BloodyElbow.com Exclusive: Real Fighter Magazine Unveils UFC 1 Anniversary Article With Comments From All Original Participants

The latest issue of Real Fighter Magazine is out on news stands now and, per usual, features some incredible content. Most notably, though, Sherdog's Jake Rossen has put together an absolutely incredible piece about the very first UFC event in Denver, Colorado as the 15th anniversary of UFC 1 approaches. The article incorporates the thoughts and memories from every participant and event organizer. Rossen gets them to opine such topics as what they thought the event would be, how they view the sport today and much more. From what I understand, it took Rossen a solid three months to track everyone down. Fortunately, his hardwork paid off and what we have is what Real Fighter consistently offers its readers: the highest quality MMA print journalism available.

Exclusive to Bloody Elbow, you can download and read the ENTIRE article here (.pdf version).

But don't just read this one article; grab the whole magazine. Also included in this month's issue:

•The cover story is Frank Mir, written by Andrew Vontz who typically writes for the best men’s magazines (Outside, Esquire, GQ)

•A great feature by ESPN mag editor Ryan Hockensmith about etiquette in the cage, in which fighters discuss  "gray area" tactics such as covering the mouth and nose, foot stomps, faking the glove touch and more.

•Interviews with four MMA fighters who compete in other professional sports, and discuss how they manage their training.

As someone who has written for this magazine on a couple of occasions, I can tell you when that when it comes to print magazines covering the sport of MMA, they have no peer in terms of quality. I specifically sought them out when trying to land a writing gig because of their exemplary work. Their topics are highly unique, the writing is first-rate, the topics are timely and most importantly, the depth to which they explore topics is far beyond where their competitors go. If you want MMA journalism that goes beyond stage one and does it well, there is no alternative.

Hats off to Jake Rossen for writing such an amazing article and congratulations to Real Fighter Magazine on another successful issue.