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Josh Gross Asserts Anderson Silva Rubbed Vaseline on Himself

Promoted (and slightly edited) to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

You may well have missed this upon initial viewing, I know I did, but after reading Gross' PBP, went back and had a look.  And right he was really:

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12:18 a.m.: The champion enters the cage after a coat of Vaseline is slathered on his face. I'm sorry to say this, but it was pretty obvious that Silva took his hands, wiped down his face and rubbed his chest and arms. Something to remember if Silva easily, and repeatedly, slips out of Leites' grasp.

Now if I'm honest, I hardly doubt SIlva was doing it to gain an upperhand on Leites, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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We talked about it when it was aired.
So deliberate. Turning away from the ref doesn’t make it any less suspicious, either.
Right after this they do close ups of each fighter’s face and the contrast is remarkably different in how much Vaseline is still on.

by Simco on Apr 19, 2009 9:10 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

If this story catches on...

I’m done reading these blogs

by EazyEismydad on Apr 19, 2009 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Trust me...

from a blogger’s perspective (at least mine) the real story is how awful the fight was and how weak of an effort Anderson gave

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

http://CurseOfRonKarkovice.blogspot.com/

by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 19, 2009 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

God Damnit

I don’t blame Anderson for last night’s stinkfest – I actually loved the mugging he was doing in the later rounds, essentially walking towards Thales with his hands at his waist and begging him to swing.

Thales didn’t belong in that fight – period.

by subo on Apr 19, 2009 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

He bears at least 50% of the responsibility

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

http://CurseOfRonKarkovice.blogspot.com/

by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 19, 2009 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

who leites?

i say they both deserve criticism.. leites didn’t want to throw anything.. but silva is the champ and the superior fighter so he gets part of the blame too.. (but he doesn’t deserve some of the criticism he’s getting from some mma fans/‘experts’)

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 19, 2009 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

How much does Joe Silva get?

"Japan is half-Machida" - iiowyn

by Day Man on Apr 19, 2009 2:00 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

More than he is being given

by EazyEismydad on Apr 19, 2009 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Round 5, people...

Leites finally comes out swinging, wild combos, superman punches, etc. No real danger to the champ and an excellent KO opportunity. What does Anderson do?

He backs of and goes for the UD.

by sacterre on Apr 19, 2009 5:21 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Leites threw 13 strikes to Silva’s 32 in that round.

by bigweeze on Apr 19, 2009 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

lol.

swinging? wild combos? what fight did you watch?

sure silva was tentative compared to his normal self, but leites did not attack at all..

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 19, 2009 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

1:30 mark of round 5, and awkward combo leading to a superman punch followed by a body kick (caught and let go). Then a wild overhand right that left Leites completely off balance. Anderson had a good chance to engage the entire final 2 minutes, yet he backed off.

by sacterre on Apr 20, 2009 1:13 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I'm glad someone else saw it

I know that it didn’t make a difference in the fight, but it very well could have. The fact that some people are dismissing it is disturbing.

by Patrick79x on Apr 19, 2009 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

The vaseline from the face can get all over your opponent unintentionally during the clinch right?

"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"

by Warhand on Apr 19, 2009 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

If you are deliberately spreading vaseline over your body you are cheating. It doesn’t matter how one sided the fight was or would have been without. It is still cheating. There may be some vaseline getting on the body during the course of the fight, but that is incidental. Incidental transfer during the course of the fight does not justify greasing before the fight.

by Dropkick434 on Apr 19, 2009 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Here is my point. The cut man is the only person who can put vaseline on a fighter’s face pre-fight. The cut man puts it on and then a ref. determines whether or not too much has been applied. If the ref. clears the amount put onto the face and allows the fighter to enter the octagon he is in essence saying that that amount of vaseline is not enough to have any effect other than keeping punches from sticking and thus increasing the chance of a cut. The ref and officials fully understand that vaseline rubs onto each fighter unintentionally and whatever amount they have allowed is not enough to grease one self.

"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"

by Warhand on Apr 23, 2009 11:56 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

He also tried entering the Octagon without vaseline on his face.

by SamCupitt on Apr 19, 2009 9:16 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

He wiped his face off with a towel in between one of the rounds as well.

http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com

by Mike Fagan on Apr 19, 2009 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

And some of his got on Thales, and some of Thales’ got on him.

Seriously, are we just going to have to wipe every guy dry between every round to stop this?

by subo on Apr 19, 2009 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Would their be any advantage to NOT having vaseline on the face?

I thought that benefits the fighter with Vaseline on his face? Could it be that Silva just wanted to get some of the extra off his face because it was annoying and affecting his ability to concentrate on the fight? Wiping a face with a towel is not banned/

"It's like a flying knuckle sandwich." --Rogan
"And many men have eaten it." -- Goldy

by thetakeover on Apr 19, 2009 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

That’s far more blatant than anything GSP’s corner did. Far more blatant.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." - Sir Winston Churchill

by FlyByKnight on Apr 19, 2009 9:16 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

fuck man.. im tired of this fucking grease issues..

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 19, 2009 10:15 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Running around while greasing>sitting down while greasing??

by AnonymousA on Apr 19, 2009 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

This won't go anywhere

there simply aren’t enough Leites fans to make a stink.

by sacterre on Apr 19, 2009 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

maybe he had an itch and then wanted to get the grease off his hands so he did the natural thing and rubbed it off his hands.

Small things like this happens all the time you are just watching him closer. Get over it this is NOT cheating you are just bored

by EazyEismydad on Apr 19, 2009 10:40 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

It is a Brazilian blood circulation technique.

by Dropkick434 on Apr 19, 2009 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

He’s a little troublemaker that Gross. I saw it when it happened and new someone would say something.

It had no bearing on the fight whatsoever, even when Leites got Silva to the ground there was no high guard just slipping down the back or whatever smoking gun people saw in the Penn/GSP fight. The only way vaseline could get construed as being of impact in this fight is when Silva through a punch that hit nothing but air and then Leites fell down to his back. All that vaseline flying off his gloves methinks…

by SamCupitt on Apr 19, 2009 10:52 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

ya, youre right..

i hope this doesn’t become as big or bigger than the original grease gate.. Hopefully this movie gets the sophomore curse too. ;)

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 19, 2009 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I hope this doesn’t become a trend with winners of the main events. Thank god this isn’t coming from Thales

by The Legend on Apr 19, 2009 10:59 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

yeah...

Leites doesn’t have a basis to complain about anything last night, even if Silva did cheat. Leites sucked.

by P4P is a stupid concept on Apr 19, 2009 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Can anyone shed some light on this??

This grease thing is rediculous. I mean, I see that he’s clearly bending the rules, but i really don’t care. It didn’t affect the fight at all. It’s not like he never breaks rules (from another post):

“The other thing i noticed was Anderson Silva’s blantant use (again) ove vertical elbows. I’ve seen him do this a number of times before. Per the official UFC rules:

10. Striking downward using the point of the elbow.

So can someone explain why it is ok for Anderson Silva to strike downward using the point of the elbow multiple times and none of the UFC ref’s ever say anything? Is my interpretation of a "downward spiking verticle elbow" wrong?"

Can anyone explain the vertical elbows thing?

by P4P is a stupid concept on Apr 19, 2009 11:06 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

That rule means downward from the ceiling to the ground, so if you’re on your back, you’re fine.

by Phildo on Apr 19, 2009 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

gracias..

seems kind of stupid… they are equally dangerous regardless of wether you are standing or lying down.

by P4P is a stupid concept on Apr 19, 2009 11:13 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

No, they're not..

I think it was UFC two where a guy was on his back and on top of a guy, so he took his elbow and started smashing the guy in the face. Since the guy’s head was stuck between the elbow and the mat, he took a shitload of damage and was bleeding profusly from the mouth, it was hard to watch. I think the difference is that without the mat it wouldn’t have been different from any other elbow. Same reason why Unified rules banned stomps, I.E. Mir/Sims.

by Zack Gobie on Apr 19, 2009 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah, I know exactly the fight you are talking about. They guy had his opponent is a crucifix type position on the mat and vertical elbowed the shit out of him. It was very uncomfortable to watch. I thought that fight was why they made them illegal

by P4P is a stupid concept on Apr 19, 2009 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Well gravity and the idea that its much easier to deliver the elbow with more muscle groups adding to the force when you are on top then from your back.

"Japan is half-Machida" - iiowyn

by Day Man on Apr 19, 2009 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions   1 recs

+1, not to mention just more mass behind in general.

by Chipp on Apr 19, 2009 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I thought this post was a parody.

It’s vaseline ya’ll, not the physical essence of evil.

by toxic on Apr 19, 2009 11:11 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

The way he does it…
Either he thinks it’s cool, or he doesn’t give a fuck. I’m puzzled about this.

by spectaa on Apr 19, 2009 11:11 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

i hate the fact that this will blow over but GSP took a lot of crap from everyone… I hate that we even talked about the grease situation but if everyone is gonna shit all over GSP the same should be said about anderson…. we can’t crap all over one guy and not say much about another that made it more obvious.

by Joselana on Apr 19, 2009 11:19 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

While I don’t think the GSP thing was a big a deal as people are making it out to be, these are completely different situations.

GSP had his trainer wipe the excess grease from his hands, that didn’t make it onto his face, onto his chest, shoulders and back.

Anderson took the very limited amount of Vaseline from his face, that was put on by a neutral cornerman, and moved it onto his body, which would have happened in the course of the fight anyway.

by Phildo on Apr 19, 2009 11:24 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Just let Kid Nate take over this story.

by spectaa on Apr 19, 2009 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Stop greasing before the fight....

At the start of round 2, both guys should be so sweaty, some vasaline on the face of a CUT fighter shouldn’t hurt. If the fighter isn’t cut, don’t use it.

by Dexerion on Apr 19, 2009 11:39 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

The point of the vaseline is to prevent cuts. Waiting for a cut to happen wouldn’t really help much.

by Phildo on Apr 19, 2009 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yeah...

it’s to provide a layer of “lubrication” to the skin that allows incoming blows to slide off rather than cause cuts because of the friction of hand/glove/leg/whatever and the face. Less friction doesn’t mean weaker punches, it just means less chance of skin ripping..

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

http://CurseOfRonKarkovice.blogspot.com/

by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 19, 2009 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

omfg? the amount of vaseline he had on his face was minimal. if there is anyone to blame for ANYthing it is leites! leites didn’t attack at ALL. when he was in andeson’s guard he couldn’t pass at all. anderson was closer to any submission than leites tried.

nice fight from anderson tbh! creative and effective.

by STEVENvanGEEL on Apr 19, 2009 12:09 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

He was just taking the grease off his face in an effort to get Leites to hit him. It didn’t work, and neither did anything else.

At least if GSP wins it creates an interesting matchup, I guess we will see who is slippier then.

by xDieseLx on Apr 19, 2009 12:24 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Man...

some people are acting like it’s a sin that this was mentioned as possibly being a concern. Chill out ya’ll.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

http://CurseOfRonKarkovice.blogspot.com/

by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 19, 2009 12:28 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

if you were referring to me, (as i said above) i know it is supposed to be mentioned and reported, i just hate the probable shit storm that might come from this.. i just really hated visiting mma blogs during the grease gate thing and i hope that doesn’t happen again..

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 19, 2009 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Rec'd for logic.

When I saw this this morning, I thought, “Jesus.” But you’re right, it deserves mentioning. Don’t kill the messenger.

by pud333 on Apr 19, 2009 12:57 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

yup.. it deserves to be mentioned cause it really wasn’t legal, but i hope it doesn’t eat up every internet blog for weeks like last time..

by Anton Tabuena on Apr 19, 2009 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Nah...

I don’t think it will. Like I said. The story is the awful, awful fight.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

http://CurseOfRonKarkovice.blogspot.com/

by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 19, 2009 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

It was a blatant violation of the rules.

GREASING IS NOT ILLEGAL. (ref: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nac/NAC-467.html#NAC467Sec598)

C’mon Brent, you should know better.

by Chipp on Apr 19, 2009 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

We have been over this, it is illegal to put any grease on the body despite how you want to interpret the wording. Excessive grease on the body is any grease on the body.

by Dropkick434 on Apr 19, 2009 7:00 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

The link I provided is quite clear.

If you get a chance I would really appreciate a link to the discussion you reference.

by Chipp on Apr 19, 2009 7:27 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

One of the better articles/discussions I came across: http://tinyurl.com/dhputz

Seems to me the commissions and UFC are the ones with the liberal interpretations, but evidently you’re right, thanks for the heads-up.

ugh.

by Chipp on Apr 19, 2009 8:45 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Again, it’s illegal.

Here’s how I look at if for all you Americans that made through a Government class.

The Law might have been written vague so the courts get to decide how the law is interpreted. The Commissions are the judges of the Judicial system and they have clarified the laws: No grease on body, Only promotion/commission provided cutmen apply grease to the face, and grease can ot be deliberately moved.

From what I’ve heard of the BJ/GSP fallout is that there isn’t a penalty for breaking this law. It could be similar to getting a $1 judgment.

It’s funny and depressing BS that all bureaucracies have.

by natyong on Apr 19, 2009 9:22 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

not much to see

just anderson sylvia pulling a GSP

by orcus on Apr 19, 2009 1:40 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

WHY?

Make it stop, make it stop, please god make it stop…
No more Vaseline, please…

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett

by themachiavellian on Apr 19, 2009 2:22 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

GSP vs. Anderson Silva Now Even More Epic!

Supervised pre-fight showers for everyone!

realizes pre-fight showers will do nothing to stop Vaseline spread-age

"It would appear that the strain was more than he could bear".- Doc Holliday

by MyFistYourFace on Apr 19, 2009 2:33 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

they can both grease each other up. that way theyll both be fighting like greased pigs.

by JaTinkles on Apr 19, 2009 2:39 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Wow

First time I see this. Thats pretty damn obvious and blatant and it looks like hes watching out the corner of his eye to the left if the camera is on him.

BTW, I’m watching the fight again and its funny when Joe gives a shoutout to the UG. :P

Mike Goldberg: "You know Joe, When Matt and his brother Mark Hughes were growing up, they would pound each other behind the barn."

by xFenixKnightx on Apr 19, 2009 4:26 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I can’t remember who, but one guy got rubbed down while the ref was doing to check behind the ears thing. I saw another at 96 too. At least GSP/Silva will be a fair fight

by Josh H. on Apr 19, 2009 6:37 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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