Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
UK Certification E | UK RRP £17.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 308 minutes
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to the world famous MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 29, 2010 with a stacked card of highly anticipated match-ups. But sadly with all that went down in the fights that looked exciting on paper, the event was ultimately disappointing. Hype is a dangerous thing, and from top to bottom, UFC 114: Rampage vs. Evans did not live up to the enormous amount that surrounded it, and often to the near 15,000-strong crowd's vocal dissatisfaction. With only one particularly enjoyable contest on the main card, it was yet another altogether underwhelming show.
What an upset victory for Hathaway. The champion of the original series of The Ultimate Fighter, Diego Sanchez lost his 14th UFC fight to the hungry lion and my fellow Brightonian John Hathaway, who now has a perfect 14-win record in his MMA career. You'd think that someone as decorated and experienced in the UFC would make easy pickings of the Brit, but this was most certainly not the case. Hathaway dominated the three-round fight and very nearly ended it in the first with a seriously brutal knee that had a whiplash effect on Sanchez's skull, but he somehow managed to recover the subsequent flurry on the ground, an assault which many would not have survived, so you've got to give credit to Sanchez. He's an awesome fighter, but he was surprisingly out of his depth against one-to-watch Hathaway on the night, who made UFC 114 his first time competing in the States.
Light Heavyweight Bout: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Jason Brilz ??
I have absolutely no idea what two of the three judges were smoking when they awarded this fight to Nogueira. He started off strong, but Jason Brilz, who stepped into the fight at short notice, came out all guns blazing and gave the performance of his life. Brilz was smiling and full of energy as the second and third rounds began, whereas Rogerio was exhausted after the first five minutes. The twin brother of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira should never have won this one. He's on his way to becoming a UFC star like his sibling and sure, he's put on impressive performances in the past, but there's just no way he was truly deserving of the victory. On paper it was a huge mismatch, but Brilz pushed as hard as he could and no matter what the verdict of the judges was, it was clear who really won the fight to the live crowd, who broke out a “bullshit” chant as Antonio was giving his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. An extremely controversial conclusion to a mostly uneventful fight, so I'm not sure why it was given the Fight of the Night award as it followed a superior contest. The highlight was an immensely tight Guillotine choke which looked to be seconds away from making Nogueira submit.
Heavyweight Bout: Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow ??
We've seen classic archetypes go at it before in the Octagon: the good guy versus the bad guy, David versus Goliath, and now meat-head versus sweet-head. But this one barely gets two stars from me. With so much hype surrounding this clash of the titans, the two did not deliver on the night. The fans were restless and began jeering the slow pace of the bout. It's a one-star fight but the explosive finish is what jumps it up to the next level for me. Russow somehow managed to weather the storm of the specimen Duffee's strikes and pull out a shock one-punch lights-outer for the win. A punch definitely deserving of its Knockout of the Night award, though Joe Rogan calling it the greatest in UFC history was a bit of an exaggeration.
Middleweight Bout: Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller ???
A good showing from both men in the co-main event of the evening. Going the full fifteen minutes, Bisping captured his tenth UFC victory via unanimous decision. In what started off as a balanced fight in the opening round, once those first five minutes were up, Bisping quickly found his feet and got comfortable with the action, taking it right to Miller and affirming his dominance over the contest to tread the road of the next two rounds to a solid, much needed victory on pay-per-view, despite being wobbled by a nice takedown and a right-hander in the final round.
Light Heavyweight Bout: Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans ??
Grudge match or not, I think most UFC fans are blind as to how much of the sport is actually genuine outside of the Octagon. The feud that was built for months and months for this fight was unbelievably theatrical and you can tell that the guys behind the scenes had the sole intention of milking Rampage's run in Hollywood. I think many fans need to wake up to the fact that the vast majority of the trash talking and the video packages are scripted – perhaps they don't have a good eye for bad acting. Anyhow, pre-fight shenanigans aside, the hotly-anticipated title main event of UFC 114 was a so-so encounter for the bragging rights that saw Sugar Rashad blast through a 30-pounds-leaner Rampage with his speed advantage. Perhaps ring rust was a factor in Jackson's underwhelming performance, but I never could have predicted just how fast Evan was on his feet in comparison. There was none of the explosive, exciting Rampage that we've all come to know and so this grudge match felt disappointing. Hopefully the rematch will actually deliver the caged goods.
On a closing note, the UFC really needs to start mixing things up with their pay-per-view events. The very corny coliseum-set opening that they've been using for years coupled with the “Face the Pain” song is stale beyond belief. There should be both a unique theme song and video for each event.
EXTRAS ???? The Countdown to UFC 114 show; weigh-ins; fighter interviews; a behind the scenes feature; and once again the preliminary card is featured in its entirety on the second disc:
Middleweight bout: Jesse Forbes vs. Ryan Jensen
Lightweight bout: Aaron Riley vs. Joe Brammer
Light Heavyweight bout: Luiz Cane vs. Cyrille Diabate
Lightweight bout: Melvin Guillard vs. Waylon Lowe
Lightweight bout: Efrain Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon
Welterweight bout: Amir Sadollah vs. Dong Hyun Kim