What is this guy smoking?

Sports Illustrated writer Josh Gross has lost me for the second time today. No sooner did I finish writing about how I disagree with his liking the idea of Anderson Silva moving up to heavyweight when I noticed his response to Wednesday’s NSAC rulings.

The NSAC has now approved five five-minute rounds for non-title fights. Gross thinks it’s a great idea, says he has even pushed for title fights to be seven rounds. He argues that 15 minutes isn’t really enough time to resolve a fight and points to UFC 79’s battle royale between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva and UFC 96’s clash between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Keith Jardine as examples of when three rounds just weren’t enough. Yeah, in hindsight it would have been great to see those fights go longer than three rounds. In hindsight! I think Gross has forgotten all the three-round snoozers we’ve had to sit through, none of which I can remember because I fell asleep.

Five rounds in the title fight, great. Five rounds for special “one off” superfights, sure. But for anything else, three rounds is plenty.

Oh yeah, and Gross also says he’s not so excited about the introduction of instant replays to determine missed fouls during MMA fights. Maybe Gross is also a fan of allowing eye gouging in fights. Maybe bring back groin shots, too.