TapouT (Formerly Bodyguard Magazine) and Fighters Only Magazines

The Main Event: TapouT Magazine vs. Fighters Only Magazines (Magazine Review)

Title: TapouT (Formerly Bodyguard Magazine) and Fighters Only Magazines

Magazine Rating: Both magazines get two thumbs up and are worth getting. Realize that quality can vary from issues to issue.

Subscription Information: TapouT (Formerly Bodyguard Magazine)

Subscription Information: Fighters Only

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It's TIME tooooo BEGINNNNnn, the Ultimate MMA Magazine Showdown!! Coming out of the United Kingdom with a track record of 17 issues is "Fighters Only." (And the crowd goes wild). His opponent, hailing from the United States, comes to the ring with a track record of 13 issues and a recent name change, is the exciting, the full color, "TapouT Magazine." (Again, the crowd goes wild). Ok, let's have a good clean fight and Let's get it on!!

First, let me talk about what both magazines have done right. Both are full color, have glossy pages, and are impressive visually. Both magazines cover all the important events and have well done interviews with prominent fighters. Both magazines are about 100 pages long and about the same dimensions. While I looked through several back issues of each magazine for this review, to make a fair comparison, I focused on the May 2006 issue for both magazines (Issue number 12 for TapouT and issue number 13 for Fighters Only).

While at first glance the tail of the tape may indicate that this is going to be a close match up, the decision (it was a decision, no knock out) was unanimous. Now let me examine the differences that will clearly put one magazine over the top.

TapouT Magazine changed its name from Bodyguard. The name change was definitely an improvement. Calling your magazine, "Bodyguard" really confused what demographic you were going after. However, in order to make the name change the magazine teamed up with the TapouT Crew from Inyaface.com. I don't get it. Every time I see an ad or article with these guys, all I think is "Ass Clowns." I am not sure why those words magically come together when I see the Crew. They just do.

The part I don't get is why organizations like the UFC and Bodyguard magazine think that teaming up with these guys is such a great thing. They must think that they gain some sort of "Street Cred" from them. I guess, I don't know anyone that has ever purchased anything from them. Someone must, they seem to have done well for themselves. Oh well, they are our "Ass Clowns" and if they support the sport as much as they appear to, they have my blessing. So, go forth and do whatever it is you guys actually do.

TapouT is a very impressively laid out magazine with an excellent list of contributors. One of the nicest part of the magazine is the 16 page center section of training techniques that are three hole punches and can easily be pulled out of the magazine. Another nice feature is the MMA Calendar. You have two months worth of events listed day by day. The suggestion that I would give is to move the calendar closer to the techniques section so this too can be pulled out. I have only one major criticism for the TapouT Magazine. The editors of the magazine have made the common new magazine mistake of pairing almost every "article" with an advertisement. Mike Swain has an article and, low and behold, right next to it is a full page ad for his mats. Tony Blauer has an article and right next to it is a full page ad for Tony's www site. Coincidence? I don't think so. This pattern goes on for most of the magazine. Many of the articles are not really articles at all; they are more like long e-mails. Tom Patire's "article" is barely long enough to cover one page. Please note that the ad for Tom's combat training camp is right next door.

Sometimes you have to look closely at the "articles" and the ads to find the connection. While connecting the dots, I saw an advertisement for a law firm that does immigration work. I thought that was kind of an odd ad, but advertisement money is advertisement money. I broke out laughing when I saw that in issue 11 the editors had done a product review of the law firm. That big flushing sound you hear in the background is TapouT's credibility going down the toilet like a turd in a hurry. A law firm review? You really have hit bottom. TapouT should not try and present itself as a news magazine; it should really call itself a catalog or infomercial. If nearly every article is just extension of an advertisement, then call it what it is, a catalog.

I have two words for the editors of TapouT magazine -- Chinese Walls. The Chinese wall is an imaginary wall that separates the two sides of the publishing business. Theoretically, advertising and editorial don't talk with each other and the editorial department isn't even supposed to notice who and what is being advertised through their magazine. Think about it.

The other competing magazine is Fighters Only Magazine. This magazine comes out of the UK. The UK is known for having much better magazine than we have in the US. They also cost a lot more. This magazine, which is run by Ian Freeman, has evolved from a magazine that was mainly about Ian Freeman, to being a magazine that is now truly about MMA. This magazine has 8 pages of techniques that can be pulled out. They did not see fit to punch the holes for you; they just printed circles where the holes should go (Notice that it is two hole punched).

The amount of text that Fighters Only has when compared to TapouT is night and day. Fighter Only has 2 to3 times the amount of text about fights, interviews, etc. Fighters Only is also a monthly magazine, where TapouT comes out every two months. For me this is a big difference. In this day in age of instant internet gratification, getting fight news that is two months old is hard to accept. One of the articles in Fighters Only that I liked most, is a series on famous fights in the past, like Royce vs Severn and Frank Shamrock vs Bas Rutten. The magazine gives you some perspective on the past fight and its relative importance. Sometimes you don't appreciate a given fight at the time. There was also an ongoing glossary of MMA terms that many people will find helpful.

I especially liked the product reviews. The Fighters Only editors would take, for example, 5 different grappling gloves and rate them. Wow, what a concept! Moreover, in what must be a martial arts magazine first, not every product kicked ass and one was actually rated better than the others. I don't think I have never seen Black Belt Magazine compare, say, 4 TKD instructional videos and say which one was better. Until now, most product reviews in magazines were nearly worthless. The magazines are too afraid of pissing off advertisers to tell you anything meaningful about the product. For TapouT, the consequences would be doubled. If you lose an advertiser, you also lose an article. Doh!!

So, is there a dark side to Fighters Only? Yes, it's the price and the focus on the UK. I can't really fault them for focusing on the UK. Nevertheless, I just don't care that much about smaller MMA events around the UK. I'm just an ugly American. The price is a big issue too. They currently want 73 pounds a year for as subscription. This is like $136 dollars a year for 12 issues. Counter intuitively, if you buy it on the newsstand, it's only $7.50 an issue or about $90 a year. TapouT "the catalog," is only $32 a year for 6 issues. I guess if you figure that you get more that twice as much information with Fighters Only the differential is not that wide.

Bottom Line:
The clear winner by unanimous decision in this fight is Fighters Only Magazine. This magazine has it all -- Full color, great photo, interviews, and techniques. You also get twice the content of TapouT. Plus, you get actual product reviews. Most American magazines could learn a few things from their British counterparts.

To move itself to the next level, TapouT needs to separate the editorial people from the advertising people (if that is even possible with a small staff). You have the ingredients to make a great magazine. The splitting up the advertising people from the editorial people would move the magazine from being a disguised J. Peterman Catalog to a top MMA magazine. Or if you like, "from pretender to contender."