Have you ever seen one of those Ultimate Fighter videos – the ones with the two blokes in a cage dressed in nothing but a big pair of pants and some fingerless gloves? I first got given one about eight years ago and was completely astonished. It was the sort of thing I'd stick on the video when a few lads came back to mine after closing time, and the Playstation was broken. Somehow it seemed to share the same fantasy and stark brutality as a lot of computer games, and was the perfect material to elicit an, 'ooooh FUCK!' from young semi-pissed men.

Upon first viewing, the initial reaction is that this is a pursuit for huge, terrifying men with bad anger issues (partially explaining its attraction to young post-closing time men), however, as photographer Francesca Yorke found, there is a very different side to this sport…

"I discovered the world of Ultimate Fighting through a chance encounter with a young Brazilian fighter called Jean Silva who invited me to take pictures at a forthcoming fight. Jean, well-known back home as a strong and stylish fighter, had come to Britain to try and make his name on the worldwide fight circuit".

"Ultimate Fighting – a legal but controversial sport, in which opponents come from many disciplines including boxing, wrestling, jujitsu and capoiera – has attracted a great deal of negative press and so I went along to this first fight with some trepidation".

"However, what I found was not what I expected. I was intrigued to find that, alongside the obvious physicality and indeed violence of the sport, there was a great deal of camaraderie, discipline, loyalty and honesty – a world away from the pretence and artifice of many other photographic subjects".

"As a photographer, the environment felt very safe and I found the guys taking part in the sport to be very open and accepting – even in moments of defeat when I often had my camera very close to their faces to capture their expressions of depression and even, sometimes, real physical pain. They were remarkably unafraid of showing vulnerability, often looking so directly into the lens that it was truly surprising to the photographer's eye, especially in comparison with shooting celebrities – or even just self-aware western people in general".

"Superficially, the sport appears unruly, but is actually very complex and the fighters involved are often great athletes with incredible skill and discipline".

"The intense camaraderie of the sport is also very marked, with fighters showing great respect and concern for one another, checking on opponents' well-being after a fight. Trainers also look after their charges with great care, tenderly wrapping fighters' hands before the gloves go on".

"As part of the study, and also to get to know the fighters better and win their trust before shooting them during the fights, I went many times to the highly-acclaimed 'Shootfighters' gym, where many of the leading names train. It was easy to see why they enjoyed the training, from being able to test the limits of their strength to the fun they had teasing each other about a fight".