter. Not just a writer.”
(New Hampshire NPR )
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
The author of American Shaolin tells a hilarious and fascinating insider's account of mixed martial arts, the fastest growing sport in the country.
Since the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993, mixed martial arts (MMA) has punched, kicked, and wrestled its way into the public's consciousness. MMA is an often brutal sport that combines any and every unarmed fighting technique with pure grit. Today, the gross yearly profits of Ultimate Fighting Championship-the sport's premier professional league-exceed that of professional wrestling, boxing, and even the Boston Red Sox. In Tapped Out, Matthew Polly gives readers his on-the ground take of training and fighting in MMA.
At the age of thirty-six, Polly was out of shape and totally unprepared for what was ahead: a grueling journey through leading MMA training facilities in Bangkok, St. Petersburg, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Las Vegas. After being utterly beaten down and built back up, he fought his first match against a fighter nearly fifteen years younger-and not only won, but sent his opponent to the hospital. Polly intersperses his own narrative with the history and background of fighting and interviews with top UFC stars such as GSP, Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture, and Gina Carano. Evocative of George Plimpton's classic Paper Lion, Polly's honest, funny, and eye-opening account of his experiences will appeal to the millions of devoted MMA fans who are as hardcore as the sport itself.
Since the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993, mixed martial arts (MMA) has punched, kicked, and wrestled its way into the public's consciousness. MMA is an often brutal sport that combines any and every unarmed fighting technique with pure grit. Today, the gross yearly profits of Ultimate Fighting Championship-the sport's premier professional league-exceed that of professional wrestling, boxing, and even the Boston Red Sox. In Tapped Out, Matthew Polly gives readers his on-the ground take of training and fighting in MMA.
At the age of thirty-six, Polly was out of shape and totally unprepared for what was ahead: a grueling journey through leading MMA training facilities in Bangkok, St. Petersburg, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Las Vegas. After being utterly beaten down and built back up, he fought his first match against a fighter nearly fifteen years younger-and not only won, but sent his opponent to the hospital. Polly intersperses his own narrative with the history and background of fighting and interviews with top UFC stars such as GSP, Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture, and Gina Carano. Evocative of George Plimpton's classic Paper Lion, Polly's honest, funny, and eye-opening account of his experiences will appeal to the millions of devoted MMA fans who are as hardcore as the sport itself.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tapped Out Succeeds Where Others Fail, Nov 17 2011
By jim genia "jim genia" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts (Hardcover)
Matt Polly's "Tapped Out" succeeds where all other mixed martial arts-related books fail: it tells a fight story for both the male and female reader.By jumping head-first into the icy waters of competition, Polly undertakes a journey of transformation, leaving behind a hard-drinking, leisurely everyman to become a capable mixed martial arts fighter. There is, of course, the expected blood, sweat and tears of training, as well as an exploration of the physical and mental rigors of climbing into the ring and beating someone silly. But throughout the narrative there's also the author's newly-wed wife, a presence that colors Polly's odyssey with a perspective heretofore unseen in mixed martial arts books.
From a visit to Russia and a tournament featuring the legendary fighter Fedor Emelianenko, to the grueling workouts of ace jiu-jitsu and kickboxing coaches John Danaher and Kru Phil Nurse, to the nigh-sadistic tutelage of trainer Joey Varner in Las Vegas, Polly's passage into the realm of sanctioned unarmed combat is both illuminating and compelling, a George Plimpton-esque case study on what it means to be a man in a sport populated by fistic giants - and thanks to his wife, "Em", Tapped Out is also a treatise on what it means to be a husband in that world.
Like Polly's "American Shaolin" before it, Tapped Out has all of the author's usual wit and ease of prose. But unlike his two-year stint at that Shaolin Kung Fu temple in China detailed in Polly's first book, this tale involves mixed martial arts, a bout in a Las Vegas hotel ballroom, and a wife waiting at home to kick his butt. And that sets it apart from every other MMA star bio or historical text out there.
Buy it. Read it. Love it.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phenomenal, Nov 17 2011
By Shayna Gunn - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts (Hardcover)
For someone who knew nothing about MMA and had no interest in learning, I found Polly's book to be extremely engaging, even for a female reader. I was so inspired by his story, that I immediately went out and signed up for a boxing class. This is a great read for any MMA fan or just those looking to develop a new hobby. Highly recommended!!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Matthew Polly Strikes Back, Nov 17 2011
By Jeffrey P. Wachs "jephre75" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts (Hardcover)
Picking up more than a decade after his adventures in China (see American Shaolin), Matthew Polly dons the athletic cup once more in the name of glory in TAPPED OUT. Here Polly recounts his so-crazy-there-must-have-been-a-book-deal-in-it journey from a past-his-prime and paunchy writer to a ironclad (well, iron surrounded by a thin layer of paunch) mixed martial arts warrior who steps into the ring of man-to-man combat, and takes the reader along for an insider's look at the personalities and culture of the MMA world.Polly's journey from chump to something more than chump (no spoilers here) takes him from the New York MMA studios where Wall Street lawyers do a little Brazilian jujitsu on their lunch hours, to the muy Thai camps in Bangkok that serve as a foundation for late night wanderings in the red light district, to the Las Vegas centers where serious-minded fighters converge from around the world to spend weeks and months in dedicated training. Through it all, Polly never fails to remain an affably self-deprecating and informative narrator/protagonist, peppering the story with the history of MMA's development and rise to its current prominence, and balancing the tale with asides about his relationship with "Em," who goes from girlfriend to fiancée to wife over the course of his rise to becoming an MMA fighter.
TAPPED OUT is a knockout (see what I did there?) for MMA fans, who will revel in the intimate portraits Polly sketches of some of the sport's most famous personalities. But it also works for the uninitiated (like me) -- people who may not know a triangle choke hold from a noogie, but who love a good story.
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