Can there be any shadow of a doubt that, pound for pound, Anderson Silva is the most accomplished Mixed Martial Artist alive? Zuffa even carted the famous Octagon over to fallen Middleweight kingpin Rich Franklin’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio on October 20th 2007, perhaps in the hope that the partisan crowd would restore a degree of parity for the man who used to dominate the field at 185lbs…
Author: Stew Boyd
If the modus operandi of The Ultimate Fighter is to lay bare the personalities behind the fighters in order to generate emotional investment in individuals from the punters, a la Pro Wrestling, then Season Five surely constitutes a massive shot in the arm for the UFC’s Lightweight division. Dana White muses in the very first episode that “These 155lb’ers are crazy motherf***ers- I don’t know if they’ve got little man syndrome, or what.” Indeed, there are scarce few Nate Quarrys or Chris Lytles amongst the fifth TUF collective, which makes for the most incident packed series to date…
Doesn’t anybody know anything? Rule of Murphy Instalment #912: If you name an MMA show “Knockout”, you might as well bet your mortgage there won’t be a single, solitary KO in sight. Something I completely forgot to mention in the UFC 75 review was that, from here on in, all these releases are in widescreen (letterbox) format…
This is an hour long feature, resplendent with thirty six highlight reel finishes, spanning the period from the inception of the Ultimate Fighting Championship until 2006. I actually feel like something of a spare part giving this any level of recommendation, as with four instalments of the “Ultimate Knockouts” series preceding this, chances are you’ll already know whether this release will strike a chord. Be forewarned, however, if you have accumulated said prior releases, there’s not a fat lot of new material to be found here…
How do you create a freak show attraction fight with two of the unanimously- hailed top worldwide fighters in their division at your disposal? Simple…. when the two men in question compete in conflicting weight classes…
Our old mucker Tony may be gone, but one monument to his reign as Premier remains in the form of that perennial red herring, the Millennium Dome. However, resplendent with it’s new corporate tag of “The O2 Arena”, the Dome at least gave those loveable scoundrels from Zuffa somewhere to hang their hat on 8th September 2007 in the European city they seem most intent on conquering. Once again, the ridiculous pricing structure meant I stayed back in the Black Country with trusty old Setanta Sports, around the time my mate Andy Spencer was getting himself acquainted with Randy Couture and Jacob Duran…
In one respect (see what I did there?), it’s difficult not to view August 25th 2007 at the Mandalay Bay with a twinge of regret for what was supposed to happen: Randy Couture, Captain America, most inspirational 44 year old man on the planet fresh off the heroic bit in complete and utter domination of Tim Sylvia, immediately faced with even more insurmountable odds in the form of a cyborg-like Croatian kicking machine invader from the “other” promotion. Instead, of course, we were served up the now much more sensical offering of the former against the man who knocked the latter out, yet still it was that much harder to romanticise Couture vs Gonzaga than it was Couture vs Cro Cop…
None too bashful it might have been, but the name bestowed upon the UFC’s 7th July 2007 card from Sacramento’s Arco Arena was certainly reflected in the line-up on paper. As far as the five-fight main card was concerned, I’d imagine Kenny Florian and Alvin Robinson felt akin to pro-nudists at the Clothes Show amongst all the colossal star power…
“Charles McCarthy….. it is not yooou!” I challenge any and everyone who’ll ever indulge their senses with the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter- subtitled “The Comeback”- not to chirp “it is not yooou” every time they hear the name of the man known as “Chainsaw” for the remainder of their existence. Heck, I caught myself spontaneously and randomly hollering it out in the shower the other day. Thank you, Shonie Carter, for making me feel an utter plank in the privacy of my own home…
“Victory” emanated from the top bit of the Emerald Isle- the Odyssey Arena, on 16 June 2007. Judging by their commentary work here in comparison to two events prior at the MEN, Messrs Goldberg and Rogan didn’t have such a rough time with the jet lag on this trip…