Pack War: 2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Hands On

Monday, June 6, 2011

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot Hands On

I received my box of UFC Title Shot on May 16 and besides being shorted 2 hits I am very happy with the product. I have actually opened up a hobby box, blaster box and a number of packs/rack packs. After sending in all the required items for my replacement hits (UPC, packs, and receipt) I waited for a response from Topps, which gave a 2-3 week period for the replacement cards. It took just about 2 weeks for the cards to come in and I could not be happier now. I know people rip Topps for their QC issues but at least they do have a decent turnaround time for fixing the problems.

The base set is beautiful, most of the cards show up close action shots and put you right in to the action. Collation was perfect, I pulled 127/150 cards (85% completion) plus no doubles. I pulled an additional 24 parallels (22 Gold and 2 Onyx). My favorite base card is the Cain Velasquez; you may recognize the man face down on the receiving end of Velasquez’s blows as former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. This photo is from UFC 121 seconds before referee Herb Dean stepped in to end the fight and hand the Heavyweight belt to Velasquez.

In the box I pulled the Forrest Griffin UFC 106 relic card. This fight was a split decision win over Tito Ortiz. Griffin is an old school fighter who has been around MMA for 10 years now with an 18-6 record, he has slowed down significantly in recent years only fighting once since this UFC 106 match in November 2009. I think his 5-4 record from 2006-2009 might be a sign that it is time to retire from MMA but this past February he did beat Rich Franklin at UFC 126 so he may still have a bit left in the tank.

Nate Marquardt is another old school fighter, he has been fighting MMA since 1999 and is 31-10-2 and at 32 years old he still has a few years left of fighting ahead of him. He is currently ranked in the Top 12 Middleweights and is scheduled to fight a serious up and coming contender in Rick Story on June 26^th. I did not realize until tonight that I pulled the Diamond 1/1 version, talk about a pleasant surprise. This is actually my first real 1/1 card.

I did not realize that the replacement cards were going to be sent in a 5x7 envelope marked only with an address. There was very little packaging around the cards only a couple of blank Masterpiece canvas cards around the smaller envelopes inside that contained the replacement cards. I actually thought that this was some cards I had bought on eBay not the replacement cards from Topps. I let my son open the thicker envelope while I opened the thinner envelope.

My replacement autograph card was a Jared Hamman 1^st Autograph card. Hamman is a little known fighter who just got some recent time in UFC going 1-2. He is better known for his time in EliteXC, IFC and Strike Force where he is a significantly better 11-1 in 2 years.

Meanwhile my son opens the relic replacement envelope and pulls out “Some guy with a weird name I can’t pronounce” (His words not mine) and proceeds to hand me this cool Georges St-Pierre UFC 100 relic card. Georges St-Pierre is by far the best fighter in the UFC right now (Maybe all-time) and easily the best fighter pound for pound in all MMA. He has it all; intelligence, control, speed, stamina, coordination and strength and according to a friend of mine “He is sooooo cute” (Her words not mine). I am a bit surprised that Topps chose this image to use on the card where Thiago Alves has GSP in a guillotine choke hold. GSP went on to win the title defense by unanimous decision.