Review of UFC 50: The War of 04

Introduction

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a firm favourite amongst those who enjoy seeing grown men `wrastling`. Unlike its pantomime-like counterpart, WWE, these Ultimate Fighting Championships appear to be the real deal. And it`s a nasty deal at that. This is street-fighting (under the more acceptable mixed-martial arts moniker) that, at least to this naïve reviewer, appeared to be `real`. The punches look like they`re landing, the kicks look like they hurt, and the blood looks like it might be the real stuff too.

Of course the hardcore fans will complain that this is a watered down version of what the UFC once was. Now with new rules, and new health and safety guidelines the UFC has become an almost legitimate sporting event, like boxing or professional wrestling.

This disc covers the UFC`s 50th event, held in Atlantic City New Jersey on October 22, 2004, The two main title bouts feature reigning heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz against Patrick Coté, a new kid on the UFC block, and Matt Hughes against Georges St. Pierre. A total of seven fights took place instead of the usual eight due to problems with the line-up on the night with injury fall-out, contractual problems etc - which has made this event the subject of much chat-room discussion amongst those that care about such stuff.


The DVD kicks off with some dramatic Gladiatorial imagery intercut with some fairly nasty `highlights` from previous bouts set to some irritatingly macho death-metal.

The auditorium is huge, with an audience of thousands crowded round the tiny ring at its centre. Bruce Buffer announces the start of the proceedings, looking every bit like a plastic Ken-doll with real hair, and then we hear the rules and regulations of the Octagen play-off (though with only 7 bouts this time) which are impossibly quick and made no sense to me at all.

Then the bouts begin. They`re much of a macho much ness, with burly young men with names like Marvis `The Beastman` Eastmen and Even Tann (I kid you not!) knocking seven shades out of each other in the name of sport, entertainment - and maybe a bit of pocket-money to take the sting out of the wounds. There are plenty of pop-promo style profiles of the players before bouts, as well as analysis around the ring - though real fans will look forward to the 2 hours plus of sheer brutality which, I`m sure they`ll be pleased to hear, is here in abundance.

Video

This looks very good from a technical point of view. It`s a nice crisp digital transfer of a nice crisp digital video recording, with none of the normal telltale signs of NTSC transfer. It`s good multi-camera coverage that gets you at the heart of the action…ouch!

Audio

The audio here is fine, though is a standard mix of shouted commentary, macho heavy metal and, occasionally, live crowd sound. Adequate.

Features

There`s plenty here in the way of weigh-ins, fight preparations, pre-bout interviews, post-bout interviews, and so on. All accessed via a simple `Bonus Menu`.

Conclusion

The 50th Ultimate Fighting Championship will surely have great appeal to those who enjoyed the first 49. It`s certainly not my thing. In truth, it makes me feel uneasy that there`s a market for it at all. With its no holds barred street-fight approach, this is the type of fighting that looks like it really hurts and it gave me no pleasure to see. In many ways it felt like the human equivalent to cock fighting and fortunately that particular blood sport has been banned in this country forever. So maybe UFC will follow. So fans of the `sport` should enjoy it while you can. For everyone else, give this a very wide berth.