Customer Reviews

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 48 - Payback

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At this UFC event, we see George St. Pierre display a slightly more aggressive style against Jay Hieron. It becomes very apparent that St. Pierre is the future of the middleweight division, as one of the most well-rounded fighters the UFC has seen.

Matt Serra fights Ivan Menjivar in a fight that is boring, for the most part.

We then see the always underestimated warrior Evan Tanner in his rematch with Phil Baroni. Their first bout stirred up quite a bit of controversy, due to the referee stoppage of the fight. This time, Tanner wins far more decisively, although Baroni seems "out of sorts". Good fight.

Matt Hughes v. Cheruto Verissimo. Verissimo was making a name for himself as a top contender at this time. In this fight, Hughes powers out of a number of submission attempts by Verissimo. The fight is actually rather boring, for a Matt Hughes fight. It goes to a decision.

Frank Mir takes on Tim Sylvia. Mir displays his strong submission game - and Tim Sylvia displays his "I don't know when to quit" game, as he is taken out of UFC competition for a few months due to a stubborn will. Frank Mir is a well-rounded fighter and basically a likeable fighter. I look forward to seeing more from him in the UFC.

In the main event, Ken Shamrock squares off against Kimo Leopoldo. These two fighters' UFC careers date back to UFC 1 (Shamrock) and UFC 3 (Kimo). It's amazing to see them here in UFC 48, still in great shape and still essentially top-notch fighters. The result is somewhat shocking, but the fight is certainly worth seeing - if for nothing else than to see these two UFC legends face off so many years later, after having been there since it all began.

This is another solid UFC event. The bonus material, as usual, is made up of behind-the-scenes footage that any fan will appreciate.

A great event, i watched this on PPV and it was very exciting.
St. Pierre against Heiron was a good fight, with a good knockout.
Tanner and Baroni was entertaining, but one-sided.
Matt Hughes and Verissimo was exciting in parts, but slow in others. A controversial decision followed.
Mir and Sylvia ended in a brutal way, if you have a week stomach, might wanna skip through the slow-mo replays.
Hallman and Trigg was exciting. A very one sided beating, watch the loser grab the referee after the decision is called.
Finally, the final fight of the night, Shamrock against Kimo. Short, but action packed with a very clear knock0out and a very well placed knee.
Overall, a good event, one worth buying for any UFC or Full-contact fighting fan.

I rented this DVD from Blockbuster after reading an article in the New York Times which essentially dumped on mixed-martial arts fighting. I wanted to watch a UFC video myself, see what the fuss was about, and come to my own conclusions. After watching this video, I became a fan of UFC, and I have since rented all the UFCs available at my local video stores.

The first thing that struck me about UFC MMA fighting is that it is exciting. The fighters are very gifted, and can be dangerous even when it looks like they are losing the fight. One knockout punch or a quick submission can end a fight quickly without notice. The second thing that struck me is that the fighters all come from different camps. Ken Shamrock represents the "Lion's Den" and other fighters are members of "Team Quest," "Team Punishment," etc., etc. What this means is that the fighters train together, have common managers and help each other prepare for upcoming bouts. The final thing that struck me is that the sport is not as gory as advertised. There does not appear to be any needless suffering. All the fighters are professionals, they know what they are doing, and Big John McCarthy and the other referees are quick to stop the fight if one of the combatants cannot defend himself.

The announcers do a good job of making the fights interesting. They typically give a little background about each fighter, much like sportscasters do in football and baseball games. They talk about which camp the fighter is in, what defines the fighters style, who the fighter has fought recently, etc. This makes it easy to get into the fights as it provides some context for each bout.

I do not have a background in MMA, but I must say that the fights look exhilarating. Although fighters typically specialize in brazilian jui-jitsu, wrestling or kickboxing, each fighter appears to be well-rounded enough to handle all elements of the sport. The fights are exciting to watch, and you really don't know what will happen. I find in boxing that it is often obvious early which fighter is getting the upper hand. In UFC that is more apt to change, and come-from-behind victories are more likely. This causes me to focus my attention on the action more. I also like that you get lots of fights for your dollar. Some of the fights might be disappointing, but there are enough fights so that at least a few of them are bound to be good. With time--and after watching a few UFCs--I have found myself rooting for certain fighters that I like. The same fighters seem to come up again and again, and some of the fighters are clearly bigger draws than the other fighters.

You can get a review of all the fights on this DVD at mmareview.com. I don't want to re-hash what others have said, especially since I am somewhat new to MMA and others are probably much better qualfied than I am to report the results of the fights. I will say that, although the co-main events ended quickly, they were both fun to watch. I was surprised by how quick Mir is for a heavyweight and, after seeing the fight in slow-motion I must say that the referee was right to stop the fight. The Kimo/Shamrock battle is also fun to watch. It might not have lasted long, but I enjoyed watching the fighters enter the ring, square off and exchange vicious blows. Part of the excitement, at least for me, of the UFC events is watching the fighters step into the ring while the crowd is roaring and cheering. It looks like it gets very loud at Mandalay Bay, and the fighters must get an energy rush from that. I know I get an energy rush from just sitting at home and watching these fights!

If you are new to UFC, this tape is probably as good an introduction to UFC as is any other tape. If you are a UFC veteran, this tape is probably worth your watching because it is Frank Mir's finest hour to date. As a newcomer to UFC, I enjoyed the DVD enough to explore other MMA DVDs, and I now consider myself to be a fan of the sport.

Just a couple of notes. The Baroni/Tanner fight was a rematch to settle a previous fight that ended in controversy. It goes the distance but Baroni looked extremely unprepared. He hardly engaged at all during the entire fight and Tanner basically dominates his way to a unanimous decision. The UFC Heavyweight Title match ended in controversy, but referee Herb Dean made the correct call. Basically Syliva's forearm is broken about 46 seconds into the fight and Dean stopped it immediately. Mir wins the formerly vacant UFC Heavyweight Championship. Our main event was a bit disappointing, although there was a clear winner in this one. Shamrock knocks Kimo out in just over one minute with a very well placed knee.

Complete Card:
Trevor Prangley vs. Curtis Stout
Georges St. Pierre vs. Jay Hieron
Matt Serra vs. Ivan Menjivar
Phil Baroni vs. Evan Tanner
Matt Hughes vs. Renato Verissimo
UFC Heavyweight Championship Match- Frank Mir vs. Tim Syliva
Frank Trigg vs. Dennis Hallman
Main Event: Ken Shamrock vs. Kimo

i was expecting kimo to win, but got knocked out insstead, all of the other fights were great and action packed. if you like action, or just a collector of the UFC like me, pick this 1 up.

... this would have been a possible five star event. I remember Zuffa trying to hype the fight between Shamrock and Kimo... as if this were the match-up of the decade. As much as I respect Ken Shamrock, I simply cannot understand hyping this fight as the main event for any reason other than name recognition. The title fight between Mir and Sylvia should have been the main draw on this card.

That said, this was an extremely entertaining event to watch. UFC delivers once again with this one. Buy it. If you love MMA, BUY IT!!

This DVD delivers what it promises. Payback. It also delivers some really exciting bouts featuring broken limbs, knees to the head and plain ol' KO's... Typical UFC always controversial always entertaining for a friday night... Get this and add it to your UFC collection or start one with this DVD

St. Pierre, Baroni, Tanner, Hughes, Mir, Syliva are all featured on this card. Plus the main event is 2 legends of the octagon colliding for the second time in their careers, Kimo and Shamrock! There are some good matchups on this UFC, although I think everyone was surprised the final match ended so quickly.

UFC 48 is one of the worst events I've ever seen. The main event is a fight between two old tomato cans that don't belong on a kotc card let alone a ufc card. The co main event features a fat, chicken-legged champ who's not even ranked in the world top 5 taking on a Jiu-Jitsu fighter with ZERO cardio. You can tell that all these guys 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.

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.