Review of UFC: 9 & 10 - Motor City Madness / The Tournament

Introduction

In another of their well-packaged UFC double-DVDs, Silver Vision have dipped into the mixed martial arts archives to bring us UFC 9: Motor City Madness and UFC 10: The Tournament.

UFC 9 took place at Cobo Arena in Detroit (thus the "Motor City" subtitle) on 17th May 1996. The card (the first in UFC history not to use a tournament format) contained the following matches:
Zane Frazier vs. Cal Worsham
Rafael Carino vs. Matt Anderson
Mark Schultz vs. Gary Goodridge
Mark Hall vs. Koji Kitao
Amaury Bitetti vs. Don Frye
Dan Severn vs. Ken Shamrock

UFC 10 took place at Fairgrounds Arena in Birmingham, Alabama on 12th July 2006 and contained the following matches:
Mark Hall vs. Don Frye
Scotty Fiedler vs. Brian Johnston
Mark Coleman vs. Moti Horenstein
John Campetella vs. Gary Goodridge
Don Frye vs. Brian Johnston
Mark Coleman vs. Gary Goodridge
Mark Coleman vs. Don Frye

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 full-frame, and is good considering the age of the source material. That might seem an odd remark to make towards a 1996 recording, but such was the UFC`s limited scope at the time, even their pay-per-view offerings were not of the flashy calibre of their newer shows.

The video is a little too soft for my liking, but the source material and transfer are otherwise clean.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is, to quote fellow Reviewer Mark Oates, "vanilla". It is certainly more than adequate for a DVD of this genre, although its limitations can again be seen in comparison with the excellently-produced new material from UFC.

Features

There are no extras present. Nada.

Conclusion

In watching UFCs 9 & 10, I am reminded how hit-and-miss the business of mixed martial arts can be for the viewer. In this instance, for every edge-of-your-seat bout like Frye vs Bitetti (UFC 9) or Frye vs Coleman (UFC 10), there is almost always something just around the corner to stink up the arena. With hindsight, so bad was the confrontation (I use the term loosely) between Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn, that I think I would prefer to go three rounds with Bob Sapp rather than have to watch that one again. Despite the fact that it would last approximately two seconds, I can, in all seriousness, guarantee that a bout between myself and said Mr Sapp would be infinitely more exciting than the Shamrock/Severn shambles.

In between, there is a lot of mediocre action, especially in UFC 9, where the fighters clearly aren`t as advanced as even the worst UFC fighters today. UFC 10 was somewhat better, with the aforementioned Coleman and Frye the stars, the only match that was disappointing being the opener involving Frye and Mark Hall.

I will continue to say the same thing about UFC (and nearly all mixed martial arts groups) as regards their retrospective releases, and that is that as time went on, the UFC concept improved, as did the fighters, which in turn improved the audiences and the company`s production of its events. As it stands in 2005, light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell has the ability to compete for American pay-per-view buys with almost anyone in professional boxing.

Those who are new to the UFC may be best avoiding these retrospective releases from Silver Vision, in favour of their newer counterparts. However, for anyone with an interest into the development of the sport, this is worth consideration.