[VikingPhotography]

Just got back yesterday from three days in Belfast spent covering the UFC 72 "Victory" event; I shot 175 pics at the pre-fight press conference, 133 shots at the weigh-in, 1133 shots of the fights and 264 shots at the post-fight press conference.

Picking from fight night and the later press conference only, here are my top 10 favourites to share.

1. Eddie Sanchez (top) finishes off local fighter Colin Robinson. It was Robinson's UFC debut on home soil but even rowdy support from a hometown crowd couldn't help him against veteran Sanchez.



2. Scott Smith is sent for medical attention in the middle of the first round of his bout against Ed Herman



3. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, current UFC Light Heavyweight champion, coaches Scott Smith in his corner.



4. Clay Guida (facing) tries to take down Tyson Griffin in what would later be hailed as the "Fight of the Night" despite a surprise split decision going to Griffin when everyone thought Guida had fought the better fight.



5. Rory Singer connects a flying knee strike with Jason MacDonald. Canadian MacDonald would go on to chalk up another victory in a string of unbeaten bouts.



6. Current UFC Heavyweight champion Randy Couture (upper mid right) smiles as he stands in Forrest Griffin's corner before his bout against Hector Ramirez. Griffin is one of many top fighters training at Couture's Las Vegas gym.



7. Forrest Griffin (left) soaks up a kick from Hector Ramirez during their bout. Griffin kept Ramirez confused and out of his rythym for the entire fight, going on to win the match by unanimous decision despite a dissapointing performance from both fighters.



8. Rich Franklin (right) barely slips aside from Yushin Okami's left thigh kick. Both Franklin and Okami fought cautiously in their headline bout, much to the displeasure of the assembled fans.



9. Forrest Griffin appears relaxed and composed during the post-fight press conference, where he described the 'soccer chanting' of the Irish crowd during his match as "the coolest thing ever"



10. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson listens in on the post-fight press conference. It was confirmed today that Jackson will be fighting in UFC 75 in London on September 8th, competing in the first MMA "Superfight" against Pride FC champion Dan Henderson.



All fight images: D2X, 17-55 or 70-200VR lenses, ISO1600, f/2.8, 1/320 sec., preset manual WB (3800K), manual focus.

I had a ton of fun shooting this and can't wait for UFC 75 to roll around into London in less than three month's time!

[P-E]

Cracking set of shots

[Charlotte]

Excellent stuff VP, your best yet

[stupot]

Wow some stunning stuff there, very impressed

[Dark Star]

Pin sharp, well composed and caught the moment in each - fantastic set!!!

[IanHoughton]

Have you ran these through some noise reduction programme ? the level of noise at iso1600 is very impressive, excellent shots

[Victoria]

Fantastic stuff. You've captured the action brilliantly. Having said that, I really love number 3 - the intensity on his face is priceless as he watches on.

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by Victoria

Fantastic stuff. You've captured the action brilliantly. Having said that, I really love number 3 - the intensity on his face is priceless as he watches on.

Funny you should say that Victoria, I was thinking the same thing, but as they're all so good I didn't want to pick a favourite, but you hit the nail on the head.

[skipper954]

I guess I am a blood and guts guy....I like 2. I like the intensity of the look in spite of mortal wounds

The real issue in my mind is how you processed 1500 images?????

skip

[VikingPhotography]

@Ian: these are straight-from-camera JPG files; the D2X isn't as bad at ISO1600 as most people reckon it is... you just need to nail the exposure, WB and use the correct colour and contrast settings. I was shooting RAW + JPG Basic, allowing me to get usable files straight off the card and also having the safety net of a RAW file should I really pooch a particular shot - fortunately I only did that with 3!

Still, if you take a look at shot #9, you'll see some dark frame noise in the left hand side of the shot, caused by a lightsource with a slightly different colour temperature to the WB of the other ambient lights - perfectly illustrating how WB affects ISO noise.

@Skip: My wife was there on fight night as my assistant, and she took the CF cards off me when they were filled and segregated shots into pre-set folders for each fight. I set Bridge to view only the JPG files and skimmed through them, looking for shots that contained peak action. Those were then labeled in Bridge for captioning before transmitting.

In total, this meant that I whittled down to 161 shots from the fights out of the 1133 taken, and 38 shots from the press conference; almost exactly 14% of the shots I took - or a 1 out of 7 ratio, whichever way you want to look at it. My 'keeper' rate for the fight was close to 85% but, for sports shots, the image has to tell a clear story and a lot of the 'ground and pound' shots didn't convey the action well enough.

@Everyone else: glad you liked the shots - you can see more of them here

WireImage - UFC 72 Fight Night

WireImage - UFC 72 Pre Fight Weigh In

WireImage - UFC 72 Pre Fight Press Conference

[Sonsey]

Wonderful set Martin, really shows the atmosphere and action of the night

[VikingPhotography]

Originally Posted by Sonsey

Wonderful set Martin, really shows the atmosphere and action of the night

Iain, they still can't fully convey what it was like to be there - it's a shame you couldn't make it along since the arena was electric - something that no photo can truly convey.

Ah well, roll on September 8th and UFC 75 in London... that event is going to be massive in every sense of the word; I can't quite put into words how prestigious it is for the UK to host the first ever Pride FC vs. UFC superfight, not to mention all the other rumours that keep surfacing on a daily basis about the other fights on the card.

[Sonsey]

Originally Posted by VikingPhotography

Iain, they still can't fully convey what it was like to be there - it's a shame you couldn't make it along since the arena was electric - something that no photo can truly convey.

I know what you mean, there is really no substitute for actually being there... shame on your wife for stealing my seat!

Originally Posted by VikingPhotography

Ah well, roll on September 8th and UFC 75 in London... that event is going to be massive in every sense of the word; I can't quite put into words how prestigious it is for the UK to host the first ever Pride FC vs. UFC superfight, not to mention all the other rumours that keep surfacing on a daily basis about the other fights on the card.

You said it, HUGE night for MMA... unfortunately it'll most likely be on PPV in the UK so I'll have to wait a few months to see it on Bravo... yes, I'm cheap!