Fighter Health Podcast speaks to Marc Ratner
The Fighter Health Podcast, hosted by VADA founder Margaret Goodman and longtime boxing writer Kieran Mulvaney, conducted a rare interview with Marc Ratner, longtime UFC regulatory affairs vice president and former director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Ratner speaks about fighter safety, the art of MMA, differences between the UFC and boxing, and weight classes in this one. A couple highlights from the episode: “As soon as the fights are over, if there was a knockout at all, we send them right away to get a CAT scan. We have three ambulances at every fight. That’s a big part from the Nevada Commission. Sometimes some of these other commissions say, ‘well, we only need one ambulance.’ We say, ‘no, we’re the UFC, we want a lot more than that.’ You cannot have a fight without an ambulance. The health and safety, no matter what, is still the most important part. And the second-most important part, as a commission, is to make sure that whatever’s on the contract, a fighter gets paid.” “Mixed Martial Arts, there’s a lot of art to it. Especially when it comes to the jiu jitsu, to the wrestling. You just can’t be a stand-up fighter, you have to do everything else with the grappling. There’s a lot more to it than just striking. One of the problems for the officials is, most of them have to know what’s going on on the ground, and that’s part of the teaching process. I always thought, when I first came over, that a fighter on the bottom when they’re on the ground could never win the fight. After watching videos, we found that some fighters can be underneath, and knew how to make different holds, and make a fighter submit.” "There’s a lot of guys who have manufactured records, and my best example was Peter McNeeley. He was 40-0, or 40-1, and the big question is, could we let him fight Mike Tyson back then? The only reason we let it happen was because it was Mike’s first fight after being incarcerated and we didn’t know if he could fight good or not. It ended up lasting one round, so I always second guess myself on that one.” Listen to the full podcast at the link! submitted by /u/fighterhealthpod [link] [comments]
admin
| | The Fighter Health Podcast, hosted by VADA founder Margaret Goodman and longtime boxing writer Kieran Mulvaney, conducted a rare interview with Marc Ratner, longtime UFC regulatory affairs vice president and former director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Ratner speaks about fighter safety, the art of MMA, differences between the UFC and boxing, and weight classes in this one. A couple highlights from the episode: “As soon as the fights are over, if there was a knockout at all, we send them right away to get a CAT scan. We have three ambulances at every fight. That’s a big part from the Nevada Commission. Sometimes some of these other commissions say, ‘well, we only need one ambulance.’ We say, ‘no, we’re the UFC, we want a lot more than that.’ You cannot have a fight without an ambulance. The health and safety, no matter what, is still the most important part. And the second-most important part, as a commission, is to make sure that whatever’s on the contract, a fighter gets paid.” “Mixed Martial Arts, there’s a lot of art to it. Especially when it comes to the jiu jitsu, to the wrestling. You just can’t be a stand-up fighter, you have to do everything else with the grappling. There’s a lot more to it than just striking. One of the problems for the officials is, most of them have to know what’s going on on the ground, and that’s part of the teaching process. I always thought, when I first came over, that a fighter on the bottom when they’re on the ground could never win the fight. After watching videos, we found that some fighters can be underneath, and knew how to make different holds, and make a fighter submit.” "There’s a lot of guys who have manufactured records, and my best example was Peter McNeeley. He was 40-0, or 40-1, and the big question is, could we let him fight Mike Tyson back then? The only reason we let it happen was because it was Mike’s first fight after being incarcerated and we didn’t know if he could fight good or not. It ended up lasting one round, so I always second guess myself on that one.” Listen to the full podcast at the link! [link] [comments] |
