Review of UFC: 7 & 8 - The Brawl In Buffalo / David Vs. Goliath

Introduction

The latest in the UFC double-disc series is UFC 7&8, subtitled "The Brawl in Buffalo" and "David vs Goliath". "The Brawl in Buffalo" took place on 8th September 1995, and played host to several well-known UFC fighters, including Ken Shamrock & Paul Varelans, the latter of whom was involved in a spirited brawl with fellow monster "Tank" Abbott at the previous UFC.

UFC 8, "David vs Goliath" (held on 16th February 1996 in Puerto Rico) was named after the first round drawing of bouts brought together several matches where there was disparity between the size of the combatants. The first bout, involving Thomas Ramirez and Don Frye, had Ramirez weighing in at double his opponent at a gargantuan 29st!

Video

Video on these discs is presented in 4:3 non-anamorphic PAL, and is taken from the television production of the event. Whilst it suffers from the softness of picture that is synonymous with American television, it will not affect your viewing whatsoever. This is notably better than the earlier UFC events & is fine for an event of this genre.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is everything you would expect from a digital television broadcast. Nothing more, nothing less, as is typical of the genre.

Features

There are no extras. This is inexcusable.

Conclusion

The action on this DVD set was a mixed bag. For all the good (Paul Varelans` commitment to wildly attacking opponents, Don Frye`s skill for a physically overmatched competitor), there was some very bad (Remco Pardoel submitting before even being struck, Oleg Taktarov`s tremendously boring style, hometown boy Ramirez`s shocking capitulation in his first bout).

As I have said before, the early mixed martial events from both the UFC and PRIDE demanded change from their promoters on the back of some pitiful bouts. Unfortunately, by this point they were still ironing out the creases and therefore this DVD set should only be purchased by completists.