Title Shot- into the Shark Tank of Mixed Martial Arts

Article Written by Penny Buffington



In 2008 Kelly Crigger published a book through the publishing company Victory Belt Publications. He named his book Title Shot- into the Shark Tank of Mixed Martial Arts. Kelly is an Army officer serving as a Lieutenant Colonel. He has been writing about the sport of mixed martial arts since 2006. In an exclusive interview Kelly gave insight into why he felt a need to write the book. “First I just wanted to explore why guys fought. I wanted to understand a little more why people did it. Because, I understand why I do what I do, I’m in the Army and I take risks for the greater good. But to strap on a little pair of gloves and slug it out with other guys is just something I wasn’t understanding. So it started out as an exploration of what motivated people to fight and then it just turned into a lot more from there. I wanted to find out why the mma fighters were portrayed so poorly in the media when they were clearly from my travels much different people then the people that you see on TV. I wanted to explore the similarities between my profession the Army and mma because every team you go into has a hierarchy just like an Army unit would have, or like a battalion. A mma gym is the same way; there is a hierarchy for sure. So that is where it started. It was an idea to figure out why guys fight and it just blossomed into a whole lot more.”

Kelly told me the mixed martial arts community is very supporting of the military. “They are all very supportive. A lot of them will even go out of there way- like Greg Jackson- about 4 or 5 months ago after UFC 88, this was back in Nov. after Rashad Evans fought and knocked out Chuck Liddell. Greg Jackson jumped in a car and drove 4 hours from Atlanta down to Savannah, Georgia and donated a day of his time training troops down there. Just because we asked. He spent an afternoon training soldier on combatives. On how to be better at hand to hand while you are in uniform and in turn they took him out on a shooting range and let him bust a bunch of caps. So it was a good time.”

Kelly explains, “The book covers 5 gyms; the Army MMA Tournament and 3 live events I went to. I went to Sport Fight. I went to the IFl Finals and I went to UFC 79 to get a glimpse of what mma is like. I got to spend 3 hours with Dana White talking about his view of mma from the top of the food chain. It was nice to see the view from the mountain top about the issues that were affecting the sport in the last year.”

“I spent so much time in the camps 5 camps that I went to from Team Quest to Cesar Gracie, Greg Jackson and Sityodtong -Mark DellaGrotte, and American Top Team. Just living with fighters hearing their stories, getting their stories, and trying to figure out what made them tick.”

“One of the things that I will tell you is the conclusion I came to when writing the book was a lot of times you see these fighters on TV and they are usually captured where they are in front of the camera at a bad time. It is easy to make snap judgments on whether you like a fighter on a 30 or 60 second interview. But you have got to keep in mind that those cameras are put in their face just before a fight. Their minds are changing their bodies are changing. They are cutting weight. They are irritable and Kenny Florian came right out and said look, 2 weeks before a fight I don’t like having people around, people don’t like being around me. I’m starting to change. I’m starting to focus. I can’t eat the things I want to eat and you stick a camera in my face and I’m probably going to say things that are going to make you not like me. So that is one of the things I hope people get from the book is that you can’t judge a fighter based on 30 or 60 seconds. Especially if it’s right before he is getting ready to fight. Kenny is a class act. He is head and shoulders above the rest. Cerebral, nice, down to earth, great view point’s, he can pick apart a fight from a stylistic advantage point. He is a sharp, sharp guy. He is a witty guy.”

The Army Lieutenant Colonel plans on writing more book on the sport as well. “I hang out with Greg Jackson. He and I are writing a book together, actually there are going to be 2 books; a book on striking and a book on grappling.”


As Kelly explains reading the book is for everybody. “If you just want to know a little bit about mma. If you’re somebody who only knows a little bit about mma and want to learn more about what it is like, live in a camp. What it is like to be a professional fighter. Then my book is for you. If you are a hard core mma junkie, there are facts in there, even people that have been around mma may finds some facts in there they probably didn’t know before. So it’s for everybody.”

While you can buy Kelly's book at Barnes and Nobles and Boarders among many other places if you purchase it from the Ranger Up web site you can buy the book signed by both Kelly Crigger and UFC and Affliction fighter Matt Lindland! $3.00 from every book sold will go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project! Price: $15.99. http://www.rangerup.com/sharktank.html