UFC 61 thoughts...

Cant tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but "wtf" is loser speak for "what the fornication" (to put it politely).

I agree with someone of your points, gilli, and not with others. I'm personally fine with the blood (although to be fair, I didn't see this actual match), as long as the cut itself isnt too severe and doesnt put the fighter in any danger. Some guys are just natural bleeders, while others not so much. I personally dont get cut easily at all, but once I do get cut, I bleed forever. I'd hate to lose a fight just because I got a small cut somewhere that bled worse than it actually was. Obviously, if the guy looks like he's losing a bit too much blood (getting feint, etc.), the blood is obscuring his vision or otherwise affecting his ability to fight, or if the cut is in danger of causing serious problems for the fighter, then call it. Otherwise, its just blood....man up. I do agree that they really ought to mop that stuff up or something after the fight. It will help the image if they make it look like they care that there's blood everywhere, even if they dont stop the fight for it.

As far as Sylvia goes...I love the man, for exactly the reasons you hate him. The guy isnt very good at anything, and he's not skilled at all. But for some reason, he gets the job done. He's beaten AA twice now, with his loss looking like much more of a fluke than his first win over AA. He reportedly is pretty skilled on the ground, but hasnt really done anything to show it. His boxing is terrible, but its MUCH better than 90% of the other fighters out there. His victory of that BJJ Silva guy on UFC2 or 3 proved it. Everytime he takes his time, and uses his ungodly reach advantage, he wins. He just peppers the guy with what looks like awkwardly effective jabs and 1-2 combos, and throws in a kick here or there. I guess he kind of reminds me of that wicked awkward dork in grade school who used to get beat up all the time, then he hit puberty, took a TKD class or something once or twice, then uses it against the school bullies somehow.

And lastly: Arlovski. I despise that man. I've felt for a while he was the most overrated UFC fighter in a long long time. I've felt for a while that hes the champion not because he's so good, but because everyone else sucked. Sylvia won the title after dismantling the current champ, then lost it because he was on the juice (supposedly to get rid of the flab on his gut, which I actually believe). A couple of stupid losses to easily avoidable submissions later, he got his shit together, and won the title back. AA won the title because Sylvia was stupid. He then won his next couple matches because Eilers and Buentello tried to just bang with him, which is stupid, because the one thing he does have are some very heavy hands. He's got a glass jaw, however, and any half blind, mentally incapacitated counter puncher should be able to expose that so easily, its not even funny. Look at Sylvia v Arlovski II. Sylvia pegged him with some sort of awkward hook or something while Arlovski was throwing yet another bomb face first, and he dropped to the mat like your sister on prom night.

Wow...huge post there, eh? I'm at work and I'm wicked bored....forgive me :P

Hey, interesting stuff Heavy D. I understand not wanting to lose because of being cut and not being able to stop it. In HS/collegiate style wrestling, they have blood rules to deal with this. Obviously, the rules are applied quite rigorously in HS and even if a drop of blood appears, things are halted immediately to deal with it -- a bit hysterical of course. College isn't so anal about it, but still has rules that deal with it. If bleeding can't be controlled, the match eventually ends as blood time runs out. Its a reasonable method for dealing with it. But this still isn't all out combat, naturally. So I wouldn't expect the same rules to apply in martial arts contests. What I really detest, and others, who like watching, but not participating in, MMA, is the obvious presence of blood and the lack of any effort to clean it up -- or to really have any method for halting blood flow. At some point, if fighters are on the ground and all of the action is taking place in very close proximity to the cut, and that same action is taking place in the blood pool, it is just ugly -- the sort of thing that turns off people who pay, but not to watch blood fountains and consequent pools and participants swimming around in it. Less tolerant payees don't understand this, and I'm not sure they should -- as I really don't either, and I have been involved in wrestling for about 40 years now. You mix this up with the seemingly planned boredom of UFC 61, and lots of folks will find other ways to spend $40.

Yeah, I can definately understand that. Like I said, I didnt see the Yves fight, but generally, once someone starts bleeding that bad, they stop the action first chance they get to try and stop the blood if its that bad (which usually just consists of slapping some vaseline and a huge cotton swab on there, but hey).

My biggest problem is that they usually dont do much to clean up the blood after the fight. Theres no real reason they cant take an extra 10 minutes between fights to properly mop that stuff up. It starts looking like a blood soaked gladiatorial coliseum by the time they get to the main event, which to me is an even worse image than the actual fighter continuing to fight with a bad cut.

"a blood soaked gladiatorial coliseum " --- that's it! And they absolutely should do something about that! What's the point of leaving blood around for 3 hours of fighting? How much effort and time would it take to clean it up? The blood spill scenario seems almost purposeful, to enhance the 'gladiator' image! - when the lions used to gore their victims! Wow!

I actually have an answer for this....

In open wheel racing, F1, IRL, Champ Car, the drivers have what are called taer-off or tear-away strips. When their visor gets dirty, they just peel away a layer of thin plastic. So why can't the UFC and Pride have canvas systems that are held to the mat by heavy velcro? After each fight, just tear it off and velcro a new one down. Then they could clean them for the next event. Enough velcro under there and they won't move a bit. Hell, they could even buckly them down if you don't like velcro.

Thoughts?

I don't know what material the ufc floor is made of, but it seems to absorb the blood. On a non-porous surface, blood could easily be wiped away, as it is with wrestling mats. The blood on the ufc surface seems to soak in. I guess if I were a fighter coming into the ring after a severe bloodletting fest, I might be conscious of not wanting to be on my back in the blood; perhaps in the heat of the battle, such hesitations dissipate. But just how hard is it to get a bucket of hot water and bleach and wipe it up? There is surely more than enuf time between bouts!! It is left there on purpose, which shows the ufc folks think its part of the ambiance! I watched ufc 61 and was very turned off by this; I guess had at least one fight been worth it, my revulsion would have been mitigated. But the blood seems to be the most noteworthy aspect of this particular ufc -- which is why a week and a half later it is still such a huge subject! Congrats to the ufc folks on making the blood such a significant factor in an otherwise boring as hell evening. (yes, the 40 seconds of Tito's fight was enervating, but overall that fight was obviously very anticlimactic...

Actually, thats not a terrible idea with the tear away mats. In wouldnt do velcro, because it COULD shift a bit too much during the actual fight, which is why I assume they dont use them. There'd also be the issue of having to apply the promoters ads to each and every layer of mat, which means more money (which is what it all boils down to for the UFC). The biggest draw back from a fighters stand point would have to be the concern that the mats might shift, because, as seen in Couture vs Lidell III, even the slightest loss of footing can be disasterous to a fighter. If you could really manage to make those things secure, though, it would be worth pitching to an MMA organization.

As far as the mats soaking up blood, thats for a good reason. If the mats don't soak up the blood, it stays there in a pool. And where there's a pool of blood, there's a pretty severe slipping hazard. And like a stated above, even the slightest loss of footing can be disasterous to a fighter's chances, and a major loss of footing can prove extremely dangerous to the fighters health. So I have no problem with the mats soaking the blood up, because its a lot safer for fighters that way. I just wish there was a way they could clean it up somehow. Hell...they have a couple minutes between each round....it doesnt take THAT long to at least get SOME of it up.

EDIT: To the best of my knowledge, the mats are made of a foam-plastic of sorts.....similar to your typical wrestling mat