UFC: Best of 2013 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

UFC: Best of 2013 Blu-ray Movie Review

A standard "Best of" release.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 31, 2014

The greatest knockouts, submissions, and fights of the year.

2013 wasn't exactly a year to remember for the UFC, but it wasn't a year to forget, either. It saw the UFC pushing forward, gaining fans and continuing to put on plenty of shows around the world. It saw the introduction of the new women's "Bantamweight" division and the rise of several female stars (including title holder Ronda Rousey, who is slated to star in a couple of upcoming sequels, The Expendables 3 and Fast & Furious 7), representing the most significant development outside of who won and who lost any number of high quality fights during the calendar year. Otherwise, it was business as usual for the fan-favorite rock-'em, sock-'em unscripted alternative to professional boxing and professional wrestling. UFC: Best of 2013 pushes the entire year's worth of highlights into one convenient package that clocks in at just under 85 minutes for the main feature but that does include nearly six hours worth of full-length fights which will likely be the main selling point for most UFC fans.

Battlefield: Octagon.

UFC: Best of 2013 takes audiences on a rapid-fire journey through the year that was, 2013, in the UFC. From a major fight between superstars Vitor Belfort and Michael Bisping on January 19 all the way to the second battle between Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva on December 28, the title quickly journeys through the highlight fights and developments, briefly setting the stage with interviews and additional background information and footage before jumping into the fight-in-question's climax. The program covers the UFC's domination on the Fox family of networks -- Fox, FX, and the newly minted Fox Sports 1 -- and highlights a few key developments and moments, including the introduction of the women's Bantamweight class and the UFC's "Fight for the Troops" event held in front of an audience comprised entirely of U.S. military service personnel at Kentucky's Fort Campbell.

One area where the UFC truly dominates many other sports is in its international flavor and appeal. The UFC enjoys a wide variety of fighting styles from a pool of international fighters hailing from all over the world, coming together to prove their worth, find success, and dominate one of the world's fastest-growing sports. While Major League Baseball has opened pipelines from South America and Asia and the NBA from Europe, for example, the UFC's ranks are filled with a truly diverse world population, and the UFC in turn is hosted in arenas around the globe, from Brazil to Japan, from Canada to Australia. That international appeal has only helped elevate its popularity over the years, and with some of the political pressure seemingly off the sport, it would appear that there's nowhere to go but up (or around, as in the world).

UFC: Best of 2013 does a fair job of capturing the international spirit and popularity the sport currently enjoys, yet it's a rather paint-by-numbers presentation that rushes through a deluge of popular fights, highlighting them but not truly exploring them. It's little more than an extended SportsCenter-style recap of the year that was as it maneuvers through the fights and the fighters that helped make the year a success. There's a good deal of energy and enthusiasm throughout, but it's not a starting point for newcomers. It's built primarily for sport veterans who simply want to remember all that happened and, more likely, enjoy the plethora of full-length fights included as bonuses across both Blu-ray discs.

UFC: Best of 2013 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

UFC: Best of 2013 arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080i, 1.78:1-framed transfer that looks good enough at-a-glance but that's severely flawed upon closer inspection. In a general sense, the image satisfies revealing good, basic high definition details and colors. Image clarity ranks rather highly, revealing fighter tattoos, advertising, seams on the Octagon mat, and other basic textures very well. The image is stable and well-defined even at some distance, showing the first few audience rows with good clarity of presentation. Likewise, colors are suitably robust, from multicolored trunks and advertisements to red blood splattered on the mat. Things fall apart elsewhere, however. The image suffers from frequent bouts of heavy noise and major blocking, both of which can easily destroy the picture at any given moment. Both are more readily noticeable in footage away from basic fights but are prone to appear at any time. It's a case of the decent mixed with the bad, resulting in an adequate but hardly commendable Blu-ray release.

UFC: Best of 2013 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

UFC: Best of 2013 limps onto Blu-ray with a paltry but generally serviceable Dolby Digital 2.0 lossy soundtrack. Never does the track find much success beyond its generally accurate conveyance of basic sound elements. It often comes across as shallow and unkempt, with light, mostly undefined crowd ambience. In-ring chatter lacks precision, and even ringside commentary often sounds lightly scratchy and occasionally muddled. Fighting sounds -- punches, kicks, grunts, falls to the mat -- likewise don't inspire. Compare to a typical WWE soundtrack that, even with its own lossy origins, finds much more in the way of dynamic presence and clarity, albeit in a 5.1 configuration rather than a 2.0 offering.

UFC: Best of 2013 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

UFC: Best of 2013 contains more than six hours worth of full-length bonus matches across both discs. Disc two is a dedicated bonus match disc.

Disc One (1080i, DD 2.0, 2:20:01 total runtime):

• Cub Swanson vs. Dustin Poirier
• Dennis Bermudez vs. Matt Grice
• Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche
• Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann
• Carlos Condit vs. Johny Hendricks
• Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano
• Nate Diaz vs. Josh Thomson
• Vitor Belfort vs. Luke Rockhold
• Minotauro Nogueira vs. Fabricio Werdum
• Frankie Edgar vs. Charles Oliveira

Disc Two (1080i, DD 2.0, 3:50:14 total runtime):

• Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman
• Alistair Overeem vs. Travis Browne
• Shogun Rua vs. Chael Sonnen
• Benson Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis
• Renan Barao vs. Eddie Wineland
• Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson
• Gilbert Melendez vs. Diego Sanchez
• Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos 3
• Vitor Belfort vs. Dan Henderson
• Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks
• Mark Hunt vs. Bigfoot Silva
• Urijah Faber vs. Michael McDonald
• Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez
• Josh Barnett vs. Travis Browne
• Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate

UFC: Best of 2013 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It wasn't really a banner year for the UFC, but it was a good year, and UFC: Best of 2013 has it all covered and recapped. Twelve months of knockouts, new stars, old favorites, and the introduction of an entire new gender of fighters comprise the bulk of the program, a fast-paced recap of highlights from some of the best battles of the year. It's standard stuff and more likely to sell based on the incredible array of bonus fights and less on the point-by-point recap of 2013. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of UFC: Best of 2013 features mediocre 1080i video and equally bland two-channel lossy sound. Nevertheless, fans will want to add this one to their collections.