There are two types of MMA books, instructional books and biographies. Got Fight? is neither. As the book acknowledges, Griffin isn’t a martial artist – he’s a fighter. He’s leaving the technique books to the martial artists. Biographies are rather useless this early into the MMA game. Only a handful of veteran fighters have accomplished enough to be worthy of a biography and most of those that have been published are really designed to make a quick buck from the type of fanboy who gets a Tap Out logo tattooed onto their forehead. Forest’s book is designed to ridicule that type of fanboy into growing some hair on his chest. He rails on everything he finds ridiculous about his chosen profession and some of the posers that surround it while advocating a return to the sort of manliness embodied by Clint Eastwood. Joe Rogan would be hard pressed to write an MMA book this funny.

There’s also anecdotes from two friends who knew and trained with Forest back in the day in Georgia, both of whom relate one simple fact that says volumes about Forest: he used to spar drunk because he assumed that if he ever needed his fighting skills, it would most likely be because he’s drunk.

Not that Forest doesn’t share any fight wisdom; he offers 42 basic fight tips that provide a good base of knowledge for the new MMA fan, although I can think of some rather high profile MMA fighters that should be required to study those tips (for instance, someone should buy Andrei Arlovski a copy and underline the tip about throwing a jab before attempting a lower leg kick. Watch Arlovski vs. Brett Rogers for what happens when you don’t. Come to think of it, Arlovski could use some manliness pointers as well). There’s also the “vault of supersecret techniques” which offers practical advice for myriad situations including defending yourself from dog attacks.

A lot of the book is filled with bullshit and opining on topics that are perennial favorites amongst your training partners, assuming that you and your training partners are not douche bags. For instance, Forest offers a list of the type of people who are douche bags. You might not agree with his list, you’ll likely want to expand the list far beyond the six categories that Forest offers – but you’ll relate.

I hereby declare this the best non-instructional MMA book ever written. Don’t buy it for kids or metrosexuals (Arlovski is the exception that defines the rule) – this is a book for men. There’s even a test at the beginning of the book that you can take if there’s any question as to your status.