The Year in Fighting: 2019 is a book that I am illustrating while concurrently writing & illustrating MMA Squared. It’s a more sober, artistic endeavor about what happens inside the cage, letting go of the hype trains, PR disasters, and marketing angles. Let’s look at part 3.

We left off with this set of color studies for Niko Price’s knockout of Tim Means which I started applying variations of on subsequent drawings like this one of Weili Zhang thrashing Tecia Torres.

I like the leg entanglement and did a study of just their lower halves to wrap my head around the position.

Also on the come up is Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, on a seven fight win streak with three Fight of the Night bonuses, choking out Curtis Millender. This is a color study on the left for the more nuanced drawing on the right.

And finally, Jorge Masvidal’s knockout of Darren Till was so athletic and dynamic that there’s no way a single image could tell the story.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes. I run a pay-what-you-want patreon which will have regular updates from the book. Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Chris