With Georges St Pierre crocked, the epitaph for season four of The Ultimate Fighter, set up as it was for the traditionally prestigious Superbowl weekend, took an early blow in the allure stakes…
Author: Stew Boyd
Not exactly a new concept in our extended realm, the subject specific DVD treatment, but a first for MMA- UFC posterboy Chuck Liddell was always going to be the logical first choice for a memoir-driven shiny circle. For all the criticisms one can level at modern day WWE, their ability to knock up a mean DVD package is undeniable, and herein lies the yardstick for Zuffa’s initial attempt at cashing in on one man’s popularity, for reasons that will become apparent…
You know you’re in amongst the marketable names when “Face The Pain” backdrops the graphical parade of the upcoming fightcard, and your girlfriend remarks “I know who all of them are”. Either that, or it’s a sign that you’re watching too much MMA, and maybe it’s time you got around to re-sealing the bathroom, like you said you were going to in January…
With the Zuffa purchase throwing everything into a state of confusion and disarray, what with the likes of Shogun and Big Nog making quick tracks to OctagonLand, 2007 has deprived us of one of the traditional highlights of the annum in the form of the PRIDE GP. With grand significances such as the aforementioned brother Rua officially arriving in 2005, the pick ’em semi-final ensemble of Wanderlei, Rampage, Chuck and Overeem a year prior, and the like possibly a thing of the past, now is as good a time as any to relive the prototype event….
Unenlightened Californian crowds are a blemish on UFC events in the Sunshine State. Once more, this time at Sacramento’s Arco Arena, anything taking residence anywhere near ground level for more than two shakes of a lamb’s tail was to be jeered unmercifully…
Out with the old and in with the new…FightDVD bringeth the last SEG-stewarded event & the Zuffa bow in one fell swoop. UFC 29 constitutes a malicious swerve: headlined by championship defences from incumbents Pat Milletich & Tito Ortiz, the creatively titled “Defence Of The Belts” (ooh, that razor-sharp yankee wit!)…
It’s official: the vendetta against the Cage Rage production crew is ON! Some god-awful Cockney speed garage/hip hop hybrid combo provided the backdrop “music” for this event, and it practically runs on a loop throughout the whole show…
An appropriate alternate subtitle to this event, emanating as it did from the Mandalay Bay on 14.10.2006, may very well be “UFC 64: *crrrrrk* Joe Silva to Dana White’s office. Joe Silva to Dana White’s office on the double.” With marketing of fighters, positioning of challengers & building to future fights every bit a part of the genetic structure of MMA as it is crucial to Pro Wrestling, that wonderful tool called hindsight suggests that the matchmaking for the UFC’s return to their Nevada homebase didn’t entirely lend itself to this concept…
Pilfering it’s subtitle from an obsolete WWF “B” Pay Per View, “Fully Loaded” is a bit of a misnomer for the event which was also the thirtieth event staged by PRIDE Fighting Championship. You can always rely on some things remaining constant, however, like Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” video airing on Kerrang at least twice while you’ve got that channel on (regardless of how long for), adverts for a secured loan or IVA masquerading as “lower monthly payments” or serving to “write off debt you can’t afford to pay”, and Ken Shamrock whining & crying to anyone who’ll listen whenever he comes a cropper. Readeth ye on….
The title of “Ultimate Knockouts” is something of an un-apt one for these seventy-odd minutes, but I’d wager that the graphical design department would have a bit of trouble emblazoning the mere space afforded by your standard DVD case with the motif “UFC: Highlights of every fight from UFCs 47-51 that didn’t end by submission, or go the distance.”