Mike Safo with Michael Thomsen, UFC Author

Mike Safo

Joined today by author of the new book "Cage Kings: How an Unlikely Group of Moguls, Champions, and Hustlers Transformed the UFC into a 10 Billion Dollar Industry", Michael Thomsen. Michael talks about growing up in California, joining the Peace Corps, living in Madagascar and finally settling down in the Big Apple. We chat about his new book, the research that went into writing it, devoting over 3 years of his life to it and finally releasing it three years after the proposed date. Michael talks about what drew him to the UFC, the early ideas for the octagon involving a moat, plexiglass, and electricity, and the violence of the early UFC matches. We chat about Dana White in the early stages of the UFC, selling t-shirts out of his trunk and going to best buy and putting the UFC DVD's up front and how that transformed him into what he is today. We hear about the importance of the Diaz brothers, Rousey, Couture, and McGregor and how each carried a certain era of the UFC. Mike tells us about the self-sustainable UFC, from their headquarters to their facilities and the access they gave him (and didn't give him). We hear how Spike TV and reality TV really put the UFC on the map and how there seems to be no slowing it down. After dedicating years of his life to this book, he answers if did that made him more of a fan or less of a fan, will there ever be a retirement health care plan for these fighters and many other questions he tries to answer. We even chat about eye gouging fighting from the 1700's. All this and more with Michael Thomsen. Follow him here: https://twitter.com/mike_thomsen?lang=en