Vancouver’s mayor pleased with UFC crowd

Weighing in on the UFC mega mixed martial arts event last Saturday night, Mayor Gregor Robertson admitted Tuesday that what he witnessed at the side of the Octagon was pretty rugged but he is not about to step in and blow the whistle on future similar events.

"I saw the last couple of matches and they were pretty rough," Robertson said in a scrum with reporters at the opening of Dunsmuir bike lane. "I think those guys are keen to do it and a lot of people are keen to watch it and it’s better off contained in a safe setting like that than happening on the street or in warfare so you could argue it either way."

He noted that "the crowd was right into it."

Robertson has been credited by the president of Las Vegas-based UFC, Dana White, with being instrumental in bringing the glitzy event to Vancouver in the midst of some foot dragging by city council.

The mayor noted that UFC is interested in returning to the city and "we’ll be open to that."

In the end, it was "a very professionally run show, a very smooth operation and a much calmer crowd than I expected," he said. "I thought it would be rowdier and it was quite relaxed in there considering it was a big fight night."

Because he grew up on the rugby field and in the hockey rink, Robertson said he is used to seeing "those kinds of thrills and spills" by willing participants. "A lot of people don’t like it and a lot of people like it so I don’t judge it on that basis."

VPD media relations officer Const. Lindsey Houghton said the police had no concerns over the event.

"It worked out great," he said in a phone interview Tuesday. "In fact, from a policing side of things, it was probably less busy than a Canucks game or a B.C. Lions game."

He said a couple of people had to be ejected by GM Place staff but he said that happens any time you get 17,000 or 18,000 people together in one place consuming alcohol.

"It was a very good night for us."

It wasn’t perhaps such a good night at Vancouver General Hospital’s emergency ward where one fighter after another lined up for repairs to damage caused during western Canada’s first UFC event.

One of the headliners, retiring kick boxer and former world light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, had to go to the hospital to be treated for a wound on his eyebrow and a lip "split to halfway down his chin," as described by White.

He had been knocked out cold by Rich Franklin who didn’t escape unscathed. He broke his left arm when blocking a kick from Liddell. The break will require surgery from an orthopedic surgeon and will likely see a plate and screws inserted into the former math teacher’s forearm.

New Orleans native Pat Barry was admitted with a broken hand and foot after losing in the co main event to Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic.

Cro Cop wore sunglasses to the after-fight press conference hiding damage around his eyes.

And 20-year-old Rory MacDonald from Kelowna suffered significant damage to his face after taking a pounding from Carlos Condit out of New Mexico.

The referee stopped the fight with less than 10 seconds to go.

"I was dropping big bombs on him right before the stoppage," said Condit, adding he was surprised MacDonald hadn’t quit earlier.