NSAC head refutes internet chatter about Silva greasing
Silva set some forums abuzz when he wiped his forehead with his hand just prior to the fight and then…
Silva set some forums abuzz when he wiped his forehead with his hand just prior to the fight and then briefly wiped his chest.
It was easy fodder for conspiracy theorists who thought the champion might be trying to give himself an unfair edge by using Vaseline from his face to make his body slicker. But NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer said that’s not the case.
“The inspectors are there close. They can see both guys’ chests and back when they’re getting ready to go, and the referee can see it as well. So if for some reason they thought the guy was using that to get an advantage and it was something significant, they’d just grab a towel and wipe the guy down.”
“I leave it to their expertise. We had a great referee in with Mario, and we had four great inspectors in there. I saw some people were saying Belfort did the same thing. But that’s a lot different than someone putting Vaseline on a guy’s back to purposely give him an advantage. So it’s a matter of degrees.
“I can tell you that watching at cageside … there was nothing that raised a concern to me, as opposed to what I saw with Nurse and St-Pierre back in the day.”
“We’ve had other situations where inspectors have caught guys … patting the guy on the back and has a chunk of Vaseline on his hand. Our inspectors have caught those guys, and I’ve pulled them aside and said, ‘Hey, if you ever do that again, you’ll never work a corner in Vegas again.'”
As it turns out, Silva hardly made contact with Belfort in the headlining bout, before landing a front kick that set up a first-round knockout.