Fighter

"Depending upon your perspective, the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization, aka the UFC, is brash, beautiful, or brutal -- and as in your face as the fighters' blows. Fighters take down their opponents with an arsenal of moves, using a unique blend of martial arts, including jujitsu, wrestling, judo, and kickboxing. In Fighter: The Fighters of the UFC, Reed Krakoff offers a unique look at these world-class athletes in a startling collection of black- and-white photographs. Krakoff, the president and executive creative director of Coach, a leading force in the fashion world, is also an accomplished photographer and a huge UFC fan. His pictures, shot with a medium-format Mamiya box camera, depict these fighters as they are rarely seen. Standing alone, without competitors or an audience, Krakoff's subjects look gentle, warm, humble, and disarmed. But with their signature tattoos and resilient bodies, it's also clear that they are built for the Octagon. The book features some of the biggest names in UFC -- iconic fighters such as Chuck Liddell, Georges St-Pierre, and Matt Serra pose for the camera in ways that are real and revealing. Accompanying these shots are brief interviews that offer another perspective on these modern-day gladiators"--P. [2] of cover.