Review of UFC 52: Randy Couture v Chuck Liddell

Introduction

Held on 17th April 2005 in Las Vegas, UFC 52 was the second UFC in a row to base its main event on a re-match from a previous show. In UFC 51 "Super Saturday", Tito Ortiz went over Vitor Belfort in a hard fought encounter that prompted Ortiz to boldly challenge mixed martial arts legend Ken Shamrock. UFC 52 was the turn of Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture to step in for their long-awaited re-match, that had first taken place at UFC 43.

A vociferous crowd of nearly 15,000 was on hand at the MGM Grand to witness the evenings events, and they certainly did not leave disappointed!

Video

Video for this event is presented in 4:3 non-anamorphic PAL, and is excellent for a DVD of this genre. The picture is sharp & there are no noticeable compression artefacts. This is even better than the digital telecast UK viewers received on Bravo.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 format, no doubt converted from the original telecast audio. It is also excellent, and has no audio sync issues. Commentary is provided adequately by Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan.

Features

Like several of the recent UFC releases, there are some interesting extras on this disc. There are weigh-ins, medical exams, short interviews, pre and post-fight scenes with the combatants, and even a fighter autograph session. Admittedly, these extras are short, but they do add colour to this event, and help to give a little background to the fighters involved. I did not expect a large range of extras due to the fact that the main feature itself lasts just over two hours, so this set of extras was more than acceptable to me.

Conclusion

These days, one of the tricks to viewing mixed martial arts is to not be put off by names that you don`t immediately recognise. Even for a seasoned MMA fan like me, some of the names I saw on the card for UFC 52 surprised me. But what surprised me further was the quality of the bouts on offer here. Whilst the main event was a little too short to be considered a classic, it was a good stand-up match that delivered some heavy blows.

Frankly, there were no matches on this card that disappointed, which is rare for mixed martial arts events where there are inevitably defensive fighters on show. Particular credit, however, must go to Matt Hughes and Frank Trigg for their short but compelling bout, which is one of the better MMA matches of the year.

UFC 52 really surprised me, and it will surprise you too. You can tell when a UFC show is a good one, as the crowd is hot, hot, hot!