Back In The Saddle: UFC 68

Columbus, OH - Randy Couture proved Saturday night that age is just a number.

As Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" rocked 19,000 fans at the Nationwide Arena, Couture entered the octagon in his UFC heavyweight title shot as a 3-1 underdog against the younger, taller, and heavier Tim Sylvia.

The forty-three year old Couture didn't waste time coming out of retirement when in the opening seconds of his fight, he caught Sylvia with a punch that sent the champion reeling toward the canvas. Sylvia never recovered. Five rounds later , a battered and bruised Sylvia had to give up his UFC belt to Couture.

Couture did what Jeff Monson couldn't do, bring Sylvia to the mat. The quicker Couture dominated Sylvia while on the ground where Sylvia's reach and height advantage was nullified. Bobbing and weaving, Couture also beat Sylvia in the striking department. It was a classic match of Brain vs. Brawn, the smarter, craftier and wiser Couture showing why he has won five MMA titles with the UFC.

Sylvia didn't help himself in the fan department. He was repeatedly booed this weekend, during the weigh-in and the fight. And after his loss, he attributed his defeat to a back injury. He was fighting one of the most popular fighter's in MMA history and gathered no support or sympathy from the crowd, getting another round of boos in the post-fight interview.

Couture may have been called a "freak of nature" by UFC president Dana White, but that is not going to be enough when he faces Mirko "Crop Cop" Filipovic in his next bout. He will have to be able to withstand the onslaught of kicks that the Croatian fighter is know for. I'm sure Couture will be watching carefully Filipovic's next fight in Manchester, England.

Baseball player Ken Griffey, Jr. watched UFC 68 from his octagonside seat, instead of training with his team in Florida. Ironically, the reason why he was at the fight was because of his broken hand, which he sustained wrestling with his kids. Maybe he got some pointers.

UFC 68 pre-fight weigh-in

Columbus, OH- I took the Delta red-eye from LAX to Columbus with Joe Rogan. Rogan was in first class, I in coach. We both are here in Columbus for UFC 68, the so-called "The Uprising".

Why Columbus? The UFC has a tie-in with the body-building show this week, "The Arnold", and is hoping to give mid-westerners a up, close view of their brand of mixed martial arts. It turned out to be a good decision. The Friday weigh-in at the Nationwide Arena was open to the public and over 2,000 people showed up. Saturday's event is sold out and it will be the highest grossing event at the Nationwide Arena, even topping a Rolling Stones concert, according to the local paper, the Columbus Dispatch.

The fight everyone wants to see is the main event, Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia. The last time Sylvia defended his title, he wasn't to impressive trying to avoid the mat with Jeff Monson in UFC 65. Sylvia was greeted by boos at the weigh-in. Couture probably watched that fight and decided that he could come out of retirement and regain his title.

Whatever happens in the Couture-Sylvia bout, the winner will have to face Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. Even though Mirko will be considered a challenger, he will be the odds on-favorite. But let's just enjoy Saturday first.

UFC 67

Las Vegas - Is mixed-martial arts just a passing fad? Is the UFC the XFL of today? From Saturday's UFC 67 at the Mandalay Bay Event Center, you gotta wonder.

Last month's event was clearly a success. It was the highest grossing pay-per-view TV event of the year. The Los Angeles Times did a two-part series on MMA. 60 Minutes had a story. A sell out crowd at the MGM Grand. Celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio were in attendance.

Then Saturday happened. The main event was a Brazilian fighter named Anderson Silva, who speaks no English, against a guy who's reputation is made from a Spike TV reality show. And to top it off, the fighter, Travis Lutter failed to make weight, rendering the fight an exhibition contest. No offense to Silva, who is a great fighter and is well known in MMA circles, but you can't put fannies in the seats with a guy with a personality of a soccer ball.

The other attraction was this guy Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic from Croatia. If there were good guys and bad guys in MMA, this guy would be wearing a black hat. He is best described as looking like an ex-KGB henchman from the former Soviet Republic. One with the weird speedo-type swim trunks. Dana White, the president of the UFC, paid him like $300,000 to show up and he didn't do any press, whatsoever. Oh, by the way, his music on entrance to the octagon, was the theme from the competing MMA group, Pride. Nice touch.

The UFC bought up the World Fighting Alliance and closed its operations. They got from the WFA Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. He was one of the few bright spots on Saturday's card. Jackson is a pit-bull of a man whose trademark is a huge chain he wears around his neck. He dominated the post-fight press conference with his energy and probably because he was one of the few who actually spoke English. But his fight was pretty unremarkable, both he and Filipovic were given relatively easy opponents that they could dispatch for their debut at a UFC show.

Actually there wasn't much for fans to cheer about. One fan favorite, Georges St. Pierre, was scheduled to fight but had to withdraw because of a knee injury suffered during training.

Dana White was visibly upset after Saturday night. All the traction that UFC gained in the last month came to a grinding halt. All the equity spent and nothing to show for it. He has dragged out Randy Couture out of retirement for a fight next month in Columbus, Ohio. St. Pierre is headlining a card in Houston the month after that.

The die-hard MMA fan is going to watch UFC and the other leagues, no matter what. To lure the mainstream public is going to be a lot harder. The one thing they have failed to focus on is story line. The guy on the street needs that to get interested in the fighter and root for them. Most of the public know very little about the fighters except for their nicknames.

The reputation of the UFC is of a renegade band of "cage" fighters with no rules. When fans show up and there is little or no action, like in many of Saturday's fight, they boo. They want to see blood. The UFC has little promos up on the jumbotron before matches of the fighters wearing Roman gladiators garb. Well if you advertise it, you have to deliver. Currently MMA is relying on the dissatisfaction of boxing fans to convert. It's not enough to bash boxing to lure fans.

Has MMA reached a critical mass and plateaued? Will it just be a peripheral sport like hockey and the NHL?

UFC 67:All or Nothing? Well it wasn't all.

UFC 66

Las Vegas- Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz part 2.

Lunch pail Chuck did his job on pretty boy Tito Ortiz. Ortiz, the Huntington Beach, CA fighter with a porn star girlfriend, didn't have any answers to the onslaught of punches by Liddell. Ortiz took quite a beating before the bout was stopped in the third round.

Ortiz was a little upset in the post-fight press conference that the referee stopped the fight. But he did acknowledge that he was beat.

The matches before Liddell/Ortiz was like watching the warm-up bands play before the headliner. The crowd itself included some headliners like Leonardo DiCaprio, Wayne Newton, Mario Lopez, Kid Rock, Andre Agassi and his wife, Steffi Graff.

Taking photos of the match can be difficult because of the cage in front of you. Most of the time you have to manually focus. This time I experimented with using a switch on my Canon 70-200mm lens that allows me only to focus at subjects greater than 3 meters or greater. I figured that would stop my lens from focusing on the fence in front of me. For any photos closer than 3 meters I would use my second camera body with a wide-angle lens. It worked out great as I was able to use my auto-focus when Liddell won the match and started celebrating.

You can see more photos on my sportshooter.com page

UFC 65

Sacramento, CA - Taking a road trip to the pleasant city of Sacramento. The airport, the Arco Arena, the hotel are all within a ten mile radius. Last night was UFC 65. Ultimate Fighting Championship. Mixed martial arts (MMA). Some people call it cage fighting. It is held in an octagonal ring with a wire mesh cage surrounding it. To some outsiders it may appear to a barbaric, no rules, two men enter, one man leaves, blood sport. But its just really like boxing, judo, wrestling with similar rules. Some matches can be bloody, and you can win by choking your opponent.

Taking photos can be a challenge. The lighting is not really bright, ISO 1000 at 1/400th sec and f2.8. There is a cage you have to shoot through, more like a black coated vinyl fence. So that means no autofocus. The usual venue for UFC events is Las Vegas. Sacramento doesn't have the Vegas vibe and the celebs octagon-side. (The press credential will say octagonside...not ringside, I think UFC has some kind of trademark on Octagonside.) The action is the same, the fans just as rabid. Actually Arco Arena can get quite loud. The arena feels kinda of small, maybe because they don't have all the suites that more modern arenas have.

This is my second time shooting a UFC event. So I had a good idea of the routine. They provide WiFi, and are pretty good with photographers except for the fact they want you to be escorted at all times.

The UFC has a lot going for it, more action than boxing, and not the clownish, fake fighting of Pro wrestling. The fans are pretty die-hard. You can spot the fans easily as I left the airport, most of them wore MMA related t-shirts or sweatshirts.