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| Available at Amazon.com |
After one dominating fight, former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar became the hottest free agent in MMA. In the end, we saw Lesnar sign with the UFC and was put in a position to fight one of the best heavyweight practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir at one of the biggest venues in Las Vegas – the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Questions arose – how would Lesnar do against top-level competition like Mir? Sure, he’d destroyed an overmatched opponent in his debut, but the UFC wasn’t exactly giving him a sacrificial lamb like they did for Mirko Cro Cop. This was the fight that had many fans talking, and probably brought over an audience of WWE fans curious about Lesnar’s fight (it probably didn’t hurt that the UFC used WWE footage (unsurprisingly absent from the DVD release) to help them promote the match).
However, this fight was only the co-main event. Perhaps more important to the UFC was the crowning of an Interim Heavyweight Champion in the wake of the Randy Couture controversy. Tim Sylvia and Pride star Antonio Roderigo Nogueira were set to face off for the title. “Fan Favourite” Sylvia had handed Brandon Vera his first loss in his signature plodding style, while Big Nog had – perhaps controversially – beaten Heath Herring for the 534th time.
The rest of the fights were filled by some familiar names like Marquardt, Horn and Lytle, with no match really standing out on paper save for Tyson Griffin and Gleison Tibau in a lightweight battle. This was a two-match card, and I don’t think anyone tried to fool you that it was something other than that. Well, unless you were an undercard fighter.
In that undercard, the first two fights weren’t as exciting as you might expect. You won’t change your mind about Rob Emerson from watching this, and an entertaining fight between Martin and Eastman never materialized. Even Griffin vs Tibau didn’t meet the increasingly high expectations we have for the lightweights.
On the other hand, Ricardo Almeida had a successful return to MMA, Chris Lytle showed that he might just be the best part-time fighter in the UFC and Tim Boetsch had a solid debut. And in spite of one of the worst hairdos I’ve seen in a while, Nate Marquardt managed to shake a bit off of his “Narco Nate” reputation.
By the way, because of the way the UFC edits these DVDs, we get several shots of Random Drunk Chicks (basically a string of beads away from flashing their boobs a la Girls Gone Wild. No Mandy Moore sightings though (she’s a regular at these things), and none of Undertaker, Steve Austin or Kurt Angle (all of whom were at the event).
Here’s the lineup:
Fights:
- Rob “The Saint” Emerson vs. Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura
- Terry Martin vs. Marvin “The Beastman” Eastman
- David Heath vs. Tim “The Barbarian” Boetsch
- Chris “Lights Out” Lytle vs. Kyle Bradley
- Tyson Griffin vs. Gleison Tibau
- Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida vs. Rob “Monster” Yundt
- Nate “The Great” Marquardt vs. Jeremy “Gumby” Horn
- Frank Mir vs, Brock Lesnar
- UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship: Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia vs. “Minotauro” Antonio Roderigo Nogueira
The PPV was shot in Hi-Def, but this set is the non-HD version. Still, it’s a nice cut, I’ve got no problems. Audio is fine seeing as it’s just play-by-play.
- Lead-Up
- Weigh-In
- Mir vs Lesnar
- Sylvia vs Nogueira
The extras are designed as a continuous feature, showing Lesnar, Mir, Sylvia and Nogueira before, during and after their fights. It’s an interesting look at things, for certain.
Truly, this was a two fight event, and in that sense, we got what we wanted. The undercard was what it was – decent but not anything you’d write home about. I’d recommend looking at this DVD, but I’d stop short of saying that it’s a must buy.
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First Look presents UFC 81: Breaking Point. With Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Not rated. Available on DVD: May 27, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
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