L. Jon Wertheim's Blood in the Cage: Worth the time you'll spend on itL. Jon Wertheim has been writing about Tennis for Sports Illustrated since I was playing it in high school. He’s written about everything from tennis to basketball, to every issue that plagues sports from steroid abuse to illegitimate children. Clearly, the guy has no problems articulating sensitive and unorthodox subjects.

His book, Blood in the Cage, sums up the UFC’s meteoric uprising in the UnitedStates, then intertwines it with Pat Miletich’s story of growing up, making it to the UFC, and ultimately becoming their first Lightweight champion. He does all this in an effective, informative manner.

His retelling of the events leading up to MMA’s surge to mainstream popularity here in the states is factual, and he accounts for all involved parties as he tells the tale of not only Dana White, beginning with his interest in the organization, but Monte Cox, who was promoting MMA events all around the United States long before the UFC rose to be the MMA powerhouse they’ve become.

Jon Wertheim sat on the phone and put up with me for a good twenty minutes as I further questioned him, above and beyond the 250 pages of book he initially gave me. He talked about what it was like to spend as much time with the great Pat Miletich as he did, and other topics regarding not only the ongoing saga we know as our sport, but also its athletes and his future in writing about it.

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David Hojak interviews Blood in the Cage author, L. Jon Wertheim, 3-09

Wertheim brought a wealth of experience in writing about obscure and even challenging sports subjects into this effort, and it shows. The book reads fluidly, and remains informative and compelling throughout. Though the stories of the almighty UFC’s emergence are well-known and documented to a degree, much of the back-story to it all is not, and this book does well in compiling all relevant information on the subject into one compendium. Truly, this book was one of the more informative and genuinely interesting books covering not only the sport, but one of its most accomplished trainers and fighters, that I’ve yet read.

Click here to search for “Blood in the Cage” via Amazon.com