I am a big fan of the Ultimate Fighter reality show on Spike TV as I like to see the next generation of fighters. For those of you who don't know about the show, the premise is as follows: take a bunch of up-and-coming fighters, usually 16, divide them up into two teams coached by two well-known fighters (and those well known fighters' coaches from their respective camps) who generally hate each other, and put them in a house together with no television while they compete in a single elimination style tournament to declare the ultimate fighter. The winner gets a six figure one-year contract with the UFC. The coaches end up fighting at the end of the season. This year, Chuck Liddell is opposite Tito Ortiz. I am sure this is obvious, but putting 16 combat athletes in a house with no television leads to quite a bit of drama. In any event, I can save that for another post.
For this post, I want to focus on last night's episode and the advertised "controversy" in the first of two aired fights. In the first fight, Kyacey Uscola took on Rich Attonito. From the opening bell, Attonito dominated catching Uscola with a punch that sent him to the canvas and then Attonito started pounding away on Uscola. Uscola, to his credit, and after being basically slammed on his head, managed to seemingly turn things around by getting Attonito in side control after using a kimura to execute the sweep. He then dropped some (mostly ineffective) elbows on Attonito. Attonito, realizing that he was in a bad position, began to escape out of side control in an attempt to get to his feet -- importantly, he still was not off the ground and had at least one knee down on the mat. Uscola, now standing, landed a knee (some say it appeared to connect with Attonito's chest, but it looked like the head to me) and then followed up with another knee that appeared to be aimed at the head and that appeared to at least graze the chin and/or head of Attonito. Referee Josh Rosenthal called time to let the cage side doctor examine Attonito and the doctor ultimately concluded that Attonito could not continue. Rosenthal correctly followed the Nevada State Athletic Association Rules in disqualifying Uscola.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission Rule is clear, NAC 467.7962 "Acts constituting fouls," provides that "[k]neeing the head of a grounded opponent" is a foul. Further, NAC 467.695 provides that a "combatant guilty of a foul in a contest or exhibition may be disqualified by the referee." Here, the knee was clearly a foul and the doctor determined that Attonito could not continue. Rosenthal did not have the benefit of instant replay and it doesn't really matter because, at best for Uscola, even with the benefit of instant replay it is unclear whether the knees connected to Attonito's head.
Initially Uscola denied that he did anything wrong and protested, but he appeared to calm down later when he learned that Attonito had a broken hand and might be forced to pull out of the competition despite the win.
I will just note here (I may post more on this at a later date) for the boxing fans, who unlike me, don't also like MMA, that a combatant's denial and protest is not limited to MMA. In a recent fight between Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham, Abraham clearly punched Dirrell after he had slipped and was down on the canvas and knocked Dirrell unconscious -- Dirrell had been winning the fight up to that point in the 11th round. After he was disqualified (suffering his first defeat), Abraham claimed that he did nothing wrong and that Dirrell was "not a boxer -- he is an actor." Abraham was clearly wrong and was correctly disqualified.
That's it for now.
