USA. Fayetteville, North Carolina. 2008. An Army couple watches the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s “Fight for the Troops.” The event
was reserved for soldiers and their families stationed at nearby Fort Bragg but was broadcast
nationwide. The bout raised money for a new research center on traumatic brain injury. The
headline fight was decided by a knockout. The winner strutted around the caged ring as the
fans roared. One soldier waved his prosthetic leg in celebration. The loser lay unconscious for
fifteen minutes, attended frantically by medical staff. Over two million people watched around
the country.