SB Nation User Blog: VikingPhotography

Almost two years on, I (awkwardly) thanked Joe Stevenson

VikingPhotography — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:44:38 -0000

It's been something I harboured mixed feelings about for quite some time; the MMA picture that I'm most well known for is one of a fighter's utter defeat - yet in many ways it 'put me on the map', so to speak, and opened quite a few doors for me. I'd always wanted to thank Joe Stevenson... but how?

(more after the jump)

Almost two years down the line from that night in Newcastle, I found the time to speak to Joe again. Sure, I'd photographed him in action at both UFC 86 and 95 but, owing to his schedule, I never got around to talking with him at either of those events.

Rewind to a few weeks ago and I'm sitting in the bar of the Crowne Plaza hotel, shooting the breeze with my friends and journalists Oliver Copp, Dave Meltzer and french MMA reporter Souad Soulimani when I see Joe walk into the bar with good friend Tracy Lee. I knew Joe was in town as he (along with Greg Jackson) would be cornering Aaron Riley on the night of the fights.

The cool thing with Joe - and many other MMA fighters - is that they remember people. Joe is no exception. We struck up a conversation as if the pre-fight presser for '80 had only happened the other day. We joked around a bit and he recalled that, when I asked him to pose for his portrait shot at the presser, he'd said to me "Do you want Magnum, or Blue Steel??" (if you've never seen Zoolander, shame on you!)

I saw this moment as an ideal (yet awkward) time to thank him for the infamous shot. Turns out I had nothing to worry about.

What Joe said to me was "You know, that moment, it's kind of a bad memory but it's a memory all the same - a bit like a messy divorce. I'm glad that something positive came out of it though"

I asked him what was going through his mind at the time

"Well I was obviously cut quite bad and I was wondering to myself just how long I was gonna last in there. When [Penn] got that choke locked in I knew there'd be no shame in tapping, but it still hurt"

I thanked Joe and Tracy Lee stepped in to take a shot of me with him using my own camera gear.

A short while later whilst I was getting some drinks at the bar, I overheard Joe asking some of the UFC's brass if there were any spare tickets going as he needed to get a pair for some buddies. They told Joe that all requests had to go through the UFC's PR folk and that he could do that in the morning.

In one of those rare moment of serendipity, I called Joe aside and told him that I had two comp tickets that I didn't need - they'd been given to me earlier that day by one of the UFC's UK staff. I promised Joe I'd get the tickets up to his room the next morning and I was good to my word.

So there it was - a surreal moment where I not only got to thank Joe Stevenson for helping to make my MMA photography infamous, but I also managed (in a small way) to repay the favour.

UFC Fan Expo, Mk II - May 28-29, 2010

VikingPhotography — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:38:09 -0000

Just announced a short while ago over on UFC.com, the second UFC Fan Expo will take place on May 28-29, 2010 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. For those who aren't au fait with diary dates, that's Memorial Day weekend (which I've always thought is an odd way to put it)

As rough around the edges as the first Fan Expo was, it was still a good experience for me and one I'd gladly look forward to attending again.

Naturally it helps that the Expo weekend will be anchored with a marquee UFC fight card - likely featuring the return of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, if rumours are to be believed - but I'd say it's way too far in the future to even speculate about what fights may be on this card. We've got two Vegas fights, Australia, New Jersey and Abu Dhabi happening before then so only time (and fighter injuries) will tell what's in store.

Anyways that's enough chatter. I'm off to see how much a room at the Mandalay costs for this weekend; perhaps I'll see some of you there?

UPDATE: It's (99%) on: Machida / Rua II on May 1st

VikingPhotography — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:40:16 -0000

Tweeted not that long ago, Machida has confirmed a Saturday, May 1st date will be his rematch against Mauricio "Shogun" Hua. We've got the when, now all we need to know is where; any takers on the location for this fight? I had thought the May show was going to be Montreal.

FYI at the moment I'll treat this as 99% confirmed - if I get word from Shogun's manager to verify, I'll post an update.

UPDATE: I asked Shogun's manager if he could confirm and got this response

I guess he's just being appropriately cautious until the UFC make this bout official :)

UFC 105 Medical Suspensions

VikingPhotography — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:12 -0000

From MMA Unlimited mag via mma.tv

Hardest hit is Aaron Riley who has a mandatory 60 days no contact after getting roughed up by Ross Pearson; the only suspensions that would run longer were if Swick, Kelly, Brown, Wilks and Hamman don't get favourable news from their doctors, in which case each could be out as long as 180 days - ouch!

Full list after the jump.

Randy Couture
30 days no contest, 21 days no contact

Brandon Vera
30 days no contest, 21 days no contact

Mike Swick
60 day no contest, 45 days no contact
180 days or cleared by doctor for possible broken left orbital

Denis Kang
60 days no contest, 45 day no contest

Matthew Brown
180 days or until right hand and elbow x-ray and cleared by doctor
45 days no contest, 30 days no contact

James Wilkes
180 days or until cleared by ophthalmologist and doctor for nasal fracture
60 days no contest, 45 days no contact

Aaron Riley
90 days no contest, 60 days no contact

Paul Taylor
60 days no contest, 45 days no contact

Shannon Gugerty
30 days no contest, 21 days no contact

Matt Riddle
no contest 60 days, 45 days no contact

Paul Kelly
180 days or must have facial fracture and abdominal contusion cleared by doctor. 60 days no contact
60 days no contest, 45 days no contact (note: copied verbatim - not sure why 60 days no contact & 45 days??)

Jared Hamman
180 days or left eye injury must be cleared by ophthalmologist. 60 days no contact
60 days no contest, 45 days no contact

Roli Delgado
60 days no contest, 45 days no contact

UFC 105 - My Cageside View

VikingPhotography — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:10:04 -0000

Promoted from the Fan Posts by Kid Nate.

Well I haven't had this much fun since... well, UFC 99; this past weekend in Manchester saw an action packed card full of surprise and thrills and luckily I managed to capture some of those moments from my viewpoint that I can share with you. I'll likely blog about my experience in a day or two but, for now, I'll let the pictures do the talking

First up, Andre Winner lives up to his name with an early stoppage of Rolando Delgado

Ten more images (in the same, new format) after the jump...

Alexander Gustafsson made Jared Hamman eat his fists and taste defeat

Dennis Siver gave Paul Kelly a pair of broken ribs with his trademark spinning back kick

Nick Osipczak figured out a slick way to solve the problem of Matthew Riddle

Terry Etim left Shannon Gugerty all choked up - but not in the emotional sense

John Hathaway and Paul Taylor brought a modern day "War of the Roses" to the octagon

Ross Pearson forced a medical stoppage via a flying knee, one of many strikes to land on Aaron Riley

James Wilks ate leather courtesy of Matt Brown until referee intervention spared him more punishment

Michael Bisping menaced Denis Kang until his GnP brought Miragliottas intervention in round two

Dan Hardy fought tooth and nail against Mike Swick to get the chance to take on GSP - not much of a prize IMO!

And lastly, Randy Couture weathered the early assault to later bust out his famed dirty boxing on Brandon Vera

I hope you all like the shots and also the new format I have for showcasing them.

UFC 105 fight week blog

VikingPhotography — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:07:21 -0000

The first of my UFC 105 fight week blogs is up at http://bit.ly/31Y4xv - I'll be posting regular updates as the week progresses, sometimes at my blog, sometimes via my Twitter account (just follow @TheMadScot to find me)

It should be an interesting week if all the advance planning I've done pays off - stay tuned to find out more as and when it happens.

Oh, and if you're in town - give me a shout!

Houston Alexander vs. Kimbo Slice?

VikingPhotography — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:32:30 -0000

Hopefully I'm not re-hashing old news but, from the depths of twitter, it looks like Kimbo Slice is being lined up to face Houston Alexander at either UFC 107 or the TUF 10 finalé

First, Mr. Ferguson tweeted His first mistake was saying "I Accept" and then just about half an hour ago, we see HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM posted as a ReTweet on Kimbo's twitter feed.

If true, Houston is no joke for Kimbo, and we'll get to see what Mr. Ferguson's time in ATT has provided him in the way of new skills.

Conversely this is also a dangerous match for Houston; he's 0 - 3 in his last three fights so a loss to Kimbo might see him handed his hat as he leaves the octagon.

Machida-Rua called as it was seen (ESPN / Franklin McNeil)

VikingPhotography — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:54:00 -0000

Over on the MMA section of ESPN.com, reporter Franklin McNeil (no relation) lays out a piece about the judges who scored the Machida - Rua bout at UFC 104 doing their jobs to the best of their ability. Here's a notable pullout from the article

"Where a judge is seated at a particular time during the action must be taken into account. Judges have the best seats in the house, but they don't always have a clear line of vision"

Now I've been sat next to judges whilst shooting UFC events - literally elbow-to-elbow with them - and have first hand experience of the issues that they face when trying to read a fight.

There have been a few occasions where I've thought a fight went in favour of one guy (based on my vantage point) only to be surprised when the scores came in.

If I've simply shooting a fight and thinking "Hey, this guy's got in it the bag" based on what I saw... well the same must hold true of the judges. How else to you explain split decisions or differences in how many rounds are scored for which fighter?

I'll tell you what it's not: it's not incompetence, it's not fight-fixing and it's not corruption.

Read the article, think a little and then hopefully it might clear up some of the trash talk that's been going on about the judges in the Machida - Rua fight.

Try doing their job from their vantage point. It ain't easy.

Self-promotion: finally got me a blog, twitter etc.

VikingPhotography — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:04:55 -0000

It's kinda hard to type this without sounding conceited but I've finally gotten a blog off the ground; I'll be talking about all my shooting, especially my upcoming assignment to UFC 105. Catch it at http://martinmcneil.blogspot.com

For those of you more into the casual following thing, add me to your twitter feed by following @TheMadScot - expect lots of tweets when I'm down in Manchester for 105.

/self promotion ends

UFC Lands Network TV Deal in the UK

VikingPhotography — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:02:37 -0000

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

Yes, it's real - the UFC will now be on network TV... in the United Kingdom.

Gareth Davies broke the exclusive news on his Telegraph Blog and it's been confirmed by UK UFC VP Marshall Zelaznik via Facebook.

The shows will be called UFC: Main Event and will be shown regularly at midnight Sunday/Monday

Each show will be one hour long, and kicks off with fights from UFC 102, showcasing Nogueira vs. Couture, Marquardt vs. Maia and Jardine vs. Silva to start.

Personally as a UK resident this is great news - whilst it's not a primetime spot, it's still a development that will expand the reach of the sport into the mainstream without stepping on the toes of the deal that has been done with ESPN UK.

Update [from Luke Thomas]: The channel now scheduled to run this programming is channel FIVE. Wiki background here.