Champions of the Octagon

Learn the stories, history, and strategy of the sport's greatest champions—in their own words!

Mixed martial arts (MMA) has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. With Dana White helping bring Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to prominence and respectability, as well as Conor McGregor becoming one of the sport’s biggest stars, fans are skipping the squared circle for the Octagon.

In Champions of the Octagon, writer Fiaz Rafiq interviews many of the greatest MMA and UFC champions of all-time, including Georges St-Pierre, Holly Holm, Daniel Cormier, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Randy Couture, and many others. Readers will learn of their upbringings, their introductions to the sport, and how they worked their way to be the best ever.

Spending decades covering the sport and building relationships with those who have fought in the Octagon, Rafiq shares never-before-seen interviews and intimate stories from these greats. Learn from Royce Gracie how his family helped bring Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to America, Anderson Silva on challenging boxing champion Roy Jones Jr., BJ Penn on how he got introduced to MMA, Brock Lesnar on using his skills from WWE and bringing them to UFC, Alexander Volkanovski on a quest to dominate his division, Holly Holm on dethroning Ronda Rousey, and so much more.

From the early days of the sport and its rich history to today’s stars and the future of MMA, Champions of the Octagon pulls back the curtain on their lives and careers. Including interviews from thirty-six UFC champions (seventeen Hall of Famers), hear never-before-told stories from the fighters who helped build the sport to what it is today.

Fiaz Rafiq is a professional sports and entertainment contributing writer for prominent newspapers and author of acclaimed biographies of Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has written his own journalist memoir, as well as Sunday Times Book of the Year, My Brother, Muhammad Ali with Ali’s only sibling, Rahaman Ali. For fifteen years, he was a columnist for a bestselling combat sports magazine MAI, and has contributed to various magazines throughout his career.

Royce Gracie is considered to be the most influential figure in the history of MMA. The three-time UFC champion was joint first inductee in the UFC Hall of Fame.

Michael Bisping, former UFC middleweight champion and author of Quitters Never Win, currently hosts his own Believe You Me podcast and works as a UFC analyst and an actor.