I wasn't put off so much by how MMA was depicted in Warrior but more of how predictable the film's outcome became. Like you said, Warrior recycles heavily from The Fighter. Mickey Ward and Dick Eckland construct the identities of Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy's personas respectively. Yet I feel Warrior is a fantastic film because Nick Nolte makes for an unforgettable supporting actor. There is depth to Paddy Conlon that Melissa Leo was never able to capture in her depiction of Alice Ward. Conlon decides the crucial character arcs that take place during the closing acts of the movie and ultimately it is his own flawed traits that reunite the brothers and divide them, he seemingly grows up as an individual where Alice Ward does not.

Stu you completely missed the entire point of the film, it's not about MMA it's about a family torn apart that reunite under the guise of MMA fighting. It's about two brothers and their alcoholic father. I'd recommend watching it again, it's a fantastic film and no there no other films that do this kind of thing better, the MMA films that are out there are for the most part cheap knock off's of Never Back Down.

This blog entry confuses me