Isolation Recommendations

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing as well as can be in these circumstances! Dropping in here because I'm having some slight MMA withdrawals, as some of you might be able to relate to.

With all this downtime, and a Fight Pass subscription, I plan to fill that void with some old shows and fights. Today I watched UFC 224, being the only numbered event since 100 that I've missed. Surprisingly good show that tied the record for most finishes on a UFC card.

I'm going to keep an eye on Wand's best fights of the decade thread, but what are some overall great shows pre UFC 100? Would also appreciate some Pride recommendations- haven't seen much of it at all over the years and not sure where to start.

Cheers fellas. 🙂

[Egg Shen]

if you wanna go old school Pride, Pride 10 is widely regarded as the first must-watch show, from that point on Pride really kicked into gear.

odd poster.

Then hit Pride Bushido 9. Arguably the greatest show in MMA history.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/820228-top-10-pride-dvds-everyone-should-have-in-their-collection

handly little link ^ spoiler free too.

[jimufctna24]

12 minutes ago, Shane O' Mac Version 2 said:

Would also appreciate some Pride recommendations- haven't seen much of it at all over the years and not sure where to start.

The 2003 and 2006 Grand Prix events are also worth a go. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah for Pride the 2003 Grand Prix definitely. I’d also throw in Shockwave 2004 and Bushido 9 with that amazing Lightweight tournament.

Other ones that I’d consider required viewing for anyone that hasn’t seen them...

• WEC 41: Brown vs Faber 2 is a fucking tremendous card from start to finish. Cracking main event plus you get appearances from Aldo, Pettis, Cerrone and Pulver. As many banging cards as WEC were putting out in their last couple of years, I’ve always felt like this was their best show overall. 

• Strikeforce: Evolution for the double whammy of Cung Le vs Scott Smith 1 and Josh Thomson vs Gilbert Melendez 2 is about as good a one-two as it gets. 

• UFC 84 has a bit of everything. A prime BJ Penn performance against Sean Sherk in the main event. Wanderlei mauling Keith Jardine in seconds. Machida before the puzzle was solved, making Tito even more confused than he usually is. Plus a really fun scrap between Wilson Gouveia and Goran Reljic.

• I’ll throw UFCs 80 and 85 in there as well. Both UK cards and I was at both so maybe I’m looking back with the rose tints, but they were really fun shows. No real blockbuster fights but both were choc-full of finishes. I’m sure 80 was one of the rare cards where they managed to squeeze nearly all the prelims onto the live broadcast because most of them were over quick.

And if you somehow haven’t seen them get these documentaries watched...

• Choke.

• The Smashing Machine.

• Anderson Silva: Like Water.

• Fighting For A Generation: 20 Years Of The UFC.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Thanks so much guys! Out of everything listed so far, the only thing I have seen is the Anderson Silva documentary. Plenty of content to keep me going, much appreciated.

[Magnum Milano]

I'll add another vote to  Bushido 9.  Not a bad fight on the card and three legitimate 'Fight of the Year' contenders on one show.

WEC 41 also has Scott Jorgensen vs Antonio Banuelos which is a real good fight alongside some highlight reel finishes and the excellent Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber rematch.  Pretty much every WEC from 40 onwards is worth watching and has at least one great fight on it.  The PPV (48) is an obvious starting point but I'll recommend WEC 50 also as that has an incredible Scott Jorgensen vs Brad Pickett fight, an excellent Dominick Cruz vs Joseph Benavidez main event and a really good Shane Roller vs Anthony Pettis fight.  The lone downer on that card is the Chad Mendes fight but everything else is superb.

[wandshogun09]

Fuck, can’t believe I overlooked Jorgensen vs Banuelos! That was probably my favourite fight on the card and I didn’t mention it.

WEC 50’s a good shout as well. To be honest, you can’t go wrong with anything from about WEC 34 with the first Faber vs Pulver fight. They put on great fights before that of course, but for me 34-53 is always going to be WEC at its best. 

[Egg Shen]

you cant go wrong with a latter day WEC show, they were always great.

[RancidPunx]

Great recommendations lads. 
 

Keep em coming !

[Magnum Milano]

7 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Fuck, can’t believe I overlooked Jorgensen vs Banuelos! That was probably my favourite fight on the card and I didn’t mention it.

WEC 50’s a good shout as well. To be honest, you can’t go wrong with anything from about WEC 34 with the first Faber vs Pulver fight. They put on great fights before that of course, but for me 34-53 is always going to be WEC at its best. 

I went back through my old notes and here's a list of the best WEC fight in my opinion. I could have easily doubled this if I'd included brutal KO's, awesome submissions, great individual performances etc but had to draw the line somewhere. There's about half a dozen shows that I never saw, but this does include everything from the Zuffa era. I've spoilered it in case anyone just wants to follow Wand's "Best of the 2000's" thread, but there is plenty of choice stuff in here if someone wants to check out what the WEC was all about.

 

WEC 6 03.27.03 Jack Cardenas vs Chris Sanford
WEC 7 08.09.03 Randy Spence vs Olaf Alfonso 
WEC 8 10.17.03 Chris Leben vs Brian Sleeman
WEC 9 01.16.04 John Polakowski vs Olaf Alfonso
WEC 9 01.16.04 Joe Riggs vs Alex Steibling
WEC 10 05.21.04 Bret Bergmark vs Daisuke Ishii
WEC 10 05.21.04 Tim McKenzie vs Alex Steibling
WEC 12 10.21.04 Jeremy Freitag vs Brad Imes
WEC 16 08.18.05 Alex Serdykov vs Victor Parfenov
WEc 18 01.13.06 Justin Levens vs Scott Smith
WEC 26 03.24.07 Eddie Wineland vs Chase Beebe
WEC 27 05.12.07 Jason Miller vs Hiromitsu Miura
WEC 30 09.05.07 Chase Beebe vs Rani Yahya
WEC 32 02.13.08 Antonio Banuelos vs Manny Tapia
WEC 33 03.26.08 Richard Crunkilton vs Sergio Gomez
WEC 34 06.01.08 Miguel Torres vs Yoshihiro Maeda
WEC 34 06.01.08 Urijah Faber vs Jens Pulver
WEC 35 08.03.08 Carlos Condit vs Hiromitsu Miura
WEC 36 11.05.08 Rob McCullough vs Donald Cerrone
WEC 36 11.05.08 Jake Rosholt vs Nissen Osterneck
WEC 38 01.25.09 Danillo Villefort vs Mike Campbell
WEC 40 04.05.09 Miguel Torres vs Takeya Mizugaki
WEC 41 06.07.09 Scott Jorgensen vs Antonio Banuelos
WEC 41 06.07.09 Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber
WEC 42 08.09.09 Joseph Benavidez vs Dominick Cruz
WEC 43 10.10.09 Damacio Page vs Will Campuzano
WEC 43 10.10.09 Richard Crunkilton vs Dave Jansen
WEC 43 10.10.09 Donald Cerrone vs Benson Henderson
WEC 44 11.18.09 Shane Roller vs Danny Castillo
WEC 44 11.18.09 Rob McCullough vs Karen Darabedyan
WEC 44 11.18.09 Mike Brown vs Jose Aldo
WEC 45 12.19.09 Donald Cerrone vs Ed Ratcliff
WEC 46 01.10.10 Mackens Semerzier vs Deividas Taurosevicius
WEC 47 03.06.10 Bart Palaszewski vs Karen Darabedyan
WEC 48 04.24.10 Leonard Garcia vs Chan Sung Jung
WEC 48 04.24.10 Scott Jorgensen vs Antonio Banuelos
WEC 48 04.24.10 Brad Pickett vs Demetrious Johnson
WEC 49 06.20.10 Eddie Wineland vs Will Campuzano
WEC 49 06.20.10 Mark Hominick vs Yves Jabouin
WEC 50 08.18.10 Scott Jorgensen vs Brad Pickett
WEC 50 08.18.10 Shane Roller vs Anthony Pettis
WEC 50 08.18.10 Dominick Cruz vs Joseph Benavidez
WEC 51 09.30.10 Leonard Garcia vs Mark Hominick
WEC 51 09.30.10 Jamie Varner vs Donald Cerrone
WEC 52 11.11.10 Cub Swanson vs Mackens Semerzier
WEC 53 12.16.10 Benson Henderson vs Anthony Pettis

Edited April 19, 2020 by Magnum Milano

[wandshogun09]

Yeah unfortunately a lot of them aren’t going to make my Top 50 of the 2000s, just because of how many great fights spanned so many different promotions in that period that I want to include.

Just looking at that list though and I’m immediately reminded how much I enjoyed fights like Riggs vs Stiebling from WEC 9 and Hominick vs Jabouin from WEC 49.

One that a lot of people probably didn’t see as well was Will Campuzano vs Coty Wheeler from WEC 46. I’ll go ahead now and say that I haven’t seen it since probably the day after it happened. I don’t even know how I saw it at the time because it was on the unaired prelims but I remember watching it in ropey quality once, absolutely loving it, then the video disappeared and I never saw it again. Looking up the card now, I see it got FOTN so it must’ve been at least good. But it’s one of those fights I thought would be buried in the vault forever. Hopefully it’s on Fight Pass, can’t see why it wouldn’t be. I’m going to have to have a look soon and see if it lives up to my memories of it. Wasn’t Lawler vs Rory 2 or anything but I just recall loving the fight at the time. 

[jimufctna24]

You two have insanely good memories. 

I loved the WEC between 2007 and 2010, but I can only remember their biggest fights. I would be clueless if someone asked me to name their best events. 

[wandshogun09]

21 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said:

You two have insanely good memories. 

It’s only MMA and Boxing with me though for some reason. When it comes to remembering the important day to day shit I’m terrible. But ask me what the third fight on the main card of UFC 89 was* and bang it’s there. Shame there’s not really a use for that information. It’s not even like that stuff’s going to come up in a pub quiz. 

To be fair, I am good with remembering certain dates as well, birthdays, anniversaries etc. So that keeps me out of trouble. 

*It was Sokoudjou vs Luiz Cane. 

Edited April 19, 2020 by wandshogun09

[Magnum Milano]

8 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Yeah unfortunately a lot of them aren’t going to make my Top 50 of the 2000s, just because of how many great fights spanned so many different promotions in that period that I want to include.

Just looking at that list though and I’m immediately reminded how much I enjoyed fights like Riggs vs Stiebling from WEC 9 and Hominick vs Jabouin from WEC 49.

One that a lot of people probably didn’t see as well was Will Campuzano vs Coty Wheeler from WEC 46. I’ll go ahead now and say that I haven’t seen it since probably the day after it happened. I don’t even know how I saw it at the time because it was on the unaired prelims but I remember watching it in ropey quality once, absolutely loving it, then the video disappeared and I never saw it again. Looking up the card now, I see it got FOTN so it must’ve been at least good. But it’s one of those fights I thought would be buried in the vault forever. Hopefully it’s on Fight Pass, can’t see why it wouldn’t be. I’m going to have to have a look soon and see if it lives up to my memories of it. Wasn’t Lawler vs Rory 2 or anything but I just recall loving the fight at the time. 

Campuzano vs Wheeler never aired on TV so it's one I've definitely not seen before. Revisitng that list it's crazy to think that Cerrone has been putting on these barn burner fights for over twelve years now.  I used to trade DVDs with a guy in the States who would record WEC, Strike Force and UFC Fight Nights for me and I'd send him wrestling stuff in return.  The excitement when I'd receive a parcel, see the U.S. postmark and know it's the latest WEC event.  Seeing names like Rich Crunkilton, Razor Rob, Shane Roller it does feel like another lifetime ago. 

3 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said:

You two have insanely good memories. 

I loved the WEC between 2007 and 2010, but I can only remember their biggest fights. I would be clueless if someone asked me to name their best events. 

Haha, no I just used to keep fairly detailed notes on the MMA shows I watched and just referred back to them.  Without those I would've struggled to name more than a dozen fights and next to no chance of remembering what cards they were on bar (the PPV and the Pettis/Henderson final show).

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, watching that first Bendo fight the other day, it struck me just how long Cerrone’s been at it. Always entertaining and always not too far off the title mix the whole time. You forget how long he’s been going sometimes but, like I said in the Top 50 thread, he looked like a teenager in the pre-fight promo for that first Henderson fight.

24 minutes ago, Magnum Milano said:

Campuzano vs Wheeler never aired on TV so it's one I've definitely not seen before.

I did a bit of Googling and found a thing on Bloody Elbow from after the show saying ‘watch the WEC 46 FOTN here’ or something with a link to watch it on the Versus site. The link’s obviously long dead now but I’m guessing this is how I must’ve watched it at the time;

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/1/14/1252022/will-campuzano-vs-coty-wheeler

Actually there are a bunch of fights that either got cut from UFC DVDs or were unaired prelims in WEC, Strikeforce etc that I’ve been meaning to finally watch on Fight Pass. Campuzano vs Wheeler was one. Also never seen the Anthony Pettis vs Bart Palaszewski fight. I’m not sure I ever saw Frank Shamrock vs Jeremy Horn from the old school UFC days either and that’s one that sounds great on paper. 

Edited April 19, 2020 by wandshogun09