Review for UFC 101: Declaration

The UFC knew it had a hard act to follow when UFC 100 set the bar for pay-per-views. However they still managed to bring us a stacked card with an exciting main event in Kenny Florian challenging BJ Penn for the lightweight championship.

There were question marks over Penn's commitment to training an a surging Ken-Flo, riding a six fight win streak, would certainly provide a stern test of 'The Prodigy's' credentials.

 The co-main event would be a similar affair, with middleweight champion Anderson Silva out to prove the critics wrong against another Ultimate Fighter 1 alumni Forrest Griffin.

Elsewhere the card included interesting fights for TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove, as he matched up against Ricardo 'Big Dog' Almeida and UFC 101 also saw the return of the popular TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah as he faced off against talented wrestler Jonny Hendricks.

The city of Philadelphia, whom the UFC was landing in for the very first time, certainly had no reason to complain.

Video

Video is presented in 4:2 PAL and is, as you would expect, another excellent production from the UFC. 

Audio

Audio is 2.0 Dolby Digital, and is exceptionally clear. Fun commentary from the likeable but sometimes a little dozy Mike Goldberg and the always hilarious Joe Rogan as usual here.

Extras

The by now standard extras on a UFC event are included on a second disk, but are always a good watch.

The countdown and weigh-in shows make interesting viewing, and provide a little bit of fleshing out for MMA newcomers.

However the best extra here is the behind the scenes extra, in which we delve into the training and preparations of the main eventers and also the co main event. Getting a real insight into how these amazing athletes prepare is something any true MMA fan will be interested in.

We are also given a glimpse into what the fighters are like outside the octagon, with Anderson Silva being the pick of the bunch as his friendly, but slightly weird (look out for him making strange noises as he videos members of his team) personality shining through.

Conclusion

UFC 101 certainly didn't fail in it's attempts to follow up the centenary event in the UFC's history. Watch out for a master-class from each victor in both the main events. Here we saw amazing fighters at their world class best and, even if you were not rooting for them, it is hard to not watch with awe at each outcome.

Solid under card fights including help prop up this event. With exciting match up's between Josh Neer and Kurt Pelligrino and the aforementioned Almeida vs. Grove both good fights to watch.

And what would a UFC event be without a controversial decision? Sadollah vs. Hendricks provides the controversy in abundance.

The only problem I would have with this card is that there isn't any really great prelim bouts, which are generally something to look forward to when you purchase a UFC DVD. We get mostly drab decisions here, but don't let that spoil an all round solid DVD.

UFC 101 is certainly a good, if not brilliant edition to any MMA fan's DVD collection.