Shameless self-promotion: ESPN UFC 85 Gallery
Okay, so it's a bit of shameless self-promotion, but you can now view sixteen of my UFC 85 fight night photos over on ESPN.com - you'll see
- A hungry Eddie Sanchez eating the glove of Antoni Hardonk
- Paul Taylor testing Jess Liaudin's hearing... with his foot
- Jason Lambert admiring the canvas with the help of Luis Cane
- Matt Wiman being tied up in knots by Thiago Tavares
- Thales Leites helping Nate Marquardt audition for the next Superman film
- Mike Swick defusing an Irish Hand Grenade... airborne style
- A Count who can turn Day into night in just over a minute
- A nasty Pit Bull attack on an Illinois "farmboy"
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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Picture 5
The text for the picture is incorrect.
“Wiman, bottom, locks onto Thiago Alves’...”
Thiago Tavares rather than Alves, and Tavares, not Wiman, is the bottom man.
They mistake Wiman for Tavares in picture 6 as well.
And the caption for 7 is just totally wrong, unfortunately. It shows a great moment of emotion and jubilation for Matt Wiman, while the caption explains that it is a shot of Tavares protesting the decision to stop the fight.
That seems to be it. It’s funny, picture 15 has a caption mentioning that it is never a good idea to be on the ground with Alves, yet all of us felt going in that would be Hughes’ key to success.
by Brett Jones on Jun 10, 2008 12:31 PM EDT up reply actions
well spotted
I’ll email them now and get the corrections in the pipe; to be honest, I didn’t really ready the captions myself ;)
by VikingPhotography on Jun 10, 2008 12:34 PM EDT reply actions
I didn’t notice at first either. I did a double take when it said Wiman was on bottom and that Alves, not Tavares, was on top.
Ignoring the wacky captions, those are fine shots! Are you based in the UK? Do you typically cover UFC events? I’m sure we’d all love to see more of your work.
by Brett Jones on Jun 10, 2008 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Have cameras, will travel
I live just south of Glasgow and #85 was my sixth time shooting a UFC event; I’ve shot 70, 72, 75, 80, 84 and now this one. My next one will be 86, and I’ve asked about shooting 88 and 89. Award-winning boxing photographer Ed Mulholland is already in the slot for shooting 87.
84 at the MGM Grand was my first time shooting stateside; for some odd reason, the ESPN gallery never got finalised on that one… guess they had some issues with putting it up on time. The gallery is on the web but the shots aren’t captioned, but you can still view 20 of my images at this link
by VikingPhotography on Jun 10, 2008 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Thank You!
Another great batch of shots, Martin!
Interesting to see Donald Trump (picture 11) in attendance at UFC 84. And so close to one Jenna Jameson…
Trump, Jenna & Tito
Jenna was there almost from the start and Trump & Co. turned up just after the main card started – they talked to each other so they’d obviously met before. Tito joined them not long after his fight and Trump stayed right through to the end of Penn v. Sherk. He looked like he was really getting into it.
The shot referenced above was taken whilst they were waiting on the judge’s decision for Tito’s fight. Jenna is actually looking at Herb Dean collecting a scorecard from one of the cageside judges.
by VikingPhotography on Jun 10, 2008 5:20 PM EDT up reply actions
These are really, really, really good. I wish half of the pictures they put up on the official site are this good.
I'm not after Josh's job!
Josh Hedges, the official photographer for UFC and WEC events, is a really nice guy and works his ass off at each event and even moreso in between shows. He does a lot of the print graphics for the UFC and WEC alongside photography and puts in a lot of miles with travelling all over.
The funny thing is that, when I see Josh’s work on his laptop between rounds, it’s a lot crisper and clearer than it ends up looking when posted up on UFC.com. I don’t know how they end up looking ‘mushier’ online, but his fresh-out-of-camera shots are AAA+
by VikingPhotography on Jun 11, 2008 9:21 AM EDT up reply actions
Really?
That’s a damn shame, then! I can imagine he also doesn’t choose which shots make it on the site? Sorry for implying anything bad, but I suppose it’s really not the photographer’s fault how the shots end up in this case.
Wiman photos removed?
Is it just me, or are the Matt Wiman photos that apparently had incorrect captions no longer even on there? I only get 13 photos, and none of them are of the Wiman/Tavares fight.
Great photos though. And awesome that the photographer is both very humble and also very complimentary to other photogs. Excellent work.
Captions
I guess the Wiman/Tavares images got yanked on account of the captioning issues – the remaining 13 shots are still solid, so I’m not annoyed that they removed them.
Bear in mind that the ESPN photo people work on tons of images every day from football, baseball, hockey etc – when you’re dealing with thousands of images, it’s almost inevitable that an error will creep in with the captions at some point.
by VikingPhotography on Jun 11, 2008 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions
JPG files, compression etc.
The only thing that I can think of is that the JPG files used on the UFC.com website are heavily “compressed” i.e. saved at a low quality level.
It’s a common tactic used by photographers and image agencies who want to balance the need for folk to see their work vs. making sure they don’t get ripped off – the UFC quite rightly protects the “who” and “how” re. using fight shots and distributes them freely to reputable outlets.
by VikingPhotography on Jun 11, 2008 2:50 PM EDT reply actions
One last plug
A big “thank you” to all who commented on my work; it’s good to know that the MMA community at large think that I’m doing something right ;)
If you want to view more of the same, you can hit up my Flickr.com photostream at McNeil Commercial Photography – I shoot more than just UFC events so you’ll see a ton of interesting stuff there.
Oh, and if anyone is heading to UFC 86, drop me a line via my Flickr page… it’d be nice to meet up with the fans between work time!
by VikingPhotography on Jun 11, 2008 2:59 PM EDT reply actions

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