Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Famer Cutman Vic, shares insight on what it’s like to deal with cuts in the world’s bloodiest sport.
If you’ve watched any amount of bare knuckle boxing over the years, you’ve seen Vic Starita, better known as Cutman Vic, working his magic in the corner. Vic has been the in-house cutman for both BKFC and now BYB, specializing in dealing with the multitude and severity of cuts that take place in a fight contested without gloves.
Vic has likely been in the corner for more bare knuckle bouts than any other human on the planet, and has a unique and invaluable perspective on the sport. We caught up with Vic to ask him five questions about bare knuckle, and the underappreciated discipline of being a cutman.
Q: Where or when did your love and passion for bare knuckle boxing begin?
A: So, I was already a cutman, and I was asked by a fighter out of California named JC Llamas, and JC asked me if I would come work his corner. That was BKFC 5 in Cancun. I knew a little about bare knuckle, but I wasn’t really immersed in it much, but I went there and that night the owner of BKFC asked me if I could work five more fights, Joey Beltran was one of them. I’ve always loved Beltran. I worked six fights that night of bare knuckle, and I was like oh my God, what a horrifying sport to be a cutman in. I said you know what, I used to be a prison guard, and when I worked the country they said (a particular prison) was so terrible, I said fuck it I’ve got to go work over there. I wanted to see just how bad it was. You know, Marines run to gun fights, we don’t run from them. When I saw just how demanding and hard the sport was, bare knuckle boxing is the Mariana Trench of being a boxing cutman. That’s why you won’t see these high profile guys, they come and go quickly. You will see quickly how much media they are, how much show and little go they are.
Photo Courtesy: Instagram @starita.vic
Q: How much more difficult is being a bare knuckle cutman as compared to doing cuts in a conventional boxing match?
A: At least twice. Everybody gets cut, on average, at least four times. Like Chad Kelly, round one, he went out and came back with four scalp wounds, four to six inches long on the scalp. The scalp bleeds a lot. Most boxing cutmen would not have been able to deal with it. That was round one. I think the fight lasted three rounds. So round one he comes back with four gigantic scalp wounds and I’m telling the coach, can he feint? Can he move his head? Can you talk to him please? If he gets four cuts every round, we’re talking 20 cuts here! So, it's significantly harder, it’s not even close.
Q: Watching you in the corners over the years, it’s almost like you’re a second coach at times. Do you feel like a cutman in bare knuckle is almost as important as the actual coach to a fighter because of how prevalent cuts are?
A: Because of that, and some of these coaches aren’t very experienced coaches. The coaches are learning on the run. I have a coaching background, a lot of guys know that, I’ve trained national champions, so they’re like hey, can you help me out. When we went to Dubai, I coached eight fights that night, I think seven of them were Brits. The Brits didn’t bring their team because they brought their family, so they’re like hey Vic can you do my cortner? I really dislike coaching and being a cutman, because honestly, you can’t serve two masters. You can’t be really good at both, nobody can. Guys like Nacho Beristain did it out of necessity in Mexico, and ego also, but at the time there really weren’t cutmen. It’s impossible to do both well.
If the team needs me and it’s a team I know and they ask me, definitely. Sometimes during the fight, I watch some of these coaches and the stuff they’re telling their fighter, and I think they’re smoking some really good weed, because they’re on Pluto and what they’re saying is absolutely irrelevant to the fight. But as a cutman, you’ve gotta keep your mouth shut.
Photo Courtesy: Instagram @starita.vic
Q: What is the worst cut or the worst situation you’ve had to deal with in bare knuckle so far?
A: Jesus Christ, okay, so when Gustavo Trujillo hit Levi Costa in the face, that cut went along the side of the cheekbone, and it honestly looked like they stuck a bayonette in his face. I stopped the bleeding, and the doctor’s like, is he okay, is he okay? I’m like, are you crazy? I can’t stop a fight, but I’m looking through that hole, and I’m seeing his nasal cavity, his teeth and I’m looking into his throat. Literally. I’ve never seen that before. In a facial wound in combat I’ve seen that, but I’ve never seen that in fighting.
Another one was DJ Linderman when he fought Isaac Villanueva. When he hit Linderman and he broke his nose sideways, he ripped it to the side, I had to straighten that nose back on. I stopped the bleeding, but people were like oh, he’s a chicken. He was drowning in his own blood. He was literally choking on blood going down his throat passage. That’s why he turned, because he was drowning in the amount of blood going into his lungs. He was aspirating blood into his lungs. All these armchair commandoes, these really tough guys, get in there, get your nose broken in a regular sparring session and see what it’s like.
Q: One of the selling features of bare knuckle is that despite the visual brutality, there’s the suggestion that without the same accumulation of punishment and constant concussive blows, that it’s safer than gloved boxing. You’re closer to the brutality than anyone. What is your opinion on the safety of bare knuckle as compared to conventional boxing?
A: So let me be perfectly clear. When I was in Colorado Springs, they had a study done on brain trauma, and they did this study on an average football player, not a great player, just a guy who played through high school. They dissected his brain, and he had severe brain damage. That’s from playing football with a helmet. There is no combat sport where you’re getting hit in the head that’s safe, I don’t care what they say. Is it safer? Yes, you’re not getting 600 punches to your head, correct. But you can get a detached retina, you see the scarring on people’s faces, right? Look at Mark Irwin. Mark Irwin has balls the size of a dump truck. That kid fought with a jaw that was broken in two spots, orbital socket damage, I think his nasal passage had a fracture in it, he was bleeding out of his eardrum, I was almost sure he had a punctured eardrum because of the sheer amount of blood coming out of the eardrum itself, and he kept fighting. And he was laughing!
There are certain people who are cut for this sport, just like you know you have Marines, Navy SEALS, there’s certain people built for this, and there are very few.
There are no long-term studies on this. Is bare knuckle safer for the concussive nature on the brain? I would believe so. But this is a tough sport, this isn’t a sport for everybody. These guys are the apex in combat sports period. Some people say, “oh they’re not as skilled as boxers,” it’s not boxing. It’s bare knuckle. It’s a totally different sport. Yes, boxing is the most prevalent discipline in the sport, along with the Muay Thai clinch, but let me tell you something, this is a totally different animal.
Top Photo Courtesy of Instagram @starita.vic
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