Customer Reviews
The Book of Knowledge - Near perfect - By: Mr. D. S. Malone, 11 Aug 2008 
BJ Penn is regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artistsin the world. If you watch one of his fights, you will quickly discover that he is a force to be reckoned with. He is currently Lightweight Champion of the UFC & is amongst the top contendersin the Welterweight division. He has a solid ground game, unnatural balance & crisp striking skills - a true well-rounded fighter.
So what do you get when a fighter of his calibre writes a book? A vital asset to any practitioner that's what.
The book starts with an entertaining foreword that acts as a nice introduction to Penn's fighting career. He also puts you into the right mentality with the training + drills sections. From there onwards it moves towards the many techniques listed within the book.
The book is clearly split into appropriate sectionsin a logical order. Stand-up to clinch to ground. The techniques are given a brief write up which is accompanied by pictures from multiple camera angles & easy-to-follow captions. This is especially useful for any submissions novice, as some techniques could be made difficult to learn from just one camera angle.
All techniques within this book provide a wealth of information on the basics of MMA. However, if you are considering a move into MMA this book alone is unlikely to lead you to successful career. It only covers the basic techniques from every field.
I used this book as a teaching tool at my MMA class; newcomers can easily follow the instructions & it allows them to gradually improve all aspects of their game whilst providing tips here & there. At the start of each section there is an introduction & the `DO's' & `DON'Ts' list make for a very informative read.
PROS-
Covers a wide variety of techniques
Multiple camera angles
Effective instructional captions
Can set the foundation of a mixed martial artist to be
CONS-
Techniques from every aspect (striking, clinch work, throws & submissions) are very basic. The ground-game section for example covers the basic submissions such as RNC, guillotine choke, arms bar, kimura, americana, omaplata & triangle choke. Any experienced BJJ/Judo guys buying this book may want to consider an additional purchase if they wish to advance their own ground game. The same goes for any strikers out there - there are limited striking techniques, little to none on kicks. This is why one star is deducted.
In conclusion, this is an excellent book & it provides many of the most effective techniques used to by champions today. It sets the tone for any amateur & anyone who is interestingin the ever-growing sport of mixed martial arts.
This book is indeed a book of priceless knowledge & a must buy (unless you wanna get TKO'ed by some basic technique).
Great For Mixed Martial Arts - By: Sterling, 11 Jul 2008 Although this book is very good, it is a comprehensive guide to Mixed Martial Arts as a discipline rather than a complete book of all martial arts techniques required for MMA. The information on striking, submissions & wrestling is quite basic & elaborate detail on the execution of techniques isn't brilliant, but the book assumes you have knowledge of submissions, strikes & wrestling & the real gem of information is on applying this to MMA, i.e. how to utilise the fence for takedowns, how to use boxing combos to setup a takedown, & how to use striking to defend against submissions, (as opposed to straight grappling), using a thai clinch to escape wrestling style pummelling etc. In this sense, this book is genuinely a wealth of knowledge, & fantastically displays the application of muay thai, boxing, jiu-jitsu & wrestling to MMA, with a heavy focus on the almalgamation of multiple disciplines to suceedin MMA. However, I would advise against purchasing this book for a comprehensive guide to all areas of MMA, some information on striking leaves out important nuances, & the same goes for submissions (a specific striking/grappling etc. book would be better for this), but as aforementioned, the focus of the book is on mixed martial arts strategies & techniques specifically, &in this sense, 'Mixed Martial Arts: Book of Knowledge' isin no way a misleading title.
Makes the Boring Bits Interesting - By: Adorno, 27 Jun 2008 
The other reviewers have looked at this as a book for training but I can recommend this for anyone who follows MMA moderately seriously. What I found most helpful was the way that Penn & his co-authors work through what the casual fan sees as the "boring bits" when there are no fists, knees, elbows or feet flying around. At the end I really felt that I had a much better understanding of what was going on when fighters are against the cage or the importance of the struggle for position & posture on the ground - you begin to see a lot of technique at work where before you only saw two blokes leaning against a fence.
It's worth mentioning that for a book that is mostly pictures this is quite a serious read. You really need to pay attention to make sense of the techniques but you are rewarded with a much deeper understanding of what is going on.
one word - awesome! - By: G. Cooke, 19 May 2008 Quite simply this book is the bible when it comes to MMA. Well written & brilliantly put together its full of high percentage techniques that work.
It wont turn you into a world champ by itself, only you can do that. But it gives you some excellent building blocks & a great basis for you to start drilling, learning & perfecting.
My one criticism (if you can call it that) is that id have liked to have seen a stretching section to have some idea of what BJ does to get that insane flexibility !!!
Awesome Buy - By: Sam Swift, 16 Dec 2007 After reading all the great reviews on this website I decided to buy it, I was not dissapointed. The book totally exceeded the high expectations I had for it. No matter if you are a fighter or a interested fan listen to the reviews & buy it, it will not dissapointin the slightest.
