UFC 146 DVD Review
MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise Nevada
May 26th 2012
Heading into UFC 146, the UFC was presented with one of its biggest scandals in recent years. The original headliner, Alistair Overeem, failed a drug test with severely inflated testosterone levels. Overeem, coming off his dominant victory over former champ Brock Lesnar, was the clear choice for contender for the heavyweight belt. This sent Dana White and the UFC scrambling to final a main event. The result is that the all heavyweight main card was sent into turmoil, as Mir was bumped up from the co-main event against Cain Velasquez, Cain’s opponent was changed to the debuting Antonio Silva, who was originally scheduled to fight Roy Nelson. But perhaps this helped the card in the long run as it led to very aggressive tactics in the ring.
The Undercard fights were as follows:
Mike Brown vs Daniel Pineda/ Glover Teixeria vs Kyle Kingsbury/ Jacob Volkman vs Paul Sass/ Duane Ludwig vs Dan Hardy/ CB Dollaway vs Jason Miller/ Edson Barboza vs Jamie Varner and Darren Elkins vs Diego Brandao.
Only three fights went the distance as the Brown/Pineda and Elkins/Brandao fights felt like wars. The Miller/Dolloway fight was a bust as it appeared that either Miller injured himself during the fight or entered the ring injured already. Miller got slapped around pretty badly for three rounds and ultimately did himself no favors as this fight caused the UFC to outright release him from his contract. Glover Texiera makes a strong debut in the first round as he dispatches Kingsbury very efficiently. The other submission comes in the Sass/Volkman fight. The other two fights bring us two very impressive KOs. Varner shines mightily as a last minute replacement for Evan Dunham as he dispatches Barbosa, and Dan Hardy gets his first win since 2009 in bonus winning fashion as his impressive KO of Duane Ludwig earns him co-knockout of the night honors. A very strong undercard that featured many exciting finishes, after watching this disc I held some reservations going onto the main card.
Recent UFC DVD reviews will let you know that a certain trend has been occurring more often than not. Either the events have a strong undercard combined with a lackluster main card or vice versa. So after the watching the prelims, combined with the scrambling of the five main event fights, I had my reservations. The Main Card Fights are as follows:
Lavar Johnson vs Stefan Struve/ Stipe Miocic vs Shane del Rosario/ Roy Nelson vs Dave Herman/ Antonio Silva vs Cain Velasquez and the main event Frank Mir vs Junior Dos Santos.
The main card starts with a slick submission in the Struve/Johnson fight in the first two minutes of the fight. It was one of the co-winners of submission of the night. Next up is a devastating TKO in the 2nd round of the Miocic/del Rosario contest. So far the main event is delivering strong. Next we get a one punch beauty of a knockout from Roy Nelson as he crumples Dave Herman then follows up for the quickest finish of the night and the other half of the co-knockout prize. Next up is the utter and complete domination by Cain Velasquez. Cain obviously went into this fight determined to make a statement after his loss of the title to Dos Santos and boy does he ever! The gash he opens almost right away above Silva’s nose is nasty, and the blood starts pouring everywhere. Eventually Silva cannot see to defend anything and the fight is mercifully stopped. Cain looks primed for a title rematch. The Main Event of the evening also does not disappoint as all five main card fights are stoppages, an unbelievably fantastic result. Dos Santos shows why he is the champ as Mir never really has him in any trouble with the eventual TKO coming in round 2.
The bonus features are split between disc 1 and 2 this time around, as Disc 1 features the main card and the traditional Countdown show. The Countdown show this time runs a little flat as the shuffling of fights leaves little room for any growing animosity between fighters and the only bit of turmoil that comes up between Mir and Dos Santos is the fact that Mir broke Dos Santos’ mentor Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm in a previous fight. The second disc features your typical promo pack, a short behind the scenes feature and footage from the official weigh ins. The weigh in footage is the real gem here. You get the obvious stare downs and gamesmanship that always comes with fight preparation. But this time we get some fun antics from some of the participants as “Mayhem” Miller comes resplendent in pink. And Kyle Kingsbury shows that he is an old school wrestling fan with his “Ravishing” Rick Rude tribute and hilarious pose down attire. Ultimately though, until the UFC starts putting the Primetime series leading up to the fights on these discs they are incomplete for me.
In the end UFC 146 delivers exactly what you want and more, as one of the year’s most compelling and satisfying cards is finally available to purchase. UFC 146 is a solid recommend.
Till Next Time,
Movie Junkie TO
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