SB Nation User Blog: VikingPhotography

The Nod - who from BE is heading to UFC 100 & the Fan Expo?

VikingPhotography — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:34:03 -0000

Okay, here's the deal; my editors at ESPN have approved me as the photographer in the slot for UFC 100; I'm also covering the fan expo for a European magazine and they're particularly interested in capturing the vibrance and atmosphere of the show.

Soooooo - in the finest tradition of european photojournalism, I'll be hunting around for those unique fans with stories to tell about their passion for all things UFC - and should there be anyone here on the BE community that is "larger than life" well, make yourself known to me in this post :)

<EDIT / UPDATE> I think there's been a general misinterpretation of what I meant by "Larger than Life"; I was meaning something like an Uberfan... you know - UFC and MMA being a core part of your daily life and everyone knows it from the way you look, dress, talk about it, style yourself (hair / tatts etc.) and so on... :)

My and Tracey Lee of Combat Lifestyles hamming it up for the camera in the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel...

VikingPhotography — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:35:30 -0000

My and Tracey Lee of Combat Lifestyles hamming it up for the camera in the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel after UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany :)

UFC 99 "The Comeback" in Pictures

VikingPhotography — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:54:02 -0000

Promoted from the FanPosts by Kid Nate.

Between work and personal life issues I've not been contributing to BE as much as I have in the past, so allow me to remedy that with twelve of my own favourite shots (by me, of course) from UFC 99: The Comeback

Let's kick off with one of the most memorable images of the night: Stefan Struve, emerging from a slasher movie of a fight to be rampant in victory whilst Denis Stojnic can only wonder "what if...?"

Eleven more images after the jump

A knockout blow might have been out of reach for John Hathaway, but he still managed to secure a decision win over Rick Story

Bad blood between Paul Kelly and Rolando Delgado boiled over from the weigh in and saw three rounds of action erupt between the two

Kickboxer Dennis Siver showcased some versatility in notching up an impressive first round submission of Dale Hartt

Striker Terry Etim also showcased his submission skills, putting a d'arce choke on Justin Buchholz

Paul "Relentless" Taylor lived up to his name in constantly seeking for - and finding - holes in Peter Sobotta's defence

Spencer "The King" Fisher forcibly ejects Caol Uno from his guard

Marcus Davis and Dan Hardy finally stopped the trash talk and let leather and bone do the talking instead

Ben Saunders "Killa B" was more like a B-Grade performance against Mike Swick

Mostapha Al Turk shields his eyes from the fists (and fingers) of Mirko "Cro Cop" FIlipovic

Cheick Kongo was not best pleased with his showing against Cain Velasquez

And there was on Silva lining for Wanderlei when he was eating leather courtesy of Rich Franklin

That's all from me for now; maybe I'll shoot in July, maybe in October ;)

Spoiler-free request: new TUF season

VikingPhotography — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:08:09 -0000

So all of you folk "across the pond" in the US of A will be able to watch the first episode of the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter tonight, following right after Fight NIght 18.

What some of you may not be aware of is that, for us folk on UK soil, we don't get to see the same show unti the night of Monday, April 5.

When I looked at the programming schedules on ufc.com and uk.ufc.com, it appears that this pattern will continue for the forseeable future, i.e. each episode of TUF will air four days later in the UK than in the US.

This naturally presents a bit of a problem to UK fans (such as myself) who would prefer to watch each show without prejudice or spoilers potentially dampening the experience for them.

As such, I have a request for all the staff and readership at BE: any posts relating to the new season of TUF be prefaced with SPOILER alerts should they contain show specific information. I know that BE has a sizeable readership in the UK and, in the spirit of fairness, I'd like to think that this is a request that could be both respected and enforced.

Thanks to all for taking the time to read over this.

UFC 99: The Comeback

VikingPhotography — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:47:45 -0000

This Fan Post was promoted to the front page by Nick Thomas.

Just got the press release in my inbox minutes ago.

Titled UFC 99: The Comeback, the main event is confirmed as Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva at a catchweight of 195lbs.

The only other info is ticket prices: €250, €150, €85, €70, €55 and €45, all which will go on general sale starting Friday 13th - though UFC Fight Club memebers will get to snag theirs from the 9th.

If I hear anything more about the event / card, I'll update accordingly.

[UPDATE] by Nick Thomas - The rumors so far are:

- Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva
- Spencer Fisher vs. Caol Uno
- Mirko Crocop vs. TBA
- Marcus Davis vs. Dan Hardy
- Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders
- Heath Herring vs. Cain Velasquez
- Alan Belcher vs. Alessio Sakara
- Mustapha al Turk vs. Todd Duffee
- Stefan Struve vs. Denis Stojnic
- Paul Taylor vs. Peter Sobotta

[UPDATE] by Nick Thomas - Alessio Sakara vs. Alan Belcher has been added.

[UPDATE #2] by Chris Nelson - Stefan Struve and Paul Taylor now have opponents. This card has filled out fast - now if we could only get confirmation on Mirko's opponent...

An alternate angle of Nate Marquardt giving his special kind of lovin' to Wilson Gouveia; this shot...

VikingPhotography — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:46:42 -0000

An alternate angle of Nate Marquardt giving his special kind of lovin' to Wilson Gouveia; this shot needed quite a bit of "rescuing" in Photoshop as my lens couldn't follow focus fast enough, resulting in an image which was far from sharp when I started out. A few mouse clicks later (something you don't have time for when cageside) and it's tack-sharp where it needs to be.

Captions, please... (UFC 95)

VikingPhotography — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:00:54 -0000

Just for fun: two shots Urijah Faber and unidentified Team Quest member (c'mon - I can't know them all!) after Chael Sonnen's loss to Demian Maia, merged to create this little animated gif.

Captions are welcome, if not mandatory... personally I thik they're beatboxing, but who knows for sure?? There's no prize for this but heck, I'd like to think that it will sure beat whatever you're supposed to be doing.

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10 Shots & Thoughts from UFC 95

VikingPhotography — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:02:24 -0000

Right, I'll open up with the good stuff; my "10 of the best" shots from UFC 95.

(Edit) and keep my editors happy by checking out the official gallery on ESPN.com :)

Paul Kelly giving Troy Mandaloniz something to chew on

(click through for more...)

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Evan Dunham's favourite food is mashed swede; it's also what he likes to do to Per Eklund

"Say my name, bitch!" is the sort of taunt Mike Ciesnolevicz gets a lot of fun out of, especially since Neil Grove didn't have a hope in hell of spelling it let alone speaking it with a nasty heel-hook locked on...

When you're 6'4" tall, you can't really be called "Junior" - except, perhaps, when facing 6"11" Stefan "Skyscraper" Struve. I think Dos Santos earned the nickname "Demolition Man" in the process...

There are times when you don't want to put your foot in it. This is not one of those moments, as Terry Etim's metatarsals helped Brian Cobb to the canvas. At least Cobb can now check "I wonder what foot ointment tastes like?" off his list of things to do in life...

You can debate the stoppage till the cows come home, but there's no question that Paulo Thiago brought the pain to Josh Koscheck right on the button - and, with his eyes all scrunched up like that, Koscheck would obviously protest a hit that he never saw....

One has to wonder whether it's the triangle choke that made Chael Sonnen tap, or if it was perfectly timed "out-gassing" on the part of Demian Maia; we'll never know, but let's hope that there's no stink-gate controversy brewing...

It's probably not the sort of in-flight entertainment that Wilson Gouveia is used to, but Nate Marquardt's good old knees-up went down a treat... a testament to all that time he'd put in playing Street Fighter IV in the lead-up to the fight.

This one's best left to Hardy himself: "No punching power? What do you think about that?!?!"

"Here, use this - I got some great moves off it" - said Nate Marquardt as he handed over the StreetFighter IV case to Diego Sanchez. Unfortunately for Sanchez, Marquardt's nine-year-old daughter had put Dance Dance Revolution in the box...

So now my photo favorites are out of the way, here are some of my thoughts on my time covering UFC 95.

Diego Sanchez and Joe Stevenson are ninjas. It's the only rational explanation I can come up with for how they simply vanished into thin air after posing off on the dais at the pre-fight presser. Even Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press didn't get to speak to them.
There were fighers everyhwere - GSP, BJ Penn, Urijah Faber, Wanderlei Silva, Tiki Ghosn, pretty much all of Wolfslair (Rampage, Kongo, Bisping) and many more. I guess the "star power" was there - it just wasn't in the cage.
Greg Jackson is a humble dude. When I asked him what his post-fight plans were in the wake of Marquardt's win, he hefted a plastic bag my way and said "I'm reading a book and going to bed!". He also stated that he plays just "a small part" in his fighter's success.
Either Diego Sanchez likes to be late to the party, or he prefers to hold his own press conferences. Almost all the reporters had disappeared by the time he showed up to the post-fight presser, leaving just three of us to field questions for about five minutes.
Every fighter got a "locker room bonus" of some description. I personally saw UFC UK staff tucking envelopes into the pockets of fighters as they left the post-fight presser. It's nice to see Zuffa handing out Economic Stimulus Checks...
UK fight fans have matured immeasurably since UFC 70 hit Manchester nearly two years ago. They're appreciative of the ground game and rarely "boo" unless there's prolonged inactivity on the part of fighters.

And so begins my long hiatus waiting for UFC '99 in Germany to roll around. I've heard from very reliable sources that BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian is practically assured for this one, Rich Franklin should be squaring off against Wanderlei Silva, and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic is going to have an extremely interesting opponent - sorry, but I really am sworn to secrecy on that one - suffice to say it's not anyone whom is currently in the UFC ;)

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Greetings from London (UFC 95)

VikingPhotography — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:25:39 -0000

Nice view, eh? And it's only the 10th floor.

I finally got into town ahead of the pre-fight presser for UFC 95 (tomorrow, 19th Feb) and will be doing my usual thing for the guys at ESPN.

I'll do my best to reprt anything that sticks out from the presser tomorrow and perhaps I'll even have a chance to pose a question or two.

In unrelated news; using a netbook to type, even when you have relatively small fingers like mine, is a bit of a challenge. Let's hope I get used to it in short order!

London Calling... (pt. 1)

VikingPhotography — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:54:55 -0000

For anyone who'll be in town for UFC 95, there'll be an autograph signing session on Friday 20th at the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road. Attending will be

Cheick Kongo
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva
Paul "Relentless" Taylor

The session starts at 1pm and is set to finish at 3pm. It'll be interesting to see if Rampage and Wanderlei have put their "personal" issues behind them :)

At 2pm, the UFC Fight Club Q&A session also starts at the same venue. Fight Club members get to put their questions to Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis this time around.

Once the Q&A session has wrapped up at 3pm, the doors open to the public for the weigh-in, with the fighters due on the scales sometime around 4pm.

IMPORTANT: for anyone coming into London from out of town, there's work being done at the Tottenham Court Road tube stop (nearest to the venue) - details can be found at this link

The works are only causing "minor" disruptions at the moment :)