16 Man Elimination MMA

Zerodog

Last night was weigh ins at a bar in downtown SLC. Tonight is the tournament. This thing should be interesting. One 5min round, winner moves onto next bracket. Should be fast paced action and very cool. 16 guys with 1 winner. All fighters are 155-160lbs.

Some shots from weigh-ins that also happened to involve a bikini contest.....
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#4 Here are the a few fighters. The setup for the chicks was my original setup for the fighters. Combined with 2 chicks in the background. That whole idea went down the tubes in the cluster F that ensued. Ended up doing a fake weigh in, with jeans and all. They set up some shop lights to get video. Had to be flexible and make it work for me too.


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#7 Here is one more chick for you! Flash for the background overheating at this point.

Molotov Everything

I'm looking forward to seeing the fight photos, I'm watching the ultimate fighter finale right now and I'm in a total MMA mood. I recently moved and haven't put up a punching bag here yet so I'll settle for watching other people punch each other.

Zerodog

Finally had time to post these!

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#6 In the end, the guys have a lot of respect for each other. Pink haired guy (Steve Sharp) ruled this night. It was one of those rare athletic performances where you see someone do everything perfect. He destroyed 4 guys in under 8 min total. Busted ribs, dislocated shoulder, broken noses. Knockouts and submissions all around. It was amazing.


#7 Some more girls for good measure......

Sorin

I love that the guy with pink hair and a bay's handprint on his side is the winner. Hard to believe that #5 in the first set and the 2 winners are all under 160 lbs.

So, which lens were you using for the fight shots?

Zerodog

Yeah it is hard to believe how much weigh some guys cut. The pink haired dude weighed in at 156. He doesn't really cut much to get there as you can tell looking at him. But the big guy? He is huge. Way taller than me and totally huge. I bet he easily would walk around at 185 or more. But he does it and gets down to 155. His next fight should be an interesting one. He is going up against one of the best 155lb guys in the state in August.

I shot all of these with the 70-200 2.8 VRII. I think I am digging that lens. It is way harder through the cage too. But when everything lines up right, it is a really good perspective. This fence was white. So it sort of lowers the contrast. But on the flipside it also reflects light nicely. It doesn't have teh light fall off of a black fence. They seem to suck the light right out of the areas near them. Settings were 1/1000, f3.2, ISO 10,000

GadgetRick

Nice work.

I noticed the white cage. That's a PITA. I much prefer the black cage as it isolates the fighters nicely.

I recently moved to FL from NJ and trying to get involved in the MMA scene down here. It's been a while since I shot a fight. I miss it!!!!

Zerodog

Thanks Rick. Yeah the white cage is a blessing and a curse. Great light, weird contrast and halos.

GadgetRick

Zerodog wrote: »

Thanks Rick. Yeah the white cage is a blessing and a curse. Great light, weird contrast and halos.

I can only imagine. Just missing shooting MMA right now. Gotta make some time to get into some shows locally.

Should be shooting a show up in NJ the end of July. We're heading up to visit friends/family and a good friend of mine is fighting in a show. At least I'll get some shooting in...