I'm going to preface my comments by saying that i have a ton of respect for both of these fighters. I do however think that this fight highlights a huge problem in our sport. In a state were mma is not regulated, they are allowing a 60+ year old man to fight a 50+ year old man. Skip is in better shape than me or 99% of the male population. His has fantastic blood pressure, extremely low body fat and is in phenominal shape. Severn is Severn... yes, he's far outside of his prime, but he's still a big, tough veteran who's been around for years.
I think this fight is like throwing a steak to all of the wolves who hate this sport. How do you justify this fight to them? What other sport would even allow it? How do we as fighters explain why it's ok for this to happen?
Ok, now on a completely different level... Let's look at the records... FCFighter lists Skip as 2-3 as a pro and 0-1 as an ammy. Severn is listed at 74-14-7. Now lord forbid something happen to either fighter... not only does it need to be explained that we let two fighters of that age compete against each other, but we have to explain the difference in record and experience... I've read some of the posts on other threads... Yes, Skip is a speciman... Yes, Skip is a tough guy... Yes, Skip has the stones to get into the cage. I've met Skip a few times at powerlifting meets... My lifting coach at the time (Dillion Maier, former Master's national champ at 148) always spoke very highly of Skip's ability. Nothing would kill the momentum of MMA like something happening in this fight. I really think this shows us how far we still have to go.