Frank Mir ponders changing professions as Junior Do Santos shows him a new meaning to the term “bad touch.”
As the holidays approach, we will be offering up some suggestions for possible gifts. Some of these (like this one) are not mystery related, but generate a case of the “Ooh, I want it!”s in some of our crew.
Anyone that knows me, knows I am a big MMA fan. Each year, the UFC puts out a box set featuring fights from the past 12 months. This year is no exception. So for those of you that like your sports’ violence without pads, here is what you can expect:
The ULITMATE FIGHT COLLECTION 2012 comes 2ith over 200 fights on 20 DVDs. The fights here come from UFC 132 through UFC 147 and the FX/Fuel/Fox shows in that time period.
The one complaint I have is that they have decided to no longer present special features. Last year’s edition (and individual DVD releases) contain behind the scenes looks at the events and what the fighters go through in preparing to compete. I like these because it gives folks a look at who the fighters are beyond the in-cage performances and event interviews. There are more than a few fighters that captured my support because who how they respond to a tough loss or their interaction with an opponent post fight.
So having gotten that gripe out of the way, this set contains more than a few truly classic fights. One particular gem, that many have not seen, is Ben Henderson vs Clay Guida. The fight was the co-main for the Cain Velasquez/Junior Dos Santos championship bout on Fox. Due to potential constaints (that ended up not being a factor when JDS dropped Cain a minute into their fight), this bout was not televised. A real shame since it tore down the house and resulted in Ben getting a shot at the Lightweight championship.
Other classic bouts include Chris Lytle’s retirement fight against Dan Hardy, Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua’s five round war and Frankie Edgar’s KO of Gray Maynard after nearly being knocked out himself in the 1st round.
This set is ideal for casual fans that don’t buy the individual DVD sets. For them, this is a fantastic collection of bouts that skips some of the more boring ones (I have no clue why Clay Guida vs. Gray Maynard is included, it is one of the worst fights I have ever seen).
But even fans that have UFC DVDs will find a fair amount of material that is exclusive to this set. The aforementioned Lytle/Hardy and Henderson/Guida being key examples.
The packaging is nice, well suited to be given as a gift. Instead of the kind of set that comes with TV season releases, this is made up to be something special, sort of a coffee table book. Some might be unhappy that it does not fit on a standard DVD shelf, but I don’t see that as a big deal.
Taking into account the sheer size of this collection, the $134.98 price tag is not bad at all. The UFC fan in your life will thank you.
Jeremy
