Done. The changing, not the reporting. I didn’t have to report nuttin’.
Just read a translation of an interview he gave when he returned to Zagreb last night, they noted that he was walking but with a limp. No excuses, just “the fight went the way I fought it, I deserved what happened, I’ve lost before and I’ll come back from this one too”.
That was something I definitely appreciated last night was the general tone of the crowd and the fighters, especially the British fighters.
Yeah, it looked like it started out with a deceptive, low arc. I think Cro Cop was convinced it was going to come in lower, and dropped his arm. Bad move. Really bad. Man, that kick switched him off like a light.
Thanks!
Why didn’t you people tell me this was going on? I found out about 15 hours late. Any replays? 70.UFC.com doesn’t list any other times.
Please, please tell me the reason for the pat down before the fighters enter the ring.
It’s done as if a cop were frisking a suspect, from the head, down both arms, down both legs.
I’m thinking…probably incorrect…that some one was caught with ??? under their skin?
Old tradition. Back in bare-knucks days, lots of fighters liked to fight dirty, by concealing razor blades, etc. in various places on their person. There are also some Eastern bloodsports where such behavior is, if not expected, at least not unusual. You’ll see it during boxing matches as well. It’s a QA thing.
Check YouTube. I doubt that the whole thing is up (although it was only 4:15 long,) but I’ve already seen recaps.
They check for too much vaseline, I’m told. They put some on, especially on ears and eyebrows, but they’re apparently not allowed too much, because sometimes the ref makes them remove some (hence the towel that gets called for sometimes.)
Huh. Didn’t know that.
That’s part of it - given the role that grappling plays in MMA you need to make sure that nobody is making themselves slippery (there was a small scandal over in Japan just recently, might have been in Pride, where one fighter was found to have done this). They also check for a mouthpiece, cup (fighter often taps themself in the groin to show the ref it’s in place) and look at the gloves (an official watches the hands getting taped and the gloves are then taped in place and signed by that official, all backstage - you can see initials on the tape at the wrists) and fingers (to make sure that nails are trimmed down properly).
I noticed that most of the fighters last night had vaseline applied around their eyes after the ref had checked them (so he could watch it being done, I guess).
Well, the ankle was facing the wrong way. Something could have happened to it, but it could have been the knee that twisted around. A dislocated knee (not just a dislocated kneecap) is very serious and can even lead to amputation sometimes.
A tremendous KO. Looking at the clip again, it looks like Crocop was caught completely off-guard and flinched rather than protect his head. Probably didn’t anticipate that kind of kick from Gonzaga.
I think maybe Crocop was a little out of it by the time of the kick and therefore reacted poorly to it. He had eaten lots of big elbows on the ground, which is not suprising since they didn’t allow those in PRIDE he may not have known how to defend from them effectively. In fact, I think the fight would have been stopped shortly if they had not been stood up.
Wow. It’s just amazing what the UFC has done for the noble and ancient art of fighting. That kick was a thing of beauty.
I’ve been meaning to ask, why do they put Vaseline on in the first place?
I would have figured it was to prevent their faces from getting cut too quickly. I imagine raking leather gloves across dry or slightly sweaty skin messes it up pretty fast. It looks like they especially concentrate on putting it around the eyebrows. A bad cut there will cause bleeding into the eyes and will result in a quick ref stoppage.
I remember hearing about a controversy where one fighter had snuck some vaseline behind his knees so that his opponent couldn’t grab his legs very easily.
I’m not going to watch the KO again to check, made me cringe every time they replayed it on Saturday night - shades of Joe Theisman…
That said, the last time I saw a foot turned 180 degrees the wrong way it was a dislocated ankle. Cropcop was also up and walking around the next day, albeit with a limp. Hopefully not a mangled knee!
Exactly what came to my mind! 
If you’re flexible enough you can land in that position without much damage. Yesterday in karate some dude did just that (on his own) - landed on his back with his ankles around his butt. I think if you’re loose, it’s not as bad as it looks.
Amazing happenstance for Gonzaga that Cro Cop moved his hands down when he did. I bet you he looks at the tape and thinks “holy shit, why did I do that?!”
I’m pretty sure he was anticipating that kick coming in to his ribs. If you watch the way his left arm moves, it’s into a position to block a rib shot. Gonzaga went high and that was all she wrote.