I was just watching V. Klit vs Lennox Lewis, shortly after Vitali started to bleed profusely from his cut, Lampley stated "Vitali has one of the best cut men in the business in Joe Souza, he saved Gattis career". Then Souza proceeds to wipe Vitalis cut with a towel. Other than Tyson getting a water filled condom placed on his eye, that has to be the worst cut management I've ever seen.
I don't claim to know the first thing about "cut management." However, I have also noticed this, and it always bothered me. I actually have a hard time watching this part of the fight, despite being an avid fan of horror films. Now, maybe I'm seeing things, but it appeared to me that he actually may have made the cut worse. That looked like a dry towel, and he kind of abrasively rubbed it on the cut. It opens up worse. Obviously I wasn't there, I didn't see it first hand, and it's a very brief moment of film. What do others think? I'm glad you brought this up, because it always caught my eye. Damn it, no pun intended.
You have to get the blood soaked up before you can apply the adrenaline to stop the bleeding. Those cuts were monstrous, and you can see Souza left the adrenaline soaked cotton in the cuts to try and keep them from bleeding, but there was no way those type of cuts could be closed up, they were in weird places and open very wide.
I appreciate your input. Check out 2:03 - 2:08 in this video. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9OkXneaGkM&feature=related[/ame] Am I crazy, or does the cut seem to get opened up a bit more when he's wiping with the towel? It very well could be that the damage was already there, I'm just curious if people see what I see. It's pretty gross.
Speaking of the cut, I have an bit of an unrelated question/comment regarding this. Which is that when the fight was stopped, Vitali seems shocked that it happened, but it seems to me his corner would have told him how bad the cut was and that the fight could be stopped at anytime. The purpose of these comments would be to motivate Vitali to step things up, as his time to beat Lewis was likely limited. I assume he would have been advised of this after each and every round. This being the case, Vitali's apparent shock that it was stopped seems strange to me. Was he in denial, or was he misinformed about the seriousness of it?
Good points. I never liked the way his cutman rubbed that cut neither, it does'nt look very professional. IMO Vitali's reaction was down to him not liking what people would think of him, after already quitting against Byrd. I'm not saying he quit against Lewis, but he was definately over reacting because he did'nt want to be seen has a quitter again. It worked for him because now people try to tarnish Lewis' hard fought victory, remember scorecards are irrelevant after a TKO. He would definatley have known about the severity of the cuts, so i think his reaction was definatley staged. I have heard from people who were in the arena that it was Vitali's corner that called the doctor over. Read into that what you will.
The cut was already open, then he squeezes it together. He was trying to get all the blood out and when he wiped it again, it opened back up, but if you watch closely it was open when he sat down just filled with blood so you couldnt see the depth of it.
Ah, okay. I can see that. The blood's there when he sits down, he wipes it away, then wipes again, and it appears like it's opening up, but it's actually just filling with blood. Damn, that cut is bad.
Yes Vitalis face was shredded. The one on his lip was horrendous too. The worst thing you can have is blood in your mouth. You swallow it and it makes you choke.
Yeah, Armstrong was swallowing some pints in the first Ambers fight and still managed to eek out a decision. Tough little man.
Poor Vitali, Fancy getting punched in the face in a boxing match. That ******* Lennox, hitting the guy. How mean was that?
The corner knew it was about to be stopped and offer no resistance. There is footage where Wlad is standing on the apron and looking at the ref in the centre of the ring when the ref is waving the fight off and he looks dejected but offers no protest. From about 5 minute mark [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlli6mvsOGU&feature=related[/ame]
From what I know of cuts, I would agree that wiping it abrasively with a dry towel seems like a bad move. That said, I'll trust that Souza did the right thing for whatever reason he did it. As noted above, it quite possibly just needed to be cleaned up first given the seriousness of it before something could be done.
In boxing they use adrenaline (epinephrine) to decrease the blood flow, and newer agents such as avitene and thrombin. Surgicell and Gelfoam can also be used. I think one of the above is a paste like substance. The cuts were not bleeding badly by the end of the 6th round, and Vitali vision was all right. In fact Lewis was the more swollen up of the two after the 6th round. Check the film or photos, and do not confuse a cut with swelling as they are very different.