Review for UFC 111: St. Pierre vs. Hardy

Introduction

When UFC President Dana White announced that it would be Dan Hardy taking on George St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight title most people predicted a one-sided beat down en route to a swift victory for GSP.

Indeed, internet forums were awash with talk of how Hardy had not really earned the fight, and how the Brit had instead talked his way into a title shot.

If you take a second to look at the bigger picture, however, in reality Hardy had battered some of the welterweight division's finest fighters in order to earn his title shot.

He beat the respected Akihiro Gono in his Octagon debut, knocked out the powerful Rory Markham, outpointed Marcus Davis when the (fake?) Irishman was considered one of the welterweight division's better fighters and had out-struck supposed number one contender in waiting Mike Swick at UFC 105.

Hardy had indeed earned his title shot but he would still be considered a huge underdog against the supremely talented St. Pierre. GSP had beaten a who's who of top contenders in winning and defending his title. Muay Thai specialist Thiago Alves was dispatched at UFC 100, as were BJ Penn, Jon Fitch and Matt Hughes.

However GSP had fallen victim to an underdog story before, who can forget the tale of Matt Serra? And Hardy was shaping to write another one here.

As if one belt wasn't enough, Uncle Dana put another one on the line (albeit, in Brock Lesnar's words a 'make believe' one) as Frank Mir and Shane Carwin squared off for the interim heavyweight title.

If you've never seen a Shane Carwin fight they usually last about one minute and end with his opponent out cold on the canvas. As for Frank Mir, well his hate for the champion Lesnar knows no bounds and if that's not enough he is one of the best strikers and ju-jitsu artists the heavyweight division has to offer. 

With a shot at the well again Lesnar's belt on the line this fight was also main event material, but fans were treated to it on this card.

As if to make up for it there was a clear lack of big names throughout the rest of the card. Jon Fitch was in action, but any MMA fan knows that when Fitch fights the word 'action' can be used lightly. Other than that names only really got as big as Jim Miller and Kurt Pellegrino, but as fight fans will know any fight's a fight.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 PAL and, as with all UFC events, is excellent. No complaints here.

Audio

Dolby Digital 2.0 provides the sound, and we are taken right into the heart of the action with the crowd, fight and corners all loud and clear.

Extras

The UFC are starting the beef up their DVD's and it's more of the same here. We get the always entertaining behind the scenes vignette, this time a lot of emphasis is placed on the UFC's attempts to get MMA sanctioned in New York and then some interesting and hilarious viewpoints from Brock Lesnar and then Anthony Johnson on the nights co-main event and main event.

A poignant bit is also shown as Frank Mir visits Ground Zero, showing the human behind the fighter as it hammers home the importance of Mir's family.

We also get the countdown and weigh-in shows which are pretty standard stuff for any DVD collector. I was secretly hoping that we might get the Primetime series which led up to this event, but not so.

Finally we get the fighter interviews. In what is a simple but effective touch to the DVD we get before and after interviews from the fighters. One highlight is the confused St. Pierre showing even he still has a lot to learn after his bout with Hardy. It is a wonderfully interesting snippet which shows the champion is still a humble worker.

Conclusion

It seems the fanboys and the internet forums were right. Maybe Hardy was too much of an underdog in this contest. But if he cannot walk out with the belt then Hardy can at least come out of this event with a huge amount of respect gained for his heart and seemingly inability to tap out to submissions.

The main event isn't the most exciting fight to watch, but it has it's high points in the first and forth rounds. The fight may actually seem a little better than it actually was just because of the hype building up to this event.

The co-main event lived up to it's billing as a first round finish, explosive bout. Mir and Carwin didn't hold back and went to war culminating in a violent finish and a clear number one contender to Lesnar's crown.

Elsewhere the card makes up for its lack of star names with good finishes in five of the remaining eight bouts. However this isn't the most exciting of cards and some of the match-ups, think Fitch-Saunders, are extremely one sided and mind-numbingly boring to watch.

So one of the best hyped and presented UFC events turned out to be a good but not great night of fights. A solid purchase this is, but not essential, unless you're a big GSP fan or even a big fan of Hardy.