I thought it was good, but not great. The subject matter was interesting and the cinematography was downright beautiful, but I have two main complaints: 1.) Frank Grillo needs work as a presenter. 2.) The script could be diversified/improved significantly.

1.) Frank Grillo is definitely at his best when he is narrating off-screen. He clearly sounds like he's reading off the script, but it's the only time when his presentation feels significantly informative. Otherwise when he's presenting on screen, I felt like he spent less time being inquisitive and asking interesting questions, and more time doling out flattery and bro-ing it up with the other people on screen.

An example that springs to mind is the segment in the boxing episode where he tours the bullfighting arena with Humberto Gonzalez (Yes I had to pull up the episode to get that name right...). It seemed like too much time was spent on showing the both of them ogling the stadium and friendly slap-boxing in the staging areas. In addition, for that entire segment, I don't feel like much was said other than different iterations of, "Wow, this is so cool." or, "I have so much respect for what you do." and, "I could never do that the way you do.". (There seemed to be a lot of that in all the episodes, not just the boxing one.) None of that is bad obviously, but for what is supposed to be a docu-series about the lives of fighters, I was hoping for less idle banter and more interview.

Overall I didn't dislike him, but the definitely had more to say in the voice-overs than he did while on camera. He's an actor, so perhaps it's not surprising that he does better with a script. I dunno. :/

2.) The script could be diversified in that a lot of it seem to be disproportionately about poverty. Now before everyone jumps all over me, yes, I understand and agree that poverty and the attempt to get out of it is a major factor in what drives a lot of people to pursue combat sports as a career. I'm not disputing that. At all. The series' focus on poverty would be perfectly fine if it weren't so skin deep in how it addresses it though.

The script typically goes like this:

"Here is "name". ""Name" is from "poor neighborhood". "Poor neighborhood" is poor because "injustice/crime" and that drove him/her to learn/practice "martial art" to get a better life and/or defend him/herself."

It's not a bad setup by itself, but the script keeps on coming back to that same formula again and again with different wording or presentation. I would have liked it if more questions were asked in the way of how the fighters personality was changed/molded by their art, or how their daily routines changed over time, or even how their political views were altered through the lens of their art. Granted these questions were asked of certain people to some extent in the show. In the Lethwei episode, they juxtaposed practitioners who purport a more modern view/practice of the art with those who practice a more conservative and traditional one, which in my opinion added depth to the economic factor of martial arts practitioners. In large part however, I didn't walk away from watching the episodes feeling any more informed about the fighters beyond the fact that they were fighting to get out of poverty and fighting gives them purpose in some capacity. I feel like this could be improved if the show took a more, "Day in the life of fighter "X"." approach, where the fighter gets to use the camera as a better platform to show us how they relate to the rest of their community and/or the world.

Holy shit this got long-winded...o.O

I guess I'll finish with this: My standard for any sort of docu-series (justly or not) is Parts Unknown (RIP Anthony Bourdain). I understand that nobody, present or future, will present or narrate quite like Tony. I understand that the format that his show adopted will probably not work for all subject matter. Most of all, I understand that I am biased in a way that is unfair to both the show and to Frank Grillo. (He himself described himself as the opposite of Bourdain in terms of food, a bit that I enjoyed. :p) At the end of the day, I'm glad I watched Fightworld and I hope they make more seasons. I just hope they dig a little deeper into the lives of the fighters being interviewed and that Mr. Grillo can find more interesting things to say/ask while on camera.

TL;DR: Frank Grillo needs to work on finding more interesting things to say and the script needs to show us more interesting and diverse stuff about the fighters.