ABOUT MIXED MARTIAL ARTS: MMA is a relatively new sport, whereby fighters from all different styles and disciplines compete against each-other. In the early days, this often meant you would see a karate expert fight a boxer, but these days the competitors in MMA tend to have a wide range of skills in every area, with a specialty in one.
ABOUT THE UFC: The UFC is the biggest business in the mixed martial arts game; there are others, but the UFC currently holds the monopoly on the emerging sport. They put on monthly events where their roster of fighters battle it out in a cage in bouts of three or five rounds, each lasting five minutes.
ABOUT UFC 56: UFC 56 was the November 2005 event that the UFC hosted in Las Vegas. It featured a night of fights, and you could either buy tickets to see it live, or buy the pay-per-view to watch it on TV. The event is now available on DVD.
There were eight fights on the night:
Welterweight bout: Nick Thompson vs. Keith Wisniewski Welterweight bout: Thiago Alves vs. Ansar Chalangov Light Heavyweight bout: Sam Hoger vs. Jeff Newton Middleweight bout: Jeremy Horn vs. Trevor Prangley Welterweight
bout: Georges St-Pierre vs Sean Sherk Welterweight bout: Matt Hughes vs Joe Riggs Heavyweight bout: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Kevin Jordan Middleweight Championship bout: Champion Rich Franklin vs. Nathan Quarry
The 'main event' fights (the big ones) were the Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin bouts, both of which were to be championship fights, but Joe Riggs was unable to make weight, and so the title contention was scrapped.
ABOUT THE FIGHTERS; The reason I recommended this event for Dooyoo is because it contains some great fighters. Knowing a bit about them will help you to think about whether or not you'll enjoy the event. Here I will go into a bit of detail about the best fighters on the card:
1) Matt Hughes At the time, Matt Hughes was the UFC Welterweight champ. Coming into this fight, he had won 15 of his last 16 fights, solidifying a reputation as one of the best fighters in the world. His core strength lies in his wrestling, as he had wrestled since childhood. He is also famed for his massive strength, which sees him able to lift up and slam opponents at will. At this point in his career, Matt was favouring taking opponents down to the ground and wrestling them, whilst angling for submissions.
2) Joe Riggs Having won 11 out of his last 12 fights, Riggs was a top contender for the belt. With many of his wins coming through knock-out, it was an interesting match-up with Hughes. Critics guessed the victor would be the one who could dominate their game plan - Hughes would be going for the take-down, but Riggs would be aiming to keep it standing and knock Hughes out.
3) Rich Franklin Having won an amazing 18 out of his last 19 fights, the Middleweight champ was seemingly unstoppable in the UFC; his accurate striking and top submission skills, along with huge cardio, meant he was pretty much unstoppable.
4) Nate Quarry Nate was a relatively unknown fighter, who had been in the first season on the Ultimate Fighter (but dropped out due to injury). Having won only 4 out of his last five fights, Quarry was the huge underdog going into this fight. There was some talk of him being a great talent, but his opponent was deemed too much for him.
So, those are the main bouts, but there are also some great fighters on the undercard:
Georges St Pierre, who is now the Welterweight Champ (as of April 2009), takes on Sean Sherk, a small but muscle laden power-house wrestler who had won his last 12 fights. This was a much anticipated bout to settle the dust and work out who deserved a shot at the Welterweight title after Riggs had had his go.
SO WAS IT ANY GOOD: Yes, indeed it was. When the UFC puts on a show where you have lots and lots of top talent, you're in for a good night.
I can tell you right now that the night includes a huge knockout - one of the most brutal I have ever seen, where the unconscious opponent drops back stiff as a board.
Lovers of knock-outs will be pleased to hear there are a total of four Kos on the night, some more impressive than others, but all good enough to stop the fight.
Submission fans aren't left high and dry though, as a range of technical fluency is used to secure both a kimura and rear naked choke. The kimura in particular was very nasty, twisting the opponent's arm right up behind his back before he tapped out.
Finally, two fights go the distance, with the judges' scorecards being called on the make the decision.
All in all, this event showcases the full range of MMA skills, with great boxing producing stunning knock-outs, jui-jitsu submissions and full fledged wars that went the distance.
IS IT WORTH WATCHING IN 2009: Yes, it is! Unlike the earlier events, the sport had evolved by this one to the point where well rounded, fit guys were giving top class performances. The quality of bouts is no worse than today's, and the roster of current and future champs makes it an interesting history lesson for fans of today. None of the fights are boring, and the wide range of outcomes means it doesn't get repetitive either.
Most of these fighters still fight for the UFC, so current fans will recognize almost all of them.
For present day fans thinking about which old UFC event to start with in their DVD collection, this event is the one that really got things going in terms of the abilities of the fighters.
All in all, an excellent event that showcases the UFC at its very best.
For more info, including winners, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_56
To buy, the best price is currently £9.07 delivered from play.com
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