Fightmania Mailbag: Boring Fights, Illegal Punches, Heel Hooks
We’re in the midst of a very busy time for mixed martial arts, with multiple events occurring on a weekly basis. As such, there’s a lot to talk about, and who better to talk with than Fightmania’s own readers? This time, readers weigh in on boring fights, nasty heel hooks, and illegal punches. Let’s get right to it, shall we?
Sam from Estes Park writes:
I don’t get why fans will single out certain fighters for being “boring”, but not others. Like you said, Couture’s fight with Tito was not exactly a barn burner, and he’s had some other boring fights, too. Even when Fitch was getting booed, I said to my friends that there was no way the fans would boo GSP like that. They may have gotten a little restless during the GSP/Hardy fight, but I was pretty much right. What gives?
Sam, you hit the nail on the head about fans reacting different ways to different fighters. While it’s the fans’ right to boo and cheer whomever they want to, it doesn’t make it any less puzzling, does it? I know that a lot of it has to do with the circumstances of the fight- during Randy’s fight with Tito, we saw Tito out-wrestled and controlled for the first time, which added a “shock” component that made the fight much more watchable live. Upon viewing it later, though, there’s not a lot to enjoy. Couture’s upset win over Tim Sylvia was the same way.
Hardy and Saunders were both expected to lose to their opponents, so there wasn’t much drama in their bouts against GSP and Fitch. Furthermore, fans got antsy when they expected GSP to finish Hardy, and he continually didn’t do so. As far as fans favoring some fighters over others, that’s just a part of the sport. If you’re a huge GSP fan, you probably found the fight infinitely more enjoyable than someone who didn’t have strong feelings toward either fighter.
“Chris MMA” from De Witt, Iowa says:
Am I crazy, or did I see Frank Mir get hit many times to the back of the head in the lead-up to Carwin’s win over him? How is that fair? Most of my fights that I’ve had were lost because of my opponents cheating in similar ways.
Well, yes, there did seem to be a number of shots to the back of Mir’s head coming from Carwin’s massive fists. I saw most of them when Carwin first got Mir’s back, before Mir started working for a half-hearted kimura and ended up getting flattened out and put away for good.
The problem is, it’s a tough position for a referee to be in when this happens. He can say, “watch the back of the head!”, but in that time, maybe a couple of shots have already landed. Even if the fighter listens and takes care to not hit the back of the head, the damage is done. It’s not like an illegal knee to a downed opponent or a groin shot, where the fouled fighter gets to recover. Honestly, it shouldn’t be that way, either, because most of the time when a fighter is hit to the back of the head, it’s because he’s in deep trouble and is “turtling” to avoid taking shots that will end the fight. If the referee halts the fight to assess a warning, it could change the entire outcome of the fight.
You also have to take into account that fighters will take advantage of the rule to protect themselves when they are in trouble. As Mir was doing, you can cover your ears and bury your face in the mat, and all your opponent has to punch is the back of your head. That’s kind of taking advantage of the rule, and it’s stalling, at best. There should be a set way of handling such fouls that is observed similarly in each fight, though.
Finally, Dave from Chicago had this to say about the Rousimar Palhares heel hook:
Good article about the heel hook from Palhares. I don’t know what to think about heel hooks. By the time the pressure is applied and the hold is cranked, an injury has usually already been sustained. But if the fighter doesn’t crank the hold in order to show mercy on his opponent, the opponent can escape and easily reverse position and put the other fighter in a bad spot. I wonder how the UFC would react if their top fighters were getting their legs mangled by heel hooks?
I’m also leery of heel hooks for the same reasons you outlined. However, they just don’t happen often enough for anyone to have gotten very concerned thus far, especially in the UFC. Plus, they are a huge gamble, since you give up position in order to go for one, so most fighters don’t even attempt them. Palhares may change that, though. I still believe that an injury would have occurred, even if Palhares had released upon Drwal’s tapout. Palhares is far from done heel-hooking UFC fighters, and it will be interesting to see what the athletic commissions will think of the submission if Palhares keeps messing up people’s legs with it.
Tags: Ben Saunders, Dan Hardy, Frank Mir, Georges St. Pierre, Jon Fitch, Randy Couture, Rousimar Palhares, Shane Carwin, Tim Sylvia, Tito Ortiz, Tomasz Drwal, UFC 111
