blood

10. Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
(UFC 74, 8/25/07)

At 44 years of age, Randy Couture was the one who was supposed to look busted up after his heavyweight championship match with 29-year-old Brazilian wrecking ball Gabriel Gonzaga. But in one of the greatest triumphs of his career, Couture broke down the bigger, younger fighter with his wrestling and dirty boxing. About three minutes into the first round, blood began to pour out of Gonzaga's shattered nose, giving Randy's back a nice, red coat. The steady flow interrupts the challenger's breathing and vision, leading to a brutal ground-and-pound finish in the third.

9. Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
(EliteXC: Unfinished Business, 7/26/08)

In the second round of their EliteXC middleweight championship do-over, Scott Smith nailed Robbie Lawler with a series of standing elbows that opened up an ugly gash on the top of Lawler's head. With blood pouring out of the wound, Lawler turned up the intensity, doing his best to finish Smith before a doctor could stop the fight. About 90 seconds later, he succeeded — but not before a spray of "plasma" fell into commentator Mauro Ranallo's lap. The video doesn't really do it justice; you should also check out this photo from the fight, and this photo of the aftermath.

8. Chase Beebe vs. Eddie Wineland
(WEC 26, 3/24/07)

It may have been the most grisly demolition of a cauliflower ear in MMA history. Midway through a five-round bantamweight title match, challenger Chase Beebe dropped an elbow from the top that burst Eddie Wineland's overripe right ear, causing it to spray blood several feet across the mat. Wineland, who had already suffered multiple cuts near his eyes from Beebe's precision striking, soldiered on to the fifth-round bell with what appeared to be a gaping hole in the side of his head. Beebe took home the belt and Wineland hasn't fought in the WEC since.

After the jump: Things really start to get disgusting.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

HDNet brings us an absolute war between Jesse Forbes and Chris Camozzi for the "Fight of the Week." If you like a bout that gets bloody early and only becomes more so before a surprise finish, then you are going to love this one. If you don't like that, maybe you should check out a sport more your speed. How about women's team handball?

In other HDNet news, Strikeforce's October 3 event in Denver will air live on the cable network, MMA Weekly reported today. This is in addition to their late-night offering on NBC, which means Strikeforce is very quietly becoming one of the most visible MMA organizations on TV. No word yet as to whether their September event from the Playboy Mansion will make it on to TV, but we sure hope so. Purely because of the fights, of course.

(From ESPN via BloodyElbow)

Holy, freakin', crap. Looks like we already have a top contender for this year's "10 Best MMA Photos" list.

By the way, Joe wants you to know that he was totally not crying at the end of that fight.

In a remarkable display of balls, Tommy Speer dominated Jon "War Machine" Koppenhaver in last night's episode of The Ultimate Fighter, despite an early cut that had full pints of blood squirting from his forehead. As Matt Serra shouted in his charming Lawn Guyland accent, "He's bleedin' like a pig, War!" Unfortunately for Team Serra, the fight would not be decided on blood loss alone.

Some questions I had after watching SpikeTV's "The 25 Tuffest Moments of All Time"...

— Has Forrest Griffin ever made a TV appearance where his face wasn't covered in scabs and bruises? It's as if him and Stephan Bonnar showed up to the taping and the producers were like, "Alright, let's get Stephan into makeup, pronto. Forrest, we're going to need to lay into your face with a phone book for 15 minutes or so, then rub dirt in your hair. Cool? You're gonna look super tough." I know the dude fights for a living and all, but I have a feeling he engages in some high-risk behavior on the side. Just speculating, here. Or maybe his body just doesn't heal as fast as the average person's. Maybe he has the opposite of what Wolverine has. Poor guy...