Welcome to the first in a new weekly series of DVD reviews that I will be doing over the course of the summer. I will be attempting to get all of the 2007 UFC shows covered in this series, although they may come out of order as I am at the mercy of my Blockbuster Online subscription to get them to me in a timely (and orderly) fashion. Here we start with UFC 66. This show was the final event of 2006, and this was the show that cleared 1 million Pay-Per-View buys and led to UFC getting more coverage in the mainstream press including ESPN. This is an important show from a historical standpoint, and while the under card is somewhat light, the two main events deliver plenty of action with a couple of decisive finishes. Read on for the review!
Fight 1: Christian Wellisch vs. Anthony Perosh (Heavyweight)
ROUND ONE: They trade kicks early, and Perosh attempts a takedown. They clinch early. They're back to standing up. Wellisch gets a near knockout but Perosh drops down nicely into a clinch. Wellisch gets another near knockout, but looks gassed as he tries to finish. Perosh keeps his wits about him as the round closes.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Wellisch. Perosh did nothing in that round.
ROUND TWO: Perosh comes out swinging and rocks Wellisch. He can't finish, though. Wellisch gets back up to his feet. There's some good defense here by Wellisch. Wellisch gets on top, rolls out to side control. They get stood back up with :45 seconds left in the round. Wellisch gets another couple of shots in. Both men are extremely gassed.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Perosh. Perosh landed more and rocked Wellisch early.
ROUND THREE: They exchange shots equally for the first minute and a half then clinch again to loud boos. Wellisch is throwing more punches here but he's also landing more. Wellisch takes this round, no doubt. They're both swinging until the horn and they finish well.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Wellisch. Both guys were really gassed, leading to a very weak round until the finish.
RESULT: Wellisch via unanimous decision.
STAR RATING: (*) They had some ok exchanges, but they were both gassed really early and it led to some really slow spots in the match.
Fight Two: Rory Singer vs. Yushin Okami (Middleweight)
ROUND ONE: This is a really boring round. Singer pushed the action more and landed a couple of kicks, but there wasn't much going on at all.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Singer. Only because he landed a few kicks. Neither really did anything.
ROUND TWO: Okami with a takedown early. Rory defends it well from the ground, and has a nice kickout to get back to his feet. Okami gets another takedown. Okami almost gets to full mount, but Singer connects with a great up kick to Okami's face. He then connects on another eight or nine up kicks.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Okami. This was a tough round to call, but Okami had the two takedowns and controlled most of the round.
ROUND THREE: Rory comes out swinging again. Not much going until Okami again takes him down and gains side control. Okami gets to full mount. Singer struggles on the bottom for a bit, but Okami starts dropping punches from the mount until Singer taps out.
RESULT: Okami via tap out (strikes) at 4:00 of the third round.
STAR RATING: (*+) This was a pretty boring fight until around the last twenty seconds.
Fight Three: Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Carmelo Marrero (Heavyweight)
ROUND ONE: Gonzaga gets an early takedown after a clinch and transitions into a good mount position. Gonzaga nearly ends it with a choke from the side. Gonzaga is showing great ground control here. He makes a great move to grab the arm and he makes
Marrero tap.
RESULT: Gonzaga via submission (armbar) at 3:21 of the first round.
STAR RATING: (**-) A short but dominant performance by Gonzaga. He absolutely controlled
Marrero throughout.
Fight Four: Thiago Alves vs. Tony Desouza (Welterweight)
ROUND ONE: Desouza attempts a couple of takedowns early that are well defended by Alves. Alves rocks Desouza with a right and gains ground control. Alves stood up shortly thereafter. Alves lands with a big flurry at the end, but he was dominant throughout. Desouza managed to defend enough to get saved by the horn.
ROUND TWO: Desouza comes in and eats huge knee attempting a takedown. Alves lands a few more shots and Big John McCarthy stops it.
RESULT: Alves via KO at 1:10 of the second round.
STAR RATING: (**-) There was some exciting stuff from Alves here, but it was another one-sided affair.
Fight Five: Michael Bisbing vs. Eric Schafer (Light Heavyweight)
ROUND ONE: Bisbing is showing good takedown defense early. Schafer then catches a kick and gets a takedown on Bisbing. Bisping tries to get up and Schafer takes his back. Bisping flips forward, dropping Schafer on his head. Bisping sprawls and gets back to his feet. He lands a good kick to the head. Schafer gets another takedown, but he ends up on his back. Bisping begins throwing shots here, just raining down punches. He almost gets caught in a triangle but fights out and keeps landing punches until the ref stops it.
RESULT: Bisping via TKO at 4:24 of the first round.
STAR RATING: (**+) Good one round fight. Bisbing withstood the takedowns from Schafer and came back to dominate through most of it. Good finish for him as well.
Fight Six: Andrei Arlovski vs. Marcio Cruz (Heavyweight)
ROUND ONE: Both men ended up on the ground going for ankle locks a couple of minutes in. Arlovski landed an illegal kick to the face, but Cruz refused the ref's restart. As soon as they were clear, Arlovski took advantage and blasted Cruz in the face with a right. Cruz was rocked and Arlovski pounced and got the stoppage.
RESULT: Arlovski via KO at 3:15 of the first round.
STAR RATING: (*) Pretty boring fight until the KO, and that was a bit tainted with the illegal kick.
Fight Seven: Chris Leben vs. Jason MacDonald
ROUND ONE: This round is pretty much Leben swinging for the fences and MacDonald attempting takedowns. Rinse, repeat. Leben is connecting on some nice knees and punches. He connects with a few more shots at the end of the round.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Leben. MacDonald didn't accomplish much in this round, and Leben landed on the majority of his shots.
ROUND TWO: Leben blocks a kick and scores a takedown. He takes an upkick but gains side control. MacDonald gets up and holds onto Leben's leg. They get to their feet, but MacDonald is again not doing anything in the clinch on the fence. Leben lands another knee. MacDonald finally gets a takedown. He applies the guillotine choke as Leben attempts to roll through. He's got it on tight and puts Leben to sleep after he wouldn't tap.
RESULT: MacDonald via submission (guillotine choke) at 4:03 of the second round.
STAR RATING: (**) There was way too much time spent on the fence, but the action off of it was really good.
Fight Eight: Forrest
Griffin vs. Keith Jardine (Light Heavyweight)
ROUND ONE: The crowd is loudly behind Forrest. Very good back and forth exchanges in the early going. Both men are landing good shots. Jardine with a couple of big punches that rock Forrest and he follows up by wailing away on Forrest until the fight is stopped. Forrest breaks down in devastation following the loss.
RESULT: Keith Jardine via TKO in 4:41 of the first round.
STAR RATING: (***) Extremely exciting one round fight. Add to that a memorable finish and an upset of sorts and this was a great fight.
Fight Nine: Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz (Light Heavyweight Championship Fight)
ROUND ONE: Tito lands some good overhand shots and inside leg kicks. Some loud "Tito" chants break out around three minutes in as Chuck opens up a cut on him. Liddell throws some bombs and presses late. He knocks Tito down and starts landing shot after shot but Tito defends well enough to survive and get to his feet. Chuck lands another hard shot before the round comes to a close with Tito bleeding heavily.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Liddell. He landed and did damage and pretty much dominated the round.
ROUND TWO: Loud, deafening "Chuck" chants early. Tito is attempting some major shots, but he cannot connect. He lands a good body kick before a takedown attempt. Tito gets a takedown late but Chuck gets up and lands an elbow.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Ortiz. There wasn't much going on in this round, but Tito takes it by a slight margin.
ROUND THREE: The crowd is really hot. Tito went for a takedown, got blocked, and took some shots before landing one of his own. Liddell lands some really good body shots. Tito again goes for a takedown and again gets blocked and eats a couple of punches as Chuck gets up. Chuck with a few more punches that send Tito down. Tito defends but Chuck gets to the side and starts landing a barrage of punches. Most of these shots are to Tito's arms, but he's doing nothing to defend it or get out of this position so the fight is stopped.
RESULT: Liddell via TKO in 3:59 of the third round.
STAR RATING: (***+) Excellent title fight. Tito came out for this one and ad a few chances himself, but Liddell was too much to overcome. My only complaint is a semi-iffy stoppage as it didn't look as if Chuck was doing that much damage at the end. That being said, Chuck was the man here, and had the fight in the bag the way it was going.
OVERALL: (7.0) This was a good show overall. There weren't any really bad fights outside of the opener, and the top two delivered with a lot of really good action. This show is important in terms of historical context, as it can be pinpointed as one of the catalysts leading to the further surge of MMA popularity and mainstream acceptance that really gained steam in 2007 and is continuing today. Liddell and Ortiz had a very good fight for the Light Heavyweight Title, and Liddell continued to look like a dominant Champion. Forrest Griffin suffered a slight setback, but Keith Jardine shot up the light Heavyweight ladder with his decisive finish on Forrest. I recommend a rental on this one for sure, if only for those two fights.
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