Kim Couture vs. Kim Rose, MMA and American Bloodlust

By: D.K. Wilson

And we go sinking, unblinking, into madness….

“They” bet their lives on this and “They” do not want you to read this; “They” do not want this to see the light of day. Not the head honchos and producers at CBS or FOX. And certainly not the executives in the same positions at ESPN/ABC. And the minions who write for those establishments of some disrepute will dutifully follow orders and find “It” an event and issue to disregard when thinking of what to write next.

But “It” is here.

Again.

“It” is another potential moment. “It” is another opportunity for us to shake ourselves from our collective daze and become fully awake, and begin the climb to right ourselves.

In preparation for tonight’s NBA draft Miami Heat president Pat Riley allegedly questioned the “attitude” and “character” of Michael Beasley, the best player in NCAA basketball last season. We hear these charges repeatedly when it comes to athletes, as if those who employ them are somehow above reproach and those they employ are somehow lesser as human beings.

Now, though, the tables are turned.

It is we who can observe the bad attitude and lack of character of the people who present us with the sports we see. And it is we who can comment on this lack of character and perhaps rise from our own malaise in the process. However, whether or not we begin to view these “media masters” and people in charge of sports teams and leagues with the same jaundiced eye they advise us to view the athletes who play the games remains to be seen.

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The moment, the “It”, occurred Friday night at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The “It” was a Mixed Martial Arts bout between Kim Rose and Kim Couture. This fight was overseen by Keith Kizer and the Nevada State Athletic Commission which is the best the sport has to offer. Yet Couture suffered a badly broken jaw and nose due to a Rose punch just seconds into the first round of their three-round, five minute per round fight.

Despite the swelling in her face, despite the fact that Couture bled profusely at times throughout the bout, Couture was allowed to continue to fight and ultimately finished the match. The match referee did not attempt to stop the fight. The Commission officials in attendance did not attempt to stop the fight. Couture’s husband, Randy, former NCAA wrestler and 5-time UFC fighting champion, did not stop his wife from continuing to fight.

As was mentioned in a Steve Cofield Yahoo! Sports commentary about the fight (quote from Bloody Elbow.com), if no one knew beforehand, Randy Couture had to know that his wife was badly injured when she went to her corner at the end of the first round. After all, with a broken jaw, talking for Kim was barely possible:

I wanted to add another thought that occurred to me about this fight. Its not so much that this was a woman’s MMA fight. This fight should be questioned regardless of the competitors’ sex. Anytime a fighter suffers a major fracture the fight should be stopped between rounds. Its one thing for Frank Shamrock to conceal an arm break from his corner for a couple rounds against Cung Le. Presumably the corner had no idea. But I have to think that Kim couldn’t talk to her corner after the first round and they should have known that something was very very wrong.

Questions also arose about the length of the fight. Why were these women fighting three five minute rounds rather than the three minute rounds we saw in the Elite XC bout, CBS-televised bout between Gina Carano battle Kaitlin Young?

In video of the fight Couture’s hideously bloated jaw can be clearly seen. Immediately below is round one of the fight.

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The injuries occur seconds into the fight, the result of a devastating overhand right from Rose to Couture’s face. By the second round, the swelling in Couture’s face is clearly apparent. Even if her husband did not know after round one, by the middle of round two Randy Couture had to know his wife’s jaw was seriously injured.

[youtube 6JglevYXk3I]

And by the final round there is no question as to the severity of Couture’s condition.

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So, what happened here? Couture is a relatively inexperienced MMA fighter who was overmatched and scheduled to fight six minutes longer than she should or probably could - at a high level for her - have.

Part of what happened here is connections in this society mean everything. With a few silky words and boasts from her ex- six-year Army vet (1982-1988), MMA Hall of Fame husband Randy, the 33-year old Kim Couture was set up to make some dough in a big-time women’s MMA bout. Let’s be frank, the most Randy Couture has accomplished since his official retirement from the game in 2006 are two appearances on Spike TV’s “Pros vs. Joe’s and “reality” show where the average person gets to do battle against a ex-pros in an approximation of a given sport.

Most importantly, though, we are in America, the dilapidated land of “blood is good but more blood is better.” As long as blood is involved, we video game driven, reality show watching, war is patriotism believing peoples are in it to win it.

And we, obviously, could care less whether or not that blood is spilled by men or women.

This bout was put on by the very best MMA has to offer and the outcome was a disaster for the “sport.” Imagine what happens in lesser-known fights in far-flung corners of the U.S. with men and women without the currency of Randy Couture. Can the death of one of the 21st-century neo-Roman gladiators be far behind? Or, in some backwoods event has there already been a death in which those in attendance witnessed but will not dare speak of for fear of being seen as implicitly complicit in manslaughter —– and explicitly complicit in the death of the sport?

In those spots away from the big money and the mainstream cameras imagine the wanton, uninhibited clamoring for action, for blood, for someone to take a beating, and for one gladiator to raise their deep red-spotted half-gloves in heavy-breathing, sweaty Russell Crowe or Hilary Swank movie glory.

We Are Americans, bitches, and We Will Kick Your Ass!

That is the message the throngs of passive-aggressive, wanna-be killers who wouldn’t bust a grape if they got punched in the face, but will certainly don cammo gear or trench coats and shoot up a bunch of fools with semi-automatic weapons. This is the place you come to make it if you have a heartless nature, the bloodless guile, and the ability and desire to do anything including to suck ass or prostrate yourself like a whore. This is the place where merit means almost nothing but who you ally yourself with means everything - as long as you play the game, that is.

It is the place where the laziness of portraying the image of being “the man” is much preferred to the work entailed in actually becoming the man.

And while we recently witnessed the first portrayal of a black man as a gangster in the mold of the Italian Mafia, we have yet to see a mainstream movie about the real killers in the country. The killers who never lift a hand to take a life, but have taken tens of millions more lives than all the “gangsters” history can gather.

That movie’s name could only be, “American Despot.”

Just ask any despotic type in any other country we haven’t already killed to hide the trail of slime back to our own house.

Through the Kim Couture-Kim Rose gore fest we have the chance to look in the mirror and tell ourselves, ‘enough is enough,’ to tell ourselves and look ourselves in the eye and say ‘I must become more human and humane.’ But to do so would be to admit we are the only unsafe creatures whose actions are unfit for this planet; the only animals willing to take each others’ lives for reasons other than out own survival.

But in this season of madness, the inertia caused by our psychic sickness appears too great for us to stop from giving ourselves over to people who would prefer to see us dead than have the real hope of eating at their table.

And so with Kin Couture and Kim Rose and YouTube and writers we see as “authorities” who say next to nothing of the event so as to allow our condition to worsen, and in our unseemly lust to witness the pain of others and imagining that it is us who inflicted that pain…

the American Despots win again.

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D.K. Wilson is a freelance sports writer. He is better known on the internet as "DWil," and writes for Sports On My Mind.

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3 Comments

  1. this is the worst piece of garbage i have read in years. your completely out of your element here. you should educate yourself before you peck at the keys with your forefinger on your pentium I from your mothers basement. a total waste of bandwidth.

    Comment by trey_trey on June 27, 2008

  2. i just read some of your other work and it is all very clear now.

    Comment by trey_trey on June 27, 2008

  3. Why does this “writer” waste his time putting out such long, self righteous rants? At least edit this crap, it sounds like a psychotic manifesto with more mistakes than a third grade English paper.

    Comment by rick on June 27, 2008

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