Author: Stew Boyd

I questioned in my review of “The Second Coming” where this bad boy had gotten to… in an erratic style reminiscent of the sadly passed PRIDE Fighting Championships during its existence, FightDVD has indeed released DSE’s initial Las Vegas soiree some months after giving their second a DVD berth. In the coming weeks, I shall be sewing up the final weeks and months of PRIDE…

“Breakthrough” was to prove a prophetic title for the UFC’s first ever visit to the state of Georgia on 6 September 2008. Whilst conventional wisdom had primary wrestler Rashad Evans as ideal fodder for Chuck Liddell’s sprawl and counterpunch game, thus putting the former 205lb champion on the fasttrack to a rematch for the strap, “Sugar” Rashad’s seemingly intangible inability to actually lose fights up to this point, which coupled with the presence of strategic demi-god Greg Jackson in his corner (who had previously mapped out Keith Jardine’s route to victory over “The Iceman”), meant a metaphoric breakthrough for the TUF 2 Heavyweight champion on this night was far from out of the question…

Much like the imminent UFC 98, there was a tangible air of gypsy curse surrounding the UFC’s July 2008 stop-off in London. The originally scheduled main event pit Chuck Liddell against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, before injury forced the Brazillian to withdraw. Rashad Evans was subsequently drafted in as a replacement, but a graphic thigh injury suffered by Liddell sent that proposal the way of Global Hypercolour too. Furthermore, the planned co-headliner of Michael Bisping vs Chris Leben would wind up atop UFC 89 in Birmingham after a brush with the stateside constabulary put paid to “The Crippler’s” short term visa prospects…

Eh? Where’s “The Real Deal” gotten to then? No big drama, though, as PRIDE’s second foray into the live Western market, from Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Centre on 24 Feb 2007, left their Nevada debut eating it’s dust, likely snaring the crown for focal point in an annum that was roundly heralded as the year of the upset in MMA. Indeed, anyone who stuck an accumulator on this event probably wound up owing the bookies money…

“The winner of this fight will get $5000.00, courtesy of Burger King.” Corporate sponsorship has hijacked the TUF juggernaut, and thrown the audience a curveball when it comes to Uncle Dana’s pre-fight, crow-along intros. Seven seasons in, and I can’t believe no-one’s brought this up yet….. who in the hell uses the term “sudden victory” to describe a tie-break, anyway?

Guilty. I’ve skipped ahead… but I’ll catch up, honest injun (or whatever). Chastise ye not, the slacker thing is but my gimmick, and this show was just too enticing to watch again. Is it just me, or has the UFC been gravitating more and more back to Vegas recently? May 24th 2008 was the date, and the clusterfudge that was the UFC Lightweight title picture since….. I would say Sean Sherk stepped down a weightclass, but in truth since Jens Pulver first buggered off to PRIDE…. was finally afforded a sense of order at the MGM Grand Garden Arena…

Surveys conducted amongst audience members at the UFC’s previous three events in the UK established that the highest volume of long distance travellers to their events came from the North East…. justification or reward, as it were, for the Octagon touching down at the Metro Radio Arena on January 19th…

Anyone still scratching their noggin over Brock Lesnar being granted a UFC Heavyweight Championship shot with an MMA record of 2-1 would do well to take a gander at Zuffa’s final event of 2007 (December 29th, to be precise) from the Mandalay Bay…

What a show to return with, the UFC’s…. um…. lets be honest here, Zuffa’s New Jersey soiree on 17th November 2007 was one of the first of what are fast becoming recognisable as UFC “B” shows (their equivalent “In Your House”, if you will), with the only real selling point to the masses being the main event which pit two TUF Champions against each other for the first time…