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Pat Miletech grew up in the Quad Cities and had an early life full of strife, death, depression and a real lack of wealth. Before becoming an MMA fighter, Pat Miletech suffered through a father who ditched his family, the deaths of his brothers and the imprisonment of another brother. Pat Miletech also had to financially support his mother after she became ill, which lead to a series of odd jobs.
Eventually Pat Miletech would discover karate and jiu-jitsu, this is the point in the book where things become truly interesting. Pat Miletech’s rise from his early days winning tough man competitions until his departure from the UFC as a fighter is the best part of the book. Pat Miletech is described as a low key person who didn’t truly acclimate himself to the success he was earning.
The book also goes into detail about Pat Miletech the trainer and how fighter Jens Pulver came up with the terms “Miletech Fighting System†and “Team Miletech.†The author goes to great length to talk about the methods Pat Miletech used to train fighters for upcoming fights and how many fighters that he trained became MMA champions.
Besides going over the life of Pat Miletech, author L. Jon Wertheim also looks at the rise of the UFC from underground fan favorite to the worlds biggest MMA promotion. The book talks about the problems in the early days between the original UFC owners and politicians, particularly the battle between the UFC and former presidential candidate John McCain.
The book also takes a look at the original owners of the UFC and their relationship with the Gracie Family, particularly Royce Gracie. It has been rumored and believed that the Gracie Family wanted to use the UFC as a tool to promote Gracie Jiu-Jitsu throughout the world. Eventually that relationship fell apart and Royce Gracie would return to the UFC until over a decade later at UFC 60.
The best part of the books look at the UFC is during the era where Dana White persuaded the Fertita Brothers to purchase the ailing UFC. The book goes into great detail about the changes made to the UFC following the purchase, while debunking the myths surrounding Dana White getting the sport regulated when others supposedly didn’t.
The book also looks at the popularity boom of the UFC after the first season of the UFC Ultimate Fighter and the subsequent seasons. Author L. Jon Wertheim also tells a particularly interesting story about his attempt to interview UFC personality Joe Silva at a UFC event. The book also criticizes the way the UFC treats the media in relation to the positive and negative stories about the company.
Overall, the book does a pretty decent job of looking at the UFC from the inception of the company until is current form as the leader in MMA. However, the true strength of this book is the look at the life of Pat Miletech from his humble beginnings in Iowa to becoming one of the top trainers in MMA today.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
