I just watched the movie again on DVD.
With the help of the slo-mo, I noticed a few nice touches. In the first confrontation, when they are still playing with empty-hand trapping, Benitio's two attacks are both backhand 'knife hand' hits to the jugular. Not the most punishing of strikes, but ones that definately say "if that was a knife, you'd be dead"
Tommy-Lee's smash to the spine could also have been a knife attack, saying 'oh yeah? well if *that* had been a knife..."
During the second fight, there's a quick scene of Benetio tightening a tourniquet on his arm. That got me thinking about Tom Kier's medical management seminar at the last DBMA camp.
What do you guys think? Would Tommy Lee's character have survived the damage he took (the worst ones being the blue-worm which evidently didn't penetrate, and the stab through the triceps which was spurting). Assume that both fighters were wearing pre-applied tourniquets and the like (hell, they knew they were getting in a knife fight!).