Blood On The Mat
If you have watched enough Pride fighting, especially watched an event from start to finish, then you have probably noticed blood on the mat during a fight. Blood on the mat from previous fights that is. It can sometimes be almost chilling to see the spatters of blood while a new fight is taking place. Those of us who watched a lot of Pride fighting become callous to seeing it, but to casual observers of MMA, it makes an almost shocking impression on them.
Anytime I watch Pride fighting with certain friends or girlfriends, they almost always object to seeing blood on the mat. Especially when they realize it is not even blood from the current fight, but from an earlier fight(s) in the event. The blood smears and spatters on the mat look graphic, brutal and even barbaric to some people, and I totally understand that… It even may reinforce negative stereotypes about MMA, which is not good. Seeing the blood on the mat makes you realize how violent this sport really is.
But for all practical purposes there wasn’t much Pride could do about the blood on the mat issue, and we will discuss that below. It took me some time to get used to seeing blood on the mat during Pride events too, but I realize Pride handled this situation as best they could. Usually what happens is the blood will be from just one fight that occurs early in the event that gets all over the mat. So all subsequent fights during the event now show blood on the mat, which really becomes visible when they do the overhead camera angle. The majority of Pride fights do not have so much blood where it is getting all over the mat.
At first glance the blood on the mat can be abhorrent. I don’t particularly like seeing blood on the mat either, but consider the following reasons for why it has to be accepted as part of the sport (an honorable and courageous sport):
1. Pride fighting is a combat sport where this kind of thing can happen. The Japanese audience was much more understanding about this than American audiences.
2. It is really hard to clean the blood off the mat in a timely manner between fights. Furthermore, when you do clean it up (using bleach, the current best method) it smells horrible for the fighters who then have to breathe it in while fighting. The bleach smell is an annoying and unnatural distraction.
3. While Pride did not do any drug testing, they did do blood testing. This was to make sure fighters did not have any dangerous diseases that could accidently be transferred to the other fighter by getting cut. This is good and responsible Pride did this to confirm the blood we are seeing is not contagious.
It has recently come to my attention that UFC cleans the blood off the mat after every fight. This is something they feel they have to do to be more acceptable to mainstream audiences. I somewhat agree with this, but feel bad for the fighters who have to fight inhaling that bleach smell.
In a perfect world, I’d be okay if we were somehow able to completely clean the mat quickly with no bad side effects in between fights, but that technology is not available right now. Bleach is not the answer. I believe we will have the technology to clean a mat quickly and effectively in the future.
So try to be more understanding and not as squeamish when seeing blood on the mat when you are watching Pride fighting, and instead focus on how awesome the Pride fighting events were.
Written: August 2013
Anytime I watch Pride fighting with certain friends or girlfriends, they almost always object to seeing blood on the mat. Especially when they realize it is not even blood from the current fight, but from an earlier fight(s) in the event. The blood smears and spatters on the mat look graphic, brutal and even barbaric to some people, and I totally understand that… It even may reinforce negative stereotypes about MMA, which is not good. Seeing the blood on the mat makes you realize how violent this sport really is.
But for all practical purposes there wasn’t much Pride could do about the blood on the mat issue, and we will discuss that below. It took me some time to get used to seeing blood on the mat during Pride events too, but I realize Pride handled this situation as best they could. Usually what happens is the blood will be from just one fight that occurs early in the event that gets all over the mat. So all subsequent fights during the event now show blood on the mat, which really becomes visible when they do the overhead camera angle. The majority of Pride fights do not have so much blood where it is getting all over the mat.
At first glance the blood on the mat can be abhorrent. I don’t particularly like seeing blood on the mat either, but consider the following reasons for why it has to be accepted as part of the sport (an honorable and courageous sport):
1. Pride fighting is a combat sport where this kind of thing can happen. The Japanese audience was much more understanding about this than American audiences.
2. It is really hard to clean the blood off the mat in a timely manner between fights. Furthermore, when you do clean it up (using bleach, the current best method) it smells horrible for the fighters who then have to breathe it in while fighting. The bleach smell is an annoying and unnatural distraction.
3. While Pride did not do any drug testing, they did do blood testing. This was to make sure fighters did not have any dangerous diseases that could accidently be transferred to the other fighter by getting cut. This is good and responsible Pride did this to confirm the blood we are seeing is not contagious.
It has recently come to my attention that UFC cleans the blood off the mat after every fight. This is something they feel they have to do to be more acceptable to mainstream audiences. I somewhat agree with this, but feel bad for the fighters who have to fight inhaling that bleach smell.
In a perfect world, I’d be okay if we were somehow able to completely clean the mat quickly with no bad side effects in between fights, but that technology is not available right now. Bleach is not the answer. I believe we will have the technology to clean a mat quickly and effectively in the future.
So try to be more understanding and not as squeamish when seeing blood on the mat when you are watching Pride fighting, and instead focus on how awesome the Pride fighting events were.
Written: August 2013
