Damacio Page knockout of Marcos Galvao raises questions

Last night I settled in with a cold beer and some chips to watch WEC 39 on Versus. Four live fights were scheduled to take place, but if an under card bout ends quickly enough it usually finds it way into the broadcast. That's why when Damacio Page and Marcos Galvao entered the screen I immediately perked up. This fight would end quickly, it had too since the Rob McCullough Marcus Hicks fight that proceeded it went the distance.

I and many other fans were not disappointed when Damacio Page knocked out Marcos Galvao in eighteen seconds. Page celebrated by running around the cage, showing off his giant tattoo of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Versus went to commercial. All was well, or so we thought. 

As the above video shows Marcos Galvao went into convulsions and had to be taken to the hospital. Clearly the above video is disturbing, but as Maggie Hendricks points out it raises questions around the officiating and the broadcast. While referees routinely play Russian Roulette with stoppages, often times upsetting fans and fighters, but their job is protect the fighter. Remember that Josh Koscheck. 

For Versus the event raises questions on how they handled the conclusion of the fight. Mixed Martial Arts is violent and shouldn't be sanitized with a convenient cut-away and not mentioning the injuries. Especially when Versus knew that Galvao was taken to the hospital. At the very least the broadcast crew needed to mention that Galvao was taken to the hospital due to the knockout. Instead the video goes viral and it appears that Versus and the WEC were trying to sweep the injury under the rug, while still capitalizing on a knockout. This is the kind of action that gives MMA detractors like Bob Reilly ammunition. 

Now I am not arguing that we should see the goriness of the injury over and over again in instant replay. Though that is a reality in the NFL, NHL and other sports. MMA promotions need to own the injuries that happen in a fight and not take action that appears to be covering it up.