Couture Stoppage? No big deal
Published by Charles Jay on November 18th, 2008 in Operation Cleanup

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Commentary on MMA history….as it’s happening

COUTURE STOPPAGE? NO BIG DEAL

“When I see stuff like that, it looks like nothing more than a tough man contest. There’s no way it’s safer than boxing.”

That was Todd duBoef, the president of Top Rank, the Bob Arum-owned boxing promotional company that is headquartered not far from the UFC offices in Las Vegas.

It has been suggested that perhaps referee Mario Yamasaki may have let the fight go too long as Couture’s head was being pounded with Lesnar was on top of him in the second round.

Well, I have watched the Couture-Lesnar fight over and over again, and I don’t understand what the controversy is all about.

First of all, there is a difference between this kind of situation and one in boxing, where a fighter is being hit repeatedly with blows to the head that go largely unanswered. When a boxer is being nailed, you will see him (or her, I guess) staggered, with legs buckling, if that fighter is even upright. In other words, there are signs of being hurt that may not be present in MMA.

Furthermore, if an MMA fighter is on the deck, and taking punishment, it could just be that he is being patient and waiting for an opening to reverse that situation with any of a few things, which might include a wrestling move, or an attempt at a submission hold. This sport takes the saying “protect yourself at all times” to a whole new level. Here, it’s “protect yourself at all times, and in all places.”

Couture was indeed desirous of landing that kind of maneuver, and certainly realizes that things were not handled improperly. He told the Los Angeles Times, “I’ve seen worse things. In my first fight with Pedro Rizzo, I hit him for over a minute, pretty solid, I punched myself out when I realized the ref wasn’t going to stop it. The ref [John McCarthy] was right, Rizzo won the next round.”

And Keith Kizer of the Nevada Athletic Commission, while defending his official, made the point that the MMA fighter, while having his opponent on the ground, does not generally throw punches with the same kind of leverage that a boxer might. Remember that a lot of the power generated by a boxer comes by way of the legs, and that element is missing when you are doing the ground and pound. In fact, they are essentially arm punches, which is something a boxer would actually be criticized for, since they don’t carry nearly as much power as might seem the case on the surface.

And while we acknowledge that Couture is 45 years old and might seem particularly vulnerable to taking so much unabated punishment, he unquestionably deserved some benefit of the doubt here, for at least a couple of reasons. One is that as the veteran fighter, one might anticipate that he could be capable of turning things around with a veteran move. To deprive him of that would have been to cheat both competitor and fan.

Also, we have seen where Lesnar had a veteran (Frank Mir) in an apparently vulnerable position, yet Mir was able to turn the tables on him and gain a submission, by striking at Lesnar’s own weaknesses when and where he least expected it. So you can jump to a conclusion too quickly.

Another reason – and one that may seem trite to you but it very, very true – is that while we understand that safety for fighters is a genuine concern, this is a sport for rugged individualists, who know the risks and are willing to play by those rules.

As Mr. duBoef should realize, those are the same “rules” boxing plays by too.