Gods of War 2: Worlds Collide - DVD Review

Once again I’m going to dip into the pile of discs that Tom Tailford of A1 Productions sent to me, for my first slice of German MMA action, Gods of War 2: Worlds Collide, which was held at the Hall of Champions in Baumholder in March 2008.

The show began with quite a technical battle, as Anthony Durnell faced Sam Lambica. After a brief feeling out period Durnell took complete control with a take down. There was a bit of work from the guard before Durnell stood up, grabbed Lambica’s leg and applied the ankle lock. Lambica quickly tapped, giving Durnell an impressive submission win.

Then it was on to Zdenda Hrach against James Mann in the first blink and you’ll miss it affair of the evening. Hrach came forward early with some blows, but Mann countered quickly with a take down. However, this left Mann vulnerable to Hrach’s guillotine choke, and although he fought it at first it wasn’t long before he tapped, giving Hrach the second submission win of the show.

Up next were Aaron Reed and Jonathan Harcourt. This was another explosive fight with some fast opening exchanges, and Reed quickly taking the fight to the ground. From there we had some sporadic moments of ground and pound until Reed went up a gear and the referee stopped the fight, giving Reed the TKO win, so after two impressive submissions we had an impressive TKO.

The explosive action continued with Jesse Anderson against Micah Herbert. After a quick exchange at the start Anderson scored with a big take down, delivering several hard elbows before Herbert managed to escape. But a wild attack proved to be Herbert’s undoing as Anderson took his back and synched in a rear naked choke for the submission win. Anderson looked tremendous in this one.

Gauthier Engala against Angelo Zambakikas followed, a somewhat controversial blink and you’ll miss it affair. After Engala gook advantage of Angelo’s wild blows, he took him down and soon got the mount. A torrent of blows followed, and with Angelo failing to respond the referee stopped the fight after just forty five seconds. Angelo wasn’t too happy though, and I could see his point, because even though he wasn’t attacking he was defending himself. Still, it was good stuff from Engala though.

The only fight to get past the first round was next, with Ibrahim Moginot taking on Jirka Kalas. Round one featured some good ground work from Moginot, who looked like he could get the submission any moment. But as the fight entered the second round Kalas began to look visibly tired, and after a couple of stand ups Moginot changed his tactics and began to hack away at Kalas’ legs. It proved to be one kick too many as the referee stepped in and called time. Good work from Moginot here, although I’m not too sure what to make of Kalas’ contribution.

Dennis Stutzinger and Fred Tusil were up next. This was a wild one, as both men began to swing for the trees at the beginning, before it settled down into a more sedate, technical battle, with Stutzinger unleashing a left/right combination that sent Tusil down, giving him the KO win. A mixed bag this one, and I was glad it settled down a little towards the end.

Cedric Jouvet was up next, against Jordan Flick in a rather quick encounter. Flick tried to pull guard early on, but Jouvet quickly took his back, and when he couldn’t get the rear naked choke he wanted he went for the ground and pound, and soon got the deserved TKO win.

A real blink and you’ll miss it affair was up next, with Michal Slambor facing Damian Gilbert. After Gilbert quickly pulled guard, Slambor took the mount and went to work with the ground and pound. It lasted a matter of seconds as the referee quickly stopped the fight with just eighteen seconds on the clock. It left me scratching my head a little, especially as the somewhat knowledgeable crowd voiced their disappointment.

The fight numbers reached double figures as Oli Ulave took on Romain Schact. Ulave got the quick take down, and after some good work on the ground took Schact’s back as he tried to escape. Ulave then sank the hooks in and applied a rear naked choke. Schact tried to fight it, but it was only a matter of time before he tapped out. I really enjoyed Ulave’s performance here. Good stuff.

We then moved on to Kim Andre Sundsby against Jiri Demetrov. There was some good technical ground work at the start of this one, but after Sundsby reversed the positions Demetrov went for an arm bar. Sundsby countered with a stomp to the head which knocked Demetrov out cold. Although this was a good battle I’m not sure what to make of Sundsby’s winning move.

The penultimate bout saw Jason Gunlock face Pao Zoro. This was a mixture of wild brawling and sound ground work as both men flailed away at the beginning, before Zoro got the take down, with Gunlock reversing and locking up Zoro’s left arm while trying to apply a submission to his right. When this didn’t work some good old fashioned ground and pound got the job done for Gunlock in another mixed bag of a fight.

The final fight of the show saw Bogdan Cristea against Daniel Thomas. Out of the thirteen fights here I enjoyed this one the most. There was some nice back and forth action, both on the ground and in the stand up, before a big left from Cristea sent Thomas crashing, with the referee stopping the fight when Cristea went for the ground and pound.

In conclusion - while there were a couple of down points with regards to performances and questionable decisions, Gods of War 2 was a very enjoyable show. I was very grateful that there wasn’t any of the wild hit-and-miss kind of brawling that seemed prevalent in other A1 DVD releases. Production wise it was okay, although I was very surprised to see a cameraman actually in the cage during the fights. The poor fellow went on the back foot a few times when the action got a little too close for comfort!

There was one thing that annoyed me though - the lack of on-screen captions as the fighters entered the cage. This made things a little confusing at times, and it also meant that you didn’t really find out who was who until the result was announced.

But apart from that I would definitely recommend this release.

For information on how to obtain a copy of Gods of War 2: Worlds Collide, contact Tom Tailford via www.fight-factory.co.uk.