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2/13/04 Note from Bill: It looks like Ultimate Athlete has gone out of business or at the least gone dormant. FightSport has now been rolled back into Black Belt Magazine. Black Belt is much better for it. Black Belt felt that there was just too much NHB news to have the magazine only come out every two months. So, instead of making the magazine monthly, they put in the back of Black Belt Magazine. You can read this to mean that sales must have sucked.
This is the nature of martial arts magazine. They come and go faster than hookers at Las Vegas hotels on Super Bowl weekend.
Let's talk NHB magazines. Over the last couple of years, several magazines related to NHB fighting have immerged. The three best magazines are Grappling, FightSport and Ultimate Athlete. Each of these magazines is in full color, filled with great interviews, fight coverage, fight techniques and a little cheesecake. I have to say that each is worth buying.
If you want the best of the bunch, then I would buy a subscription to Ultimate Athlete. Ultimate Athlete has risen to the top of this tough competition by having better writing than the rest of them. I have a simple test to determine this. When I pickup an issue of one of these magazines, in which one do I read the most articles? That's the test. Ultimate Athlete won this test hands down. Clyde Gentry and his staff of writers have a deeper knowledge of the sport and a better understanding of what makes the fighters tick. Other magazines, like Grappling, may have more big names writing columns each month, but none tops Ultimate Athlete for taking you ringside to a fight or allowing you a new insight into your favorite fighters.
A word about cheesecake. By cheesecake, I mean the obligatory pictures of scantily clad chicks. Oh, wait, what is the politically correct word - Bitches. Some argue on the Net that this undermines the credibility of the magazines and also pushes away women from these publications. These points that are all well taken. The flip side of this is that the demographic for these magazines are guys and this is what guys like. I always find it humorous that each magazine tries to have some martial arts tie-in with the photos of the women. Some are women are fighters, some are ring girls and others model clothing. Some even have a article about them. To me, if you are going to bother, you should just get the best looking women you can find and forget the martial arts tie-in. In fact, having these women model clothes seems to be diametrically apposed to your purpose for having them in the magazine in the first place.
For those who find this sexist (not that I care), I will point out one thing. Nobody cared a rat's little behind about the UFC when Zuffa bought it. In part, that is why it was for sale. Nobody but hardcore NHB fan magazines or newspapers (i.e. Full Contact Fighter) would go to Zuffa's first news conference. That all changed with one small addition to Zuffa's staff. Was signing Tito Ortiz or some other big name fighter that person? Nope. So who single-handedly turned it all around for the UFC and got the mainstream media to pay attention to the UFC? Her name was Carmen Electra. Add her to the testosterone laden mix and you all of a sudden had Sport Illustrated and other mainstream publications paying attention. All of a sudden, the UFC was an "event" worth covering. Sex sells. Duh.
The cheesecake can be pushed too far. Ultimate Athlete, awhile back, had kicked around the idea of using scantily clad women to demonstrate techniques. While I applaud them for thinking "out of the box" and pushing the envelope, I would have one main problem with this - I would learn nothing. I could spend a 1/2 hour studying the move and walk away remembering nothing. Well, that's not completely true, I would remember that Brenda likes long walks on the beach in the rain and her turnoffs are . . . . So, in the end I am glad they rejected this idea.
As far as pricing, Ultimate Athlete ends up as your best value of the three at $29 for 12 issues. Grappling will set you back $35 for 12 issues and FightSport is $24 for 6 issues.
A word to fight fans. If you really care about any of these publications, I would suggest that you get a subscription to your favorite. First, you will reduce your cost significantly. If you buy a year's worth of Ultimate Athlete on the newsstand, it will cost you $71 versus $29 for a subscription. Secondly, the magazine receives a lot more money in the end if you buy it directly from them instead of buying it off the newsstand. This is the best way to make sure that your favorite magazine stays in existence.
Bottom line:
I give two thumbs up for each of the three magazines. But if you have to choose, Ultimate Athlete has the best writing and is your hands down best value.