I’ll be the first one to admit that 2020 has been one of the strangest years in history. Of course, there have been some unusual years that have taken place prior to 2020 but between the pandemic, the riots and the ongoing effects of global warming, I would say we’ve seen enough. That is, of course, until we were able to see a matador getting poked in the butt by an angry bull during a bullfight. It’s one of those moments that we expect to occur every once in a while, but it just makes sense that it occurred in 2020.
Just in case you’ve never heard of Enrique Ponce, he is one of the leading bull fighters in Spain. He was taking part in one of the first fights to take place after the pandemic brought the events to a screeching halt. It was at the El Puerto de Santa María’s bullring, when the matador decided to take on a bull but in the end, he was biting off more than he could chew. The bull was his first adversary in the ring and it was a special occasion, being the 140th anniversary of the Real Plaza de Toros de El Puerto de Santa María.
The 48-year-old matador has been around the ring, so to speak when it comes to bullfighting. He has been injured pretty severely in the past, but this little jab in the derrière was one that didn’t cause a serious injury. That’s good, because such an injury could be something that you would remember for a very long time.
He managed to tear ligaments in his knee last year during a bullfight and his butt has been the source of an injury in the past, with a 5 inch gash. That occurred back in 2014, along with a broken collar bone and a few broken ribs.
Some people may have sympathy for the bullfighter but it’s hard to have sympathy for someone when they bull was just trying his best to survive. Many people were hoping that bullfighting would be done for good after the pandemic, but it seems to be making a comeback. There are some countries where it is banned, including Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador still allow the practice.
If there is one silver lining to this dark cloud, it’s the fact that most of the bullfights following the pandemic have been reasonably small. The country hit a historical low when they only had 1,521 bullfights in 2018. About 8% of the population in Spain attended a bullfight that year.
Let’s just hope that this is another sign of the times and that will see bullfighting go away for good.
