Cert: 15

Length: (DVD) 172mins

This week I finally got chance to find out what Cage Rage is all about as I managed to get hold of a copy of Cage Rage 9. I have read a lot about Cage Rage and have seen little bits and pieces but this was the first chance I had to sit down and watch an entire event and I wasn�t disappointed.

For those of you who haven�t heard of Cage Rage before, Cage Rage is the British version of UFC. Cage Rage is the UK�s premier mixed martial arts organisation and sees MMA fighters from all over the world and every discipline competing in the octagon. Compared to UFC, Cage Rage is still in its infancy even after 9 events but I was still interested to see how we lived up to our American counterparts.

Matches

• Heavyweight Title:
  Ian Freeman v Ryan Robinson
• Matt "The Law" Lindland v Mark Weir
• Mike Bisping v Mark Epstein
• Renato "Babalu" Sobral v Cyrille Diabate
• Jean Silva v Samy Schiavo
• Sol Gilbert v Ridas Vivada
• Robbie Oliver v Dave Elliot
• Paul Daley v Jess Liaudin
• Alex Reid v Tulio Palhares
• Sami Berik v Abdul Mohamed
• Mustapha al Turk v Fereidoun Maghizadeh
• Brad Picket v Stuart Grant

Highs and lows

Being a Cage Rage virgin a big plus before I put the DVD in was the card as it featured some names I had heard of through their fights in UFC. Some of the most popular names on the card were Ian �the Machine� Freeman, Matt Lindland and Mark Weir. After seeing some of these British guys compete in UFC I was looking forward to seeing them compete on British soil.

When I put the DVD in I was impressed by the arena set up the octagon looked professional and the set up of the arena looked awesome. I don�t know whether it�s a personal thing but I prefer the high end budget shows. Having not seen a full Cage Rage event before to be greeted by Richard Blackwood in the Cage to announce the introduction to the event already gave me a sense that this was going to be a huge event even before I had witnessed a match. Richard popped up through out the event to do post match interviews in the cage with competitors.

Another good touch to the event was the female accompaniment that each fighter got on their way to the cage. Something you come accustom to with a lot of big fighting competitions are the nice looking girls that either come out with the fighters or hold the rounds cards up so it was good to see Cage Rage keeping with the tradition. MMA is popular among young males so the girls are a welcome addition for the hardcore Cage Rage fans.

I found the in ring action a lot more fast paced than UFC and more hard hitting. In UFC you see a lot more technical fights that go the distance but in Cage Rage no one seemed to be hanging around. Some of the fights were just plain up brutal which are good to watch once in a while but there was also a good mix in amongst the brutality of submission holds and a lot more slamming than I�m used to with MMA.

Cage Rage in its production is more edgy than UFC as the emphasis is on the fighting and not on the stories that led up to the match taking place. The product is a bit more rough round the edges especially when it comes to backstage interviews but that does add to the feel of the programme. Cage Rage is seen as more athletic competition than entertainment fighting which was showed at the end of each match with the fighters receiving trophies to commemorate their match and performance at Cage Rage 9. This I thought was a nice touch and added to the feel that Cage Rage were trying to put across. Although I would like to seem them invest more money in the Cage Rage championship belt.

My favourite matches on the card were Ian Freeman vs. Ryan Robinson, Robbie Oliver vs. Dave Elliot and Alex Reid vs. Tulio Palhares.

Overall

I was more than impressed with my first full Cage Rage event. I was glad that they are not trying to copy what other MMA promotions already do and that they are putting themselves out there as an alternative to existing promotions. I could easily see myself becoming a huge fan of Cage Rage and starting a DVD collection to match my UFC collection. If you haven�t seen a Cage Rage event before Cage Rage 9 is a good place to start.

Points: 6/10

Adam Sibley

Buy it:

UK: (DVD)