I only present you with this picture because when I searched for "100 Greatest Fight Moments" in Google images, this one of the four it listed before the picture I was looking for. There was also a picture of what I believe to be an Indian racecar driving team and one of two children talking to Santa. The actual DVD cover looks like this:
Moving along, the DVD is pretty much exactly what you expect. Originally released as a five-episode countdown show used as build-up for UFC 100, there is little reference to the upcoming event, allowing the list to still act as a well-informed retrospective on the UFC's greatest fights and moments.
The series is narrated by Mike Goldberg, who is given the first and last three minutes of camera time, with interspersed appearances throughout. Now I have an indifference/hate relationship with Goldberg. Sometimes, when the mood is right, and certain planets are in their proper alignment, I can watch a fight without really noticing, and may even feel some benefit from Mike's voice. Most of the time, however, my time is spent focusing on whatever Joe Rogan is saying, pretending that Goldberg isn't actually there. For some examples of why this is: Click here. During this series, and since you see him onscreen more often, you realize that Mike Goldberg, as well as speaking either in either catchphrases or misinformation also seems to only know how to move his body in four ways, the most nonsensical being that he often touches his left pinky with his right hand, as though he is going to start counting off a list, but not actually listing anything. I don't want to make fun of somebody if they are doing what they're doing because of some kind of memory disorder, but if that isn't the case, Goldberg seems to simply be mimicking hand gestures that he has seen other people do without actually understanding what they mean.
But enough about the announcers, what about the fights themselves? The collection is fantastic for people who are either casual, or recent fans. There are tons of familiar faces, and the ones that aren't are generally showcased in a pretty spectacular fight. Each fight gets from 2 - 15 minutes of coverage, with more time going to the higher-ranking battles, with an appropriate amount of time allotted for providing context for each encounter. According to this list, context seems to have a great deal to do with this list. In some cases, it wasn't the fight itself that was spectacular, but the circumstances surrounding them. Trying to watch some of them in a vacuum (Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir I, for example) don't have any kind of aura of specialness, but the fact that a former professional wrestler was briefly decimating a former UFC Heavyweight Champion does in his second professional fight does make it special.
Furthermore, it has been suggested that certain fighters' current statuses with the company affected the list. In this article, Dave Meltzer talks about how the list (which was determined by on-line voting) omitted certain stars, like Frank Shamrock and Tito Ortiz, because they were either fighting for a rival promotion (like Shamrock in Strikeforce) or had recently pissed off the boss, Dana White. Meltzer states that any fights where people who are "on the outs" were the winner were left off the list. Ortiz vs. Shamrock from UFC 22 was even listed as #7 in UFC Magazine's "The 20 Greatest Fights. Ever.," but since one of two big undesirables won, it was inelligible for the on-line voting. I can understand wanting to control the list. It would have looked pretty bad if Ortiz vs. Shamrock had ended up winning the popular vote, implying that the UFC couldn't hold onto its two biggest fight makers.
What's even more impressive is that I didn't notice that there was anything missing. The list, the editing, and the narration is so carefully crafted that you don't notice the discrimination. Hell, Ortiz is on the list 4 times, twice in title fights; he just never pulls out a victory. Adding to the feeling that nothing is missing, you get 4 Royce Gracie fights. With the inclusion of Gracie, including two fights from UFC 1, the list convinces you that every fight since the inception of the UFC has been carefully perused for greatness. If they've got stuff from UFC 1, they must have included everything else, providing you with the sense of belief that this is a meticulously-crafted list.
The next, and last section, breaks the list down by fighter, identifying who the UFC fans (and the list overseers) deemed to be deserving of praise. This section combines two of my interests: the UFC and my compulsive desire to categorize and sort statistical information.
Most Appearances On The List:
5) Randy Couture (9)
4) BJ Penn (11)
2) Matt Hughes (12)
2) Georges St-Pierre (12)
1) Chuck Liddell (14)
Most Wins On The List
5) Randy Couture (6)
4) BJ Penn (7)
3) Matt Hughes (8)
1) Georges St-Pierre (10)
1) Chuck Liddell (10)
Most Losses On The List
2) Clay Guida (3)
2) Frank Trigg (3)
2) Tim Sylvia (3)
2) Matt Serra (3)
2) Sean Sherk (3)
2) Randy Couture (3)
2) BJ Penn (3)
1) Tito Ortiz (4)
1) Matt Hughes (4)
1) Chuck Liddell (4)
Most Title Fights On List:
3) Georges St-Pierre (7)
3) BJ Penn (7)
3) Chuck Liddell (7)
2) Randy Couture (8)
1) Matt Hughes (10)
Best Win % Of Fights On List
4) Rogert Huerta (100%/2 Fights)
4) Lyoto Machida (100%/2 Fights)
2) Diego Sanchez (100%/3 Fights)
2) Frank Mir (100%/3 Fights)
1) Anderson Silva (100%/5 Fights)
Most Appearances On List per UFC Appearance (pre UFC 100)
4) Brock Lesnar (66.67%, 2/3 Fights)
4) Antonio Nogueira (66.67%, 2/3 Fights)
4) Quinton Jackson (66.67%, 2/3 Fights)
3) BJ Penn (78.57%, 11/14 Fights)
2) Georges St-Pierre (83.33%, 12/14 Fights)
1) Jared Rollins (100%, 1/1 Fight)
1) Jason Miller (100%, 1/1 Fight)
And Finally
Best Combined Score (Win % On List + List Apperances per UFC Appearance (pre UFC 100))
5) Quinton Jackson (141.67 = 75.00% + 66.67%)
4) BJ Penn (142.21 = 63.64% + 78.57%)
3) Jon Koppenhaver (150.00 = 100.00% + 50.00%)
2) Anderson Silva (155.56 = 100.00% + 55.56%)
1) Georges St-Pierre (169.05 = 83.33% + 85.71%)
No comments:
Post a Comment