Based on unique access to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and its rival organizations, Blood in the Cage peers through the chain-link Octagon into the frighteningly seductive world of mixed martial arts, which has exploded in popularity despite resistance. Wertheim focuses on Pat Miletich, who runs the most famous MMA training school in the world. Single-handedly Miletich has transformed a gritty town on the Mississippi into an unlikely hotbed for his sport. He has also transformed many an average Joe into a walking weapon of destruction.

Wertheim intertwines...

In the 2008 Wimbledon men's final, Centre Court was a stage set worthy of Shakespearean drama. Five-time champion Roger Federer was on track to take his rightful place as the most dominant player in the history of the game. He just needed to cling to his trajectory. So in the last few moments of daylight, Centre Court witnessed a coronation. Only it wasn't a crowning for the Swiss heir apparent but for a swashbuckling Spaniard. Twenty-two-year-old Rafael Nadal prevailed, in five sets, in what was, according to the author, "essentially a four-hour, forty-eight-minute infomercial for...