Customer Reviews

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 46 - Super Natural

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

St Pierre vs Parysian - good fight, Karo was the more technical grappler, but St Pierre was the better striker, and overall much stronger physically. Not the most exciting fight out there, but some good moments, like Karo's rolling kimura, and a great flying knee from St Pierre.

Franca vs Thompson - another pretty good fight. Thopson was the agressor on the feet, Franca was the agressor on the ground. Thompson the more technical striker, but Franca with more power in his fists. Thomposn reminds me of Yves Edwards - tall and lanky frame, good standup, and a surprisingly good ground game for a fighter considered primarily a striker.

Serra vs Curran - Curran fights at 145lbs, and here he was taking on a 155lb fighter. 10 pounds may not seem like much, but at lower weight classes every pound counts, and this was apparent in this fight - Serra consistently overpowered Curran. Overall, fiewer submission attempts than you would expect in a fight between 2 BJJ black belts. Decent fight, but Serra, usually a wild fighter who goes for the finish, has been fighting a little too conservatively for my tastes lately.

Mir vs Simms - Simms is a B fighter at best, more like a C fighter imho, but he has the uncanny ability to avoid submissions, which he showed to good effect here. Mir was the better wrestler, better submissions guy, better striker, better looking (jk) - but still had a real hard time with Simms. Mir needs to work on his cardio, and he definetly needs more ring experience - when the fight is not going according to plan, he tends to fall apart.

Carlos Newton vs Renato Verissimo - Carlos is a VERY experienced, elite fighter, Renato has had only 4 fights in MMA, but Renato is BJ Penns bjj trainer, a BJJ world champ, and in a previous fight absolutely took apart former Welterweight title contender Gill Castillo. Good fight, takedowns by both fighters, reversals by both fighters, sub attempts by both fighters, some good shots thrown (one of the fighters almost gets knocked out).

Huges vs Penn - Huges the most dominant fighter in the welterweight division, Penn the uncrowned king of the lightweight division (he should have won the fight with Uno). Not many people gave Penn a chance - he was moving up a weight class to fight a fighter renowned for his power. Good fight, although i'm not sure if the outcome would be the same if they fough again.

Coture vs Belfort - well, we'll see them fight again soon. The fight was not controversial though - look at the rules - it was a legit win (yes, it was also a freak accident, and doesn't speak of the skill of the two fighters, but per the rules, a legit win overall. If this happened in boxing, it would also be considered a legit win).

Overall, an OK UFC. On the one hand too many decisions and a dud main event, on the other hand if you don't like one sided beatdowns, but rather like to watch well matched fighters fight, this is a good event.

A comment about the DVD itself - there is a 10 minute intro in the beginning, and you cannot skip it! Also, no slo-mo replays whatsoever. They need to fo a better job with DVD's in the future.

UFC 46, Super Natural.
Date: January 31, 2004
Location: Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas

In a preliminary bout, we see the debut of Georges St. Pierre, who would quickly become a star in the UFC. He debuts against Karo Parisyan and puts on an elbow clinic. Parisyan is a great fighter, but it was good to see him dominated like this. He annoys me.

Lee Murray then fights Jorge Rivera. Rivera was looking pretty good in the UFC, but you would never know it by seeing this fight.

Wes Sims v. Frank Mir. Sims is a 6'10" beast, yet Mir's technical skills are simply superior to Sims'. Not a bad fight to watch and it ends in exciting fashion.

Next up was one of my all-time favorite UFC fighters, Matt Hughes. He faces off with BJ Penn. They don't seem to respect each other very much, but after one of the greatest upsets in UFC history is pulled off, the mood changes significantly in the octagon.

Carlos Newton then makes his return to the UFC against Renato Verissimo. Verissimo is truly impressive in this bout - controlling the powerful Newton through most of the fight. This one goes to a decision.

MAIN EVENT: Quite anti-climatic, as the fight must be ended almost immediately due to an accidental eyelid slice suffered by Randy Couture.

As always, there are good behind-the-scenes bonus features included on the DVD. Don't let the letdown of the main event turn you away, there are some really good fights at this UFC event.

The best fight on this disc is the one between Matt Hughes and BJ Penn. It is a very exciting, and surprising, fight. The main event between Couture and Vilifort is a dud because Couture's eye gets cut about 30 seconds into the fight. The doctor stops it. If possible, rent this one and save your money for "Undisputed".

JEFF CURRAN vs. MATT SERRA-The overpowering Serra doesn't have too much trouble with Curran who shows good overall skills but can just never do any real damage to Serra. An OK fight.

JOSH THOMPSON vs. HERMAS FRANCA-I didn't think Franca would dare stand up but he did the whole first round and it was very exciting. He rethinks this after the start of round 2 but he and Thompson are able to squirm out of all of the various holds they are in. Conditioning comes into play and I don't think Franca knew what he was getting in to. Then right as you think that Franca shows he was playing possum just like he does in every fight and starts throwing like crazy. Extremely close and entertaining all 3 rounds.

GEORGES ST. PIERRE vs. KARO PARISYAN-talk about a dream match up. You know going in that it's not going to be too exciting, unless St. Pierre would knock him out early. Well Karo is way too good for that. He dares not to stand up and just looks to submit the whole fight. It does get exciting though because of the fact that Karo is so much better at submissions and St. Pierre has to fight hard to get out of some kimuras. It would have been nice if this was a title fight and could have gone 5 rounds. Still a decent match.

LEE MURRAY vs. JORGE RIVERA-Rivera's second match in the UFC and he shows that he has no ground game. Well at least he didn't get a chance to show it.

WES SIMS vs. FRANK MIR-the first round is hilarious with Wes Sims just getting hurt very badly the whole time. It gets very brutal at the end of the first round. It may have made it even more funny since Sims decided to get disqualified in their last fight by stomping on Mir's head. One thing is for sure though, when you let Sims hit you it always hurts. The guy is just a freakish monster. Mir is powerful enough to do what he wants but still has some problems. Nice TKO ending, especially if you saw the first fight.

B.J. PENN vs. MATT HUGHES-HUghes must have majorly underestimated Penn because he just gets manhandled.

RENATO VERISSIMO vs. CARLOS NEWTON-I was not very excited to watch this fight but it is sort of fun to see Newton continue to get annihilated in the UFC.

VITOR BELFORT vs. RANDY COUTURE-this is the reason the DVD only gets 2 stars. Title matches rarely live up to being great and this may be the worst ever. Couture gets scratched in the eye 20 seconds in and they call the fight.

this is a fantastic event for MMA fans. If you are one of those fans who only enjoys the one-sided brutal beatdowns, you should look to Pride instead of this... Pride loves mismatching their fights in order to make their stars shine brighter. UFC is more about creating great match-ups, and it shows in this event. The main event is really a buzz kill after the many exciting fights that lead up to it. Keep this in mind and you will still be more than happy with the purchase of this DVD.

Expecting the best from this DVD I watched from beginning to end anticipating that the best was saved for last, wrong! If you do rent this event skip to the end watch the Cotour vs. Belfort fight, get it out of the way and enjoy the other fights on the card. I agree, rent DO NOT buy!

Matt Serra and Jeff Curran are both BJJ black belts. Serra trains with Renzo Gracie in New York. Serra is simply too strong for Curran and dominates the fight from first to last, though Curran does what he can and shows some skill.

Josh Thompson is taller than Hermes Franco and far more dangerous and aggressive for the first two rounds. It looks almost like a mismatch. But Franco redeems himself in the third round, winning that round clearly.

Georges St Pierre is a big strong Canadian with a sculpted physique, against Karo Parisyan, a judo champion and protege of Judo Gene LeBell. Karo pulls techniques out of nowhere. He doesn't make any of them stick though, and the decision goes to the stronger fighter.

Lee Murray on his back grabs Jorge Rivera's arm and keeps trying to cash it in for either an arm bar or a triangle choke. It appears that he has the triangle, but his post-fight interview and the tape show that he ends up pressing the arm down and winning that way.

Frank Mir is more skillful than his tall and wild opponent Wes Sims, but Mir tires terribly in the second round. Despite being well ahead, it appears that Mir is lucky to pull out a victory with a knee to his opponent's face. He needs to be in better shape with greater endurance. He gets almost as gassed as Tank Abbott.

BJ Penn hands champion Matt Hughes an unexpected loss. Hughes looks surprisingly bad in this fight. When Penn gets his back and chokes him out, it looks like Hughes is just as happy to be out of the fight and rid of the championship belt. Penn is extremely emotional after the fight.

BJ Penn's instructor Renato Verissimo amazingly hands Carlos Newton a beating. I never expected that. Verissimo is far superior as a grappler, and that is an awesome compliment to him because Newton put on some fantastic grappling exhibitions against top competition. If you get into your time machine you see that Verissimo later fights Matt Hughes, the man Verissimo's student BJ Penn defeated. Hughes wins against the teacher.

Vitor Belfort wins the championship in an upset victory over Randy Couture, but it is the result of a freak eye cut in the early seconds of the fight. It isn't even a good solid punch that does the damage. It is a glancing blow that somehow seriously damages Couture's lower eyelid so much that the doctor has to end the fight immediately and recommend a quick operation.

I like Joe Rogan as an announcer but I don't like the other guy, the non-fighter. He is the UFC regular commentator, and I am always tempted to turn down the sound rather than listen to him.

I also don't like Buffer at all, the guy who enters the ring to announce the names of the fighters. I am so done with him. I wish they would get someone else. He is an annoyance, and I actually do turn off the sound when he comes on. For some reason I like Buffer's father enough, when he calls the names of boxers, but the UFC Buffer really irritates me. That's one tradition I really wish they would drop already.

The UFC likes to claim that they are the greatest mixed martial arts organization in the world, but they are only second best, and maybe there is something they can do about it. Don't blame me for being the bearer of bad tidings. I am not the one who made them second best. They did that themselves. It is obvious. The Pride Fighting Championship in Japan is clearly a better organization that attracts a higher calibre of fighter. Perhaps the UFC has chosen to offer lower purses, and has therefore chosen to be a junior league, much like the National League has been lately in baseball. Pride FC is definitely the American League of MMA. Pride has Fedor Emelianenko, the best fighter in the world today.

The sport is frustrating because there is no World Series. It's like boxing with its WBA, WBC and IBF. There is no undisputed world champion in any weight division, and that is a real shame. It is a major fiasco. How can a UFC fan be satisfied knowing that Fedor Emelianenko can kick the butt of every single UFC fighter.

Overall a great show ultamitely only sullied by the horrible/controversial ending to the main event of the evening.

Just terrible and not worth the money. The fights are horrible and the fighters have very little skill. Puchase PRIDE instead where the best fighters in the WORLD come to fight.

The only reason anybody wanted to watch UFC 46 in the first place was for the main event between Vitor Belfort and Randy Couture. Instead what you get is a fight that is stopped within moments due to a cut from a glove seem. Pathetic. You can tell that all these guys in the ufc have very little skill compared to the guys in Pride and sometimes are akin to fat barroom brawlers.

Pride FC is the top organization in the world. Sadly, the UFC is far behind.