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Zuffa continued on with UFC 61 “Bitter Rivals,” held July 8, 2006, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. I officiated two fights on the card, including a spirited lightweight contest between Yves Edwards and Joe “Daddy” Stevenson. I’d always thought highly of Edwards and Stevenson, and their bout was competitive. Stevenson took Edwards down and planted him against the cage. Edwards was protecting himself until Stevenson reached back and acted like he was going to set up a leg lock. Edwards responded by sitting up toward Stevenson, who timed a perfect elbow that connected with the side of Edwards’ head. It created a small one-inch laceration but cut a vein that started spraying the mat and the fighters.

Dr. David Watson, one of the best cageside physicians in MMA, wasn’t squeamish about blood; only the cut and its location mattered. He always said he wasn’t worried about a fighter bleeding to death from a cut in the cage, but this fight may have changed his mind. After thirty seconds, the canvas had a bloodstain like a crime scene, but Watson examined Edwards and let the bout continue for another minute until the bell.

As Edwards went back to his corner, Dr. Watson came into the cage to look at him again and then walked to me. “You need to stop the fight.”

I said, “Okay, but why’d you change your mind in one minute?” The fighter’s face was now clean, and the blood was out of his eyes.

“I would guess he’s lost about 400 cc of blood at this point; if he loses 500 cc, I’ll be giving him a transfusion.”

I didn’t doubt Dr. Watson’s wisdom and promptly waived off the fight.

Six weeks later we all returned to the same venue for UFC 62 “Liddell vs. Sobral,” held August 26, 2006. There was some controversy in a lightweight bout I officiated between Hermes Franca and Jamie Varner, when I stopped the fight in the second round to take a point away from Varner for timidity—something I’ve rarely had to do in recent years.

After winning the first and possibly the second round, Varner gassed out fast and was actually running away from Franca in an attempt to steal time and not engage in the fight. After I warned Varner, Franca turned up the heat in the final moments, which prompted Varner to backpedal again. He was tired and spit out his mouthpiece, either in an attempt to kill time on the clock or get a clearer airway. I stopped the fight and took a point away. Franca ended up winning the fight with a guillotine choke, but I was criticized for slowing down the fight for the point deduction. However, if Franca hadn’t caught the last-minute submission, that point would have made the bout a draw—a much fairer outcome in a bout where one fighter was trying to stall to his advantage.

In the main event, Chuck Liddell defended his light heavyweight title against Renato “Babalu” Sobral in a rematch of their UFC 40 bout when Liddell had knocked out Babalu with a beautiful left shin kick to the face. Babalu started the bout calm, but Liddell quickly connected, and that pissed off Babalu. Fighters usually can’t fight mad because they make stupid mistakes and their opponents usually capitalize. Babalu went after Liddell and left an opening for a right uppercut, which sent the Brazilian down. Liddell followed up with more punches, and Babalu was holding onto Liddell, but there was nobody home. I put myself between Liddell and the prone Babalu, but Babalu thought the fight was still going and his training took over. He found a leg and grabbed it; however, the leg belonged to me. Babalu tried to take me down as I kept telling him the fight was over, but his mind was too scrambled to understand what he was doing. I realized if I didn’t do something I’d have a fighter on top of me. I under-hooked his arm, forced him over, then moved to mount where I was finally able to get control of Babalu, who was snorting and gasping for air. Just one more thing to add to the list. Fighter tried to take me down—check.

Teaching my first COMMAND referee course (December 2007)

Coaching