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Labels: MMA, Self Defense, Sports

Lyoto Machida UFC Light Heavyweight Champ All Photos, Courtesy of ZUFFA, LLC. Click For UFC98 Streaming Video

      UFC 98 was a pretty good show, with several interesting fights. The bad blood between former UFC Welterweight Champs Matt Serra and Matt Hughes culminated in a great back-and-forth battle, with both fighters displaying their strengths, and Hughes walking away with a unanimous decision victory. But, the big thrill - even though I honestly saw it coming months in advance - was the undefeated Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida beating the previously-undefeated "Sugar" Rashad Evans for the UFC Light-Heavyweight title. Although I was rooting for Machida, the truth is that Evans is VERY capable of knocking any fighter out in the blink of an eye, and was on the edge of my seat the entire fight. To the untrained eye, there wasn't much action, but you could see them feeling each other out and trying to find any flaw they could exploit. Both quick and seemingly-unorthodox strikers, with knockout power, you could see them switch up stances, feigning, and reading each other for minutes at a time. After some quick encounters, Machida managed to drop Evans with an expertly-timed low-kick, straight-right combination, and press him until Rashad regained his balance. Into the second round, Machida caught Evans in an exchange with a stiff left, and kept on top of him with a Chuck Liddell-like flurry of punches, before putting Rashad to sleep with another left on the button

"Oh shi..."

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      I admit, I was a little late to jump on the Lyoto Machida bandwagon. While he held early victories over future champions Rich Franklin and "The Prodigy" B.J. Penn, they occurred early in each fighters' careers, so you could accept them being flukes. As well, being associated with Antonio Inoki, who always seems to inspire rumors of fight fixing and shady-doings, didn't help his credibility. But, after seeing more and more footage, and reading about his style, I was intrigued. Here was an elusive fighter, with very precise Karate striking - which is very hard to predict, since kicks aren't telegraphed as much, and even harder to counter since strikes are often thrown with the head back and out of range. He's pretty much been training in street-modified Shotokan Karate, with his father Master Yoshizo Machida, since he was a baby. To add to it, Lyoto has trained in Sumo (effective takedown defense), and recently earned his BJJ black belt from the legendary Nogueira brothers. That's a hell of a skill-set, and he's put it to good use by earning an increasingly-impressive string of victories over some serious competition - including a dominant performance against another former champ, Tito Ortiz. To date, nobody has really even caught Machida and done any kind of damage to him. Taking the title from a still-evolving Rashad Evans further showcases how his relatively unique style, on top of his great physical and mental conditioning, is proving to be effective in MMA.

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      The current list of UFC champs seems like the most dynamic bunch of fighters to date, all being considered among the very best in their respective specialized styles, while continuing to build on top of it. UFC Lightweight Champ B.J. Penn's moniker, "The Prodigy," describes him to a tee - he's a world-renowned BJJ expert, with just about as many wins from strikes as submissions. UFC Welterweight Champ, Georges "Rush" St-Pierre, is another Karate-inspired fighter, with swift and lethal circular-style Kyokushin striking and movement, who is also expertly versed in wrestling and submissions. UFC Middleweight Champ, Anderson "The Spider" Silva (left), is one of the most skilled and lightning-fast Muay Thai kickboxers in MMA history, who is also a Nogueira BJJ black belt and argued to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world today. The interim UFC Heavyweight Champ, Frank Mir, is and extremely-dangerous Ricardo Pires BJJ black belt, with expanding Kenpo and Muay Thai skills, who managed to be the first person in the history of MMA to stop Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira while on the comeback trail from a heinous motorcycle accident that would have killed of permanently crippled most people. The current UFC Heavyweight Champ, Brock Lesnar, is a freestyle wrestling monster and NCAA Division I Champ so physically gifted, he managed to defeat the legendary Randy Couture to earn the belt after only 3 professional fights. And, the sick thing is, despite this eclectic collection of supermen holding UFC gold, there always seems to be new fighters showing up in each respective division who - with some time and the proper guidance - could be even more monstrous. The level of competition, even on the smallest shows, has leaped up at a tremendous rate in just the last 2 or 3 years. MMA, as a sport, is just exploding with new talent, and ever-evolving dangerous skill-sets making their way to the top. I for one welcome our future rulers.
Cross-posted to my LiveJournal and Misc. Blog

Labels: Sports, UFC