UFC 11 & 12 Double DVD Review
By Gary Graham

UFC 11 ‘The Proving Ground’
The UFC has grown in popularity over the last 2 years here in the UK.  So much so FightDVD and UFC have decided to release its back catalogue.  DVD’s that have never been seen before in the UK re-produced in PAL format.

UFC 11 & 12 were two of the big PPV’s of 1996/1997.  Back in 1996 the UFC was more brutal, more violent with less rules and regulations than in today’s UFC.

The first DVD UFC 11 – ‘The Proving Ground.’ Was my first taste of old UFC, I was not sure what to expect to be honest, after all it was 10 years ago.  The DVD re-mastering is amazing and the footage looks as if it was shot yesterday.

The show format is slightly different to the modern day UFC DVD’s with a more personal feel to the production.  The show starts with some back stage interviews with the legendary ‘Tank Abbott’ and Mark Coleman.

The format of this event is like many of the older UFC events, where the show was a 8 man tournament so if a fighter reaches the final he will have to have fought for 3 matches.

These four matches were really hard hitting slug fests and it’s amazing that the 4 fighters have to come out and battle again.  It shows the stamina these guys have.  The tournament is not in the round system we see now in UFC, these matches have a set 15 minute time limit, and then they go into an overtime situation.

The two giants of Tank Abbott and Scott Ferrozzo, slugged it out right to the bitter end of their 15 minute round.  Two giants in the ring carrying more than a little extra weight around the gut spent most of the bout against the fence and Tank Abbott seemed to be more than content to do this even though it appeared he was losing the round.  The match then went into overtime which add’s a further 3minutes to the bout.  Again for the final 3 minutes they went pretty much straight to the fence.  The outcome was pretty much expected and Ferrozzo took the bout and went onto the next round.

The main event that was scheduled between Mark Coleman and Scott Ferrozzo never happened as Ferrozzo has a pretty nasty cut above his eye and was withdrawn, so they were supposed to have brought in an alternative fighter, only the alternative fighter broke his hand in an earlier fight.  So there was no one else to fight and Mark Coleman was declared winner.

This is very confusing and as rules have changed it was hard to understand what exactly what was going on.  Plus there was no Main Event for this event, something that had never happened before in UFC history.

In summing up this is a great DVD, all though confusing at times.  The action is hard hitting and gruelling and opened another door into the world of UFC.

DVD Listing:

Mark Coleman vs. Scott Ferrozzo

Tank Abbott vs. Scott Ferrozzo

Mark Coleman vs. Brian Johnston

Fabio Gurgel vs. Jerry Bohlander

Tank Abbott vs. Sam Adkins

Reza Nasri vs. Brian Johnston

Mark Coleman vs. Julian Sanchez

UFC 12 – ‘Judgement Day’

UFC 12 ‘Judgement Day’ promised to be one of the toughest UFC DVD’s ever.  Two tournaments featured (Heavyweight and Lightweight) and a UFC Heavyweight Championship Match between title holder Mark Coleman and Dan ‘ The Beast’ Severn.  This is one UFC DVD I was really looking forward to.  I was just hoping it was easier to follow than UFC 11.

The opening bouts were from the Lightweight Division Tournament which featured Wallid Ismail vs. Yoshiki Takahashi & Jerry Bohlander vs. Rainy Martinez the winner of each fight would face off in the final.

The Heavyweight Division Tournament featured Vitor Belfort vs. Tra Telligman

 & Scott Ferrozzo vs. Jim Mullen again the winners of each bout would face each other later on the show.

Same rules apply all bouts are 1 x 15minute round and if the fight went over the 15minutes an overtime of 3minutes would be fought and if still no winner, it would go to the judges decision.

One of the guest commentators is none other than UFC veteran ‘Ken Shamrock’.

The main event of Coleman & Severn was defiantly the match that I was looking forward to, Mark Coleman was undefeated in UFC and was the current UFC Heavyweight Title holder.

Both fighters are master grapplers, and seeing two giant men like this bare knuckle fighting (yes no gloves) made this bout even more exciting and even more scarey.  Both fighters moved to the mat at the start of the bout Coleman managed to get on top.  Dan ‘The Beast’ Severn dropped his guard and tried to punch his way out of the hold.  This only gave Coleman the chance to apply a headlock and left Severn no option but to tap out.  This was a very short bout and one that shocked every one.

This was a great DVD and a great event, the mixture of the two tournaments and a separate main event made this one of the most exciting UFC events I have seen to date.

In summing up this double DVD is a bargain and also an important part of UFC history.  This DVD is defiantly one for cage fighting fans to have in their collection.  The price of £14.99 for both events is a price that will appeal to all. 

UFCDVD006
Price: £14.99 
Languages: English
Approx running time 288 mins

Available from fightDVD.co.uk