SATURDAY FIGHTS: MMA BLOOD STAINS THE OCTAGON

Saturday fights on ESPN lined up match after match, finishing with title fights.

Not boxing, not wrestling, but Mixed Martial Arts.

If that’s not the Big Time for UFC, Ultimate Fighting Championship, what is?

Match after match pitted one fierce battler against another with chunky looking ears and dead eyes until one was left standing.

Everyone of them know the rules: There will be blood.

Boxing stops matches if there’s too much blood. Look at old fight scenes and see how many ringside spectators have newspapers. The paper is the fight umbrella when the snot and spit and blood gets punched out of the right.

Saturday Fights With Flow

Instead of stopping one fight after a guy took an elbow to the head that opened a wound, the fighter used the blood that drained onto his opponent as a weapon.

It wasn’t head butting, which is illegal, but face grinding. Which one would you identify with, the bleeder on top, or the opponent on the bottom getting blood not his own ground into his eyes.

My pick was neither, which is my usual pick in the cage.

MMA is a blood sport, but so much blood can’t be good for the industry. And what about cleaning up in between fights?

The cage looked like an operating room.

Worse Than Saturday Fights Blood

Another fight included a rules infraction. A fighter cannot knee an opponent in the head while they are on the ground.

During a match that showed one guy slipping and sliding on a slick floor, he put his opponent down, then kneed him in the head before he stood up.

They can apply a knee to the head standing, but not on the ground. If you pull someone’s head down at the same time you raise knee, and both meet with impact, good job.

It was a title match when the champ kneed his opponent on the ground. If the results were an act, give the guy his Oscar now.

Instead, the cameras rolled on a man in distress left on the mat. He couldn’t stand, had a hard time staying up when he did stand, then went back down all while the match was decided.

The champ lost his title on a bad mistake; the new champ looked like he didn’t know where he was. As much as the crew tried to make it look normal, I kept thinking of Boom Boom Mancini and Duk Koo Kim.

Why Watch Saturday Night Fights

Mixed Martial Arts combines upright fighting and ground fighting. Former wrestlers watching the matches see the same distressing things.

Most of the fighters don’t know how to wrestle based on visual evidence.

Those who know how to wrestle do wrestling stuff. They tie up, they underhook, they sweep feet, they lift and throw.

Instead of dancing and jabbing and acting like boxers, wrestlers stalk, move sideways, strike, and shoot double leg takedowns.

It’s incredibly athletic to see large men gather and launch low to the ground and rise up with their opponents. Even more when combined with uppercuts and hammer blows.

As impressive as some fighters were, Saturday fights last night showcased an all-time great in the MMA world:

With the victory, Nunes defended her 145-pound title for the second time. She is also still in control of the 135-pound bantamweight title. She is one of only three champions in UFC history to defend titles in multiple weight classes, and she holds UFC records for the women’s divisions in wins (14), finishes (10) and wins in title fights (9).

Amanda Nunes kicked ass, showed mercy at the right time, then introduced her baby in the octagon. After that she took a shoulder ride around the venue on a giant man.

When well matched men fight, they both end up looking beat to hell. Not Amanda Nunes. Why? She beat everyone in one weight class, then moved up to win more. She’s been the victor over the best, over those who’ve also beat the best, to be the best of the best.

There’s something about seeing greatness in action. As great as she is in the cage, bringing her baby in was a good sign for the future. Will they have health awareness out of the octagon?

Do they have mask safety against the corona virus? This is one fan who hopes so.