Login Form
Advertisement
Polls
Sponsored Links
| UFC 23 & UFC 24 |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Administrator | |||||
|
UFC 23: Ultimate Japan 2 UFC 23 was held in Tokyo, Japan in late 1999. The opening couple of contests really did little to inspire and it wasn’t until Eugene Jackson took on and took out Kei Yamamiya that I really sat forward and got into this event. The next bout didn’t last long due to a sick looking knee injury sustained by Jason Delucia at the hands of rookie Joe Slick but the sadist in you will enjoy seeing the injury. The tournament final between Kenichi Yamamoto and Katsuhisa Fujii didn’t particularly get my anticipation levels up as I didn’t particularly enjoy either fighter’s semi final bouts earlier in the event. It had a couple of decent highlights and produced the first submission of the night but it didn’t blow anyone away. Discovering Pedro Rizzo was about to compete (against Tsuyoshi Kosaka) finally perked me up as I always enjoy watching Rizzo’s battles. The first couple of rounds were OK but far from amazing but Rizzo put Kosaka down and out with a good left hook and a follow up with a right hand as Kosaka was struggling to find his feet. The main event was contested for the vacant Heavyweight Championship as eccentric wrestler Kevin Randleman took on Pete Williams. The added spice to this fight was the fact that Williams had previously knocked out Mark Coleman in astonishing fashion and Coleman was now coaching Randleman! The main event started at a better pace than most of the earlier fights as Randleman powered Williams to the canvas. A decent first round ended explosively as Williams hammered Randleman with a plethora of punches for close to a minute until the bell sounded. Randleman, who had dominated the majority of the opening round, struggled to his corner as a result of the assault as he prepared for the second round. There was not a great deal of action in the second round as Randleman pressed Williams to the mat and kept himself in a dominant position without really showing too much aggression. The third round was poor and the fourth round’s lack of action suggested that the judge’s better be paying attention as the outcome was likely to be left in their hands. The fifth and final round was more stand up than the others but it still lacked aggression as fatigue was setting in and the judges awarded the contest and the Championship to the best of a bad pair. UFC 24 looked like it would start brightly as one of my favourite smaller fighters, Jens Pulver, was competing in the opening contest against David Velasquez. The fight produced an exciting first round with Pulver showing his boxing prowess at times. The second round started slower until Pulver got himself on top and pounded Velasquez with rights and lefts and the referee stopped the contest. In the next contest, Tiki pummelled Bob Cook early in the opening round with right and left hands but Cook escaped a potential stoppage when he went down and caught Tiki with a double leg takedown. The round ended excitingly too as Cook repaid the favour and hammered Tiki with rights and lefts just before the bell. Within a minute of the second round, Tiki made the mistake of showing his back and Cook didn’t hesitate to lock in a choke to score the victory. After the third contest, a decent fight, went to a decision Jermaine Andre took on Lance Gibson in a Middleweight bout which almost went the distance. Gibson knocked out Andre in the final minutes of the third round with a vicious knee shot to take an impressive victory after a long, strategic battle. Next on the DVD was a Lightweight preliminary bout. The highlight going into the contest wasn’t Shonie Carter or his opponent Brad Gumm; it was the appearance of UFC legend Dan Severn as referee. The contest was fought at a good pace and consisted of plenty of action with the judges deciding the outcome. In a Heavyweight bout, Tedd Williams knocked out Steve Judson inside four minutes in a hard hitting fight. The final fight on the DVD included a legend in my area - Ian Freeman. Freeman is from about 10miles up the road from me and he was a legend in the area long before he started appearing on UFC, Britain’s Hardest or the TWC Fight channel. Freeman was making his UFC debut against fellow debutant Scott Adams as Dan Severn returned to the octagon as referee again. Adams went into this bout under the tutelage of Chuck Liddell and his submission grappling expertise showed as he took down Freeman early and kept him down with leg locks until Freeman finally tapped. SUMMARY: I really didn’t enjoy UFC 23. There was no real standout match to cover for the mediocrity that was displayed throughout the show. UFC 24 was much better although it won’t go down in history as a classic event. Pulver was impressive, Tiki v Cook was good and Gibson v Andre was quite good although the quality began to suffer when the quantity outweighed it. I normally enjoy these double DVDs from UFC and for the hardcore fan it’s definitely worth purchasing as it’s great value for money with over 5 hours of footage for only £13.99 but I wouldn’t recommend this to casual MMA or UFC fans.
|