UFC 2010 UNDISPUTED PREVIEW EVENT (PG. 1/2)
By Paul Stuart

Hot of the heels of last year’s impressive 2009 unwrapping (link), THQ and its coveted Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) license takes another dramatic step into the pixilated Octagon. Updated fighters, added fighting styles, and an online-based camp dynamic combine for a trio of notable additions to the sophomore year offering of the highly ranked title.

For a sport and license of truly epic proportions, only a preview event of similar ilk would be appropriate. Just when we at Extreme Gamer thought THQ couldn’t top last year’s festivities in Montreal, Forrest Griffin and several of his closest, deadliest friends brought it Vegas-style for 2010.

Before this feature is excused of braggadocio disguised as a video game glimpse, please allow me several caveats.

First, the day’s events – including their oddest details – brought a great deal of perspective into the eventual hours of gameplay testing that capped off the experience.

Second and importantly, I confess to being only a casual Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) enthusiast, with the Preview Event a golden opportunity to approach the sport and upcoming title from a truly objective perspective. This ‘casual’ status includes limited exposure to the initial 2009 console offering, likewise nary a PPV expenditure on my behalf to partake in the UFC viewership experience.

Take a deep breath and cast those stereotypes aside, UFC fans. I left Las Vegas with both a respect for the sport and its athletes, and – most importantly for your benefit – convinced that UFC 2010 Undisputed will be an exceptional title.

Counter to last year’s event featuring viewership of a live UFC event, THQ (2010’s publisher) thought it useful to embed game journalists in an actual UFC regiment to appreciate the game’s nuances. This included a ‘power breakfast’ complete with oodles of protein, accompanied by signing an accident and/or death waiver stemming from training outcomes. When THQ reps strongly endorsed the optional power breakfast as a pre-requisite to avoiding undesirable training injury, I knew this wasn’t intended as a casual jaunt around the ring.

Following the breakfast, about three dozen future victims and I arrived via party bus (Lady GaGa @ 8am is a bit much) at the Official UFC Training Facility that – from a training perspective – was pretty much as expected. Weights, practice rings, attack dummies, floor practice space…check. While a fair amount of UFC memorabilia endorsed the walls, it was clear – with several fighters verifying this while going through their routines – this was a functional gym through and through.

We were appropriately required to remove our shoes, don a pair of UFC fighting gloves, and separated into training groups led by actual UFC trainers and fighters. My group began with intense ring circle movements, boxing combination training. It quickly became evident - while UFC talent obviously went easier on us than actual fighters - this was no photo-op slouch of a session. I consider myself in fairly good shape (workout 4-5x a week), ditto some in my group who had strong anaerobic tendencies. We all struggled through this – and the remaining three sessions – covered in sweat and getting a damn good workout in the process. UFC star Todd Duffee is a ridiculously patient man.

First session transitioned to heavy bag plus knee strike exercises, arguably the most grueling of the regiment due to the amount of energy exhausted through this timed routine. Fighter Carlos Condit seemed surprisingly interested in perfecting our form.

The third – and my favorite – session was octagon-based Muay Thai – a routine I am proud to state I was surprisingly adept at. Trainer Shawn Tompkins and fighter Sam Stout did an admirable job of teaching a group of schlubs like us 5-step combo attacks.

Finally, floor submission exercises were led by the skilled duo of trainer Marc Laimon and undefeated fighter Johnny Hendricks. Both walked us through how to execute a kimora, also – and thankfully – when to tapout of one before it ended up with a broken arm from which its namesake was generated. Needless to say, showing the video of its origins pre-practice was quite the eye-opener plus incentive to be careful on the mat. My partner from 'GameTrailers' thankfully heeded this lesson well.

More than two hours in, covered in sweat, and sufficiently cooled down, a Q&A session sporting the aforementioned fighters – plus Forrest Griffin, Frank Mir and Antonio Nogueira – was upon us. I learned two key things in this session:

First, this collection of UFC fighters was surprisingly socially skilled, and – based on my personal conversations with them, training interactions – kind folks. Mir, in particular, was an extraordinarily articulate, bright man who would seem at home teaching physics as kicking people upside the head. I confess to being shocked at how well Mir handled my query on content/purchase restrictions on their sport/videogames keeping younger fans away.

Second, while most of these fighters played the 2009 version, none – other than Hendricks, a self-proclaimed Call of Duty fanatic – admitted to being avid gamers. This honesty, at a videogame-sponsored event, was refreshing. Related, there was something ridiculously funny about watching Duffee get clobbered in the UFC 2010 Undisputed demo – as himself – over and over again.