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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
Tank Abbott vs. Kimo Leopoldo
This fight had an old school feel to it all the way. First you had the original ‘Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ Tank Abbott, fresh off a loss in his first fight back in the octagon in nearly five years. Then you had Kimo, the first man to physically test the skills of the legendary Royce Gracie in the UFC way back at UFC 3. Both men were physically imposing figures and clearly capable of finishing the other in very violent ways. What occurred however, was far from a slugfest that everyone wanted to see. In the end, the fight proved pointless and simply not very entertaining at all. In fact, it proved to be quite a waste of a co main event.
THE FIGHT
Round 1: Larry Landless starts the action and here we go. Kimo gets to work with a front kick to the gut and Tank immediately drops levels for the takedown. Kim sprawls and grabs a hold of Tank’s foot to secure a takedown of his own. Kimo immediately passes to half guard and shortly thereafter gains top mount position. An interesting note is if you look closely at Kimo’s back, one can make out bacne, which is indicative of steroid use. Since Kimo tested positive prior to his scheduled fight with Bas Rutten in 2006, a correlation can be made. Back to the fight… Kimo works the mount position and secures a nice arm triangle choke which forces the tap at around two minutes into the very first round. Tank was simply outclassed here. Kimo leans in and gives Tank a kiss on the cheek as the ringside doctor checks on Abbott. Nothing special here, just a typical Tank Abbot affair with little ground technique and a goatee that looks like it could double as a block of sand paper. Yet another poor performance from Abbot, who was paid way too much by Zuffa and at this point had lost three in a row inside the octagon.
THE AFTERMATH
Tank Abbott: At this point in his career, Tank was nothing more than a quick way to bring in a few more pay per view buys. Zuffa paid him a bunch of money to knock people out and he ended up getting subbed twice and cut badly by Cabbage Correira. Then he would actually go on to avenge his loss to Cabbage and lose four more fights in a row. His best days are obviously long gone and hopefully he invested some of his money because he will never step inside the octagon again.
Kimo Leopoldo: At this point in Kimo’s career, he was in the same boat as tank and it was sinking fast. In fact, the similarities are quite interesting because both would go on to lose their next fights in the UFC. Tank lost to Cabbage, while Kimo lost to ken Shamrock. Next, both men would fight at Rumble on the Rock 7 and win but lose their next three and four fights respectively with one of those losses being in Pride. Kimo lost to Ikuhisa Minoa while Tank lost to Hidehiko Yoshida. In any case, neither man will ever fight in the UFC again.
Check back every day for our continued march through this DVD. Here's the schedule...
MONDAY: Pedro "The Rock" Rizzo vs. Tra "Trauma" Telligma
TUESDAY - 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
TODAY - FIGHT 7: Tank Abbott vs. Kimo Leopoldo
MONDAY - FIGHT 8: 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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