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By Brian Sweet, MMATorch DVD Specialist
Hello and welcome to the first week of my "DVD World" series of articles. My name is Brian Sweet and I am an avid collector MMA memorabilia and DVDs. It is my goal to provide viewers with a collection of MMA DVD reviews of MMA events that are widely available for purchase on the net and at local retailers. Please feel free to contact me at bs2647@gmail.com if you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding all things DVD and MMA related. I own a complete Pride and UFC DVD library so please contact me if you have a specific disc in mind that you would like me to review. This week we will be looking at "UFC 43: Meltdown." This event was historic in that it produced the first ever UFC champion in two different weight divisions. So let's get down to business.
We will look at one fight each day, and not only review the fight itself, but tell you what the ramifications of the fight were from today's perspective looking back. I hope you enjoy reading this new daily feature as much as I enjoyed writing it.
UFC 43: MELTDOWN
JUNE 6, 2003
LAS VEGAS, NEV. AT THE THOMAS & MACK CENTER
Matt "The Law" Lindland vs. Falaniko Vitale:
There really isn't much of a prelude to this brawl other than the fact that Lindland was considered a sure victor and a future middleweight champion by many coming in. Vitale came into UFC 43 with a few minor victories to his credit and this was his first big chance to make a name for himself. Lindland brought an Olympic silver medal to the table, meanwhile Vitale brought a good game face and some decent grappling skills. One click of the play button on my trusty DVD player and the action continues.
THE FIGHT
Round 1 – The fight starts and Lindland gets in close early. Both men clinch against the cage with Matt getting double under hooks. A few punches thrown by Vitale and Lindland tries for a throw but gets nowhere. At about the 1:48 mark, Lindland take a chance and looks for the takedown, but ends up slamming his head on the canvas knocking himself out cold. Vitale lands directly on top of matt and throws a few unnecessary bombs to place the exclamation point. This was certainly an exciting and completely unexpected finish at the 1:56 mark of the very first round. Huge upset here folks.
AFTERMATH
Matt "The law" Lindland: Lindland took a huge chance in this fight and paid severely for it. Lindland came into the UFC and made quite a name for himself after dispatching some of the best middleweight's in the organization including Ricardo Almeida, Phil Baroni (2), Pat Miletech, and Ivan Salaverry. Matt did suffer a loss to UFC middleweight champion at the time, Murilo Bustamante via guillotine choke, but was still considered a top contender. After this fight, Matt would go on to avenge this loss at UFC 45 via TKO in the third round before being viciously stopped yet again in the octagon by fast rising middleweight contender Dave Terrell. He would have two more fights in the UFC following that loss, but shortly thereafter some sort of falling out with Dana and company occurred. It appears Lindland is blacklisted from the UFC these days, but Matt is still going strong outside of the octagon. He even had a decent showing against the pound for pound kingpin Fedor Emelianenko in April of 2007 before getting caught in an armbar. There is no arguing that Lindland is a quality fighter, albeit one dimensional at times.
Falaniko Vitale: Vitale came into this fight with a record of 15-2. He hadn't faced much top quality opposition, so this was his chance to make a name for himself. Even though Lindland assisted with this win, Vitale never made it big in the UFC. Falaniko lost the rematch at UFC 45 and never made it back inside the octagon. However, he did gain some measure of success with wins over the likes of Yushin Okami and Dave Menne shortly thereafter. This fight served as a reminder that anything can happen in a fight and nothing more really. Vitale still competes, most recently in a losing effort against Frank Trigg at the Strikeforce: Payback event in Denver during October of last year. He is a game challenger for anyone to contend with but don't expect him to be back in the octagon anytime soon, if at all.
Check back every day for our continued march through this DVD. Here's the schedule...
YESTERDAY: Pedro "The Rock" Rizzo vs. Tra "Trauma" Telligma
TODAY - FIGHT 2: Matt "The Law" Lindland vs. Falaniko Vitale
WEDNESDAY - FIGHT 3: Yves Edwards vs. Eddie Ruiz
THURSDAY - FIGHT 4: Wes "The Project" Sims vs. Frank Mir
FRIDAY - FIGHT 5: Vernon "The Tiger" White vs. Ian "The Machine" Freeman
SATURDAY - FIGHT 6: Vitor "The Phenom" Belfort vs Marvin "The Beastman" Eastman
SUNDAY - FIGHT 7: Tank Abbott vs. Kimo Leopoldo
MONDAY - FIGHT 7: Randy "The Natural" Couture vs. Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell
And then stay tuned next Monday for the start of another full DVD review.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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