Throughout its history, mixed martial arts have served as a refuge for people disillusioned and confounded by the world at large. The sport was invented by those who were thought too small, evolved by those who were thought too poor, and enjoyed by outsiders who just wanted to find some measure of escape within the honesty of primal combat, even if only for a few hours on a Saturday night.

It’s no accident that it has become so massively popular in such a lonely time.

This is the story of our weird, stupid, magical bloodsport.

“Fighting in the Age of Loneliness” is a five-part documentary series from SB Nation. It is written and narrated by Felix Biederman, and produced and directed by Jon Bois.