Review of UFC 57: Liddell v Couture

Introduction

When two stellar athletes come together in direct competition, it invariably catches the imagination of not only those who are passionate about the sport, but also those with a mere casual interest. In the past, such scenarios have included Ben Johnson vs Carl Lewis at the 1988 Olympic Games 100m, Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost in 1980s Formula One, or perhaps most notably, at the "Rumble in the Jungle" Foreman vs Ali fight of 1974.

On 4th February 2006 at the Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) had their moment in Chuck Liddell ( c ) vs Randy Couture for the Light-Heavyweight championship. It was the biggest match in the history of mixed martial arts.

This was not the first time that Liddell and Couture had locked horns, which bizarrely was what made the fight so highly-anticipated. In their first bout, in June 2003, the 39-year old Couture, primarily known as an Olympic-calibre wrestler rather than a fighter, scored a TKO victory over Liddell that made him the most universally-loved competitor ever in UFC.

The second fight was almost two years later, in April 2005, by which point Liddell had knocked out everyone set in his path, including another top star in Tito Ortiz. The match was set up perfectly, as everyone knew that Couture wanted to wrestle Liddell to the ground, but yet Liddell`s defence of that same takedown was known to be excellent. Would Couture, the favourite in the second bout, be able to take Liddell down before Liddell knocked him out using his famous punching power? When the night was over, and it was over quickly, it was Liddell who made his impact first.

And so came the "rubber match" - the deciding match of an unofficial "best of three" series. The 11,000 fans in the Mandalay Bay Events Centre had paid a phenomenal $4m (£2.1m) for the treat of the biggest match in the history of the UFC. UFC President Dana White claimed that tickets were going for $9000 (£4784) on the black market. On pay-per-view, the event had over 350,000 buys in the USA alone. Only one boxing match all year managed to beat it.

For the UFC, in this moment, it simply could not get any bigger.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL and is excellent for a DVD of this genre. The source is, of course, NTSC, which ensures that the image is ever-so-slightly soft, but it is still remarkably clear, and combined with the expansive UFC production values, this event looks spectacular.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is also excellent for a DVD of this genre. The sound mix holds up well, with so much going on in the background, between commentary, the roar of the crowd, and the in-ring action. Speaking of commentary - which is provided by UFC`s best announce team of Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan - there are two further 2.0 tracks for international viewers. In a UFC DVD first, Dutch and German viewers get their own menus, and commentary.

Features

The extras on this DVD are limited by the length of the main feature (nearly 2hrs 45mins). That said, there are two interesting featurettes, the first following Liddell and Couture in their preparations for their fight, and the second doing a similar thing with Frank Mir, returning to UFC action after a horrendous motorcycle accident which almost cost him a leg.

Both of these are very much worth watching after the event.

Conclusion

As I`ve already stated, UFC 57 was without question the biggest mixed martial arts event ever held in America up until this point. The stature of both Liddell and Couture was the reason why it was so successful, but there were other thumbs-up points on the card as well.

The two matches that did not air on the pay-per-view broadcast, Keith Jardine vs Mike Whitehead and Elvis Sinosic vs Alessio Sakara, were both featured on the DVD, and both were worthwhile inclusions. Also worthy of accolades was the stand-up brawl between Paul Buentello and Gilbert Aldana, as well as the showpiece of skill from Brandon Vera in his bout with Justin Eilers. Vera may well be one to look out for in the near future.

The other bouts on the card were far from stinkers, it must be said, but no preceeding match - good or bad - was going to take away from Liddell vs Couture as the main event of the evening. The atmosphere was in the arena was of both tension and excitement, befitting the enormity of the contest, which was eventually settled by a single mistake that was thoroughly capitalised upon. It was far from the greatest match in UFC history, but it was certainly something to talk about, and didn`t feel in the least anti-climatic.

Overall, UFC 57 was a very good event on which the undercard matches played considerably less than second fiddle to the main event. Certainly, a card worth watching for any fan of mixed martial arts.