UFC: Ultimate Knockout 6

UFC has come a long way from its brutal early days of last-man-standing tournaments with almost no rules. Now there is much more structure and regulation to protect the fighters with the incorporation of weight classes, expanded rules, and five-minute rounds, three rounds for non-title fights and five for title fights, which takes away the human cockfighting element that agitated critics like Senator John McCain.

Presented on Ultimate Knockout 6 are 35 knockouts that occurred between UFC 62: Liddell vs. Sobral (August 26, 2006) and UFC Fight Night 11 (September 19, 2007). Both of those fights took place in Las Vegas, which was where many of the UFC fights were held at the time (counting UFC 62, all but two of the previous 13 matches were held there), but during that timeframe UFC began to expand all over America, taking the show on the road to Texas, Ohio, and Florida. It even made its way back across the pond to the U.K. with events held in England and Ireland; something it hadn’t done since 2002 with UFC 38 in London.

There are a lot of impressive, powerful fighters in this sport, one I could not imagine participating in. What is most intriguing is witnessing people like Chuck “The Ice Man” Liddell and Keith “The King of Mean” Jardine who are so dominant in one fight get knocked silly the next. The most amazing finish in the collection is Scott Smith vs. Pete Sell from the finale of the reality series Ultimate Fighter 4. One fighter who looks to be finished because of hurt ribs lands a final punch that knocks out his hard-charging opponent.

As of the writing of this review, Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva is the only fighter on this DVD who can be seen winning his championship and, after four defenses, still currently retains it. Other current champions who fight on this disc are Welterweight George St Pierre, Light Heavyweight “Sugar” Rashad Evans, and Heavyweight (Interim) Frank Mir.

It must be tough to be referee a match. Even on this disc, there are times when it seems like they get in too late to stop the fight and save the defenseless fighter. While other times, although they are much fewer, it looks like they step in too soon, but it’s understandably better to be safe than sorry. If boxers end up with lasting brain damage, I can’t imagine what MMA fighters will be suffering in the future.

The disc isn’t for the feint of heart. Naturally, there’s a good deal of blood. Plenty of fights end due to hard shots to the head which knock a person out cold, causing their body to stiffen. One fighter appears to get his nose broken from stopping a knee with his face. The most cringe-inducing fight is Gabriel Gonzaga vs Mirko “Cro Cop.” One fighter takes such a devastating blow from a high kick to the head that his body drops like a sack of potatoes, causing his foot to get turned almost 180 degrees beneath him.

Since this is the sixth DVD in the series, the previous discs must have sold well for the UFC because other than porn you rarely see a number this high associated with a product. No doubt mixed-martial arts enthusiasts may be slightly disappointed with the limited presentation of the sport as each fight gets less than two minutes devoted to it and that includes instant replays, but for sheer excitement, it’s hard denying the intense action UK6 has to offer with all the fury of fists and feet flying.

One point of clarification: on the title card for Thiago Silva vs Thomasz Drwal, the fighters’ names are switched.