One interesting thing is that Shogun stated he had observed Machida and had concluded that by offering Machida some opening would give him the opportunity to use the overhand right. I wonder if it was ever part of Daley's plan to offer Kos a takedown in the full acknowledgement that he would get the opportunity to use a knee. I mean we all knew Kos could take Daley down at will - so why did Daley not dictate more when Kos would take him down and also at what cost for Kos. Seems to me that is one of the differences between champions and the other fighters - there is a big strategy here
It's possible, although I assume Kos was very comfortable judging the timing in Daley's swings. The odd thing about Daley is that he is capable of generating a massive amount of torque in his hooks do the the rigid, high quality planting of his feet, he's absolutely superb at it, however, when moving around the ring his footwork is far too heavy. He throws like a boxer but doesn't move around the ring like a boxer, as a result he never looks capable of throwing a swift, quick knee, now compare that to Machida, even in the main event at UFC 113 he was able to land a quick, crunching knee to Rua, much as he did in their first fight.
If Daley was capable of that, then Kos would have had a much tougher time.
Lyoto does pretty well I do like this counter attack style, and its worked well for him but dunno I think mentaly it just drained him for 7 months hes been hearing daily he lost the fight, and then dana goes and says it !
Your gonna enter the ring and well 'Ive lost the fight already' on my face, but having said that Shogun was just gonna defeat him regardless after 7 months wait ! Either way for Lyoto it wasnt go well on the night.
It definitely didn't help. I said it in my first post in this thread, Machida never looked comfortable coming into the ring. It seems an odd thing, but watch any fighter coming to the ring who has their baseball cap tapped or picked off, the ones who quickly react to pull it back down never look comfortable, always too on edge. Others just let it go, laugh it off, these are the ones who always look more relaxed and comfortable in the ring.
From that moment Machida looked on edge, he is normally incredibly composed, but like I said before, he was never in a million years mentally ready for that fight. Whether it was because Rua came off looking invincible and unhurt from their first fight, or because Shogun was able to close up the gap that no one else has since BJ Penn, I'm not sure, my guess is that a large part came down to two things, his broken hand and his unwillingness to eat outside leg kicks, the result was, in a 3 minute fight, 4 stance changes, and that's not good for a defensive fighter like Machida.
What I would say though was that Machida was actually winning that fight, he caught Rua with a crisp knee that definitely hurt him and he looked capable of landing it almost at will, I think what maustin said was correct, Rua's timing of Machida was all in the hands, he made Machida come to him for the knock-out, Machida wasn't as quick as he normally is, where he darts in, hits you and gets out before the opponent knows what happened, a glancing blow, a slip and a little bit of luck landing in full mount. Machida's loss was an amalgamation of things, but I'd say it looked, at least to me, about 80% mental. That was not the same Machida who walked into the ring against Silva, Evans or even Rua the first time.
But its only fair give Lyoto another 2-3 fights let him dominate and go for another title shot again thats if he can win straight wins or even immediate rematch is deserved.
I agree. I can only see two possible fights, firstly, Machida fighting the loser of Evans vs Jackson, this would be a headliner and it certainly offers a great bounce-back fight for whoever loses. The second would be a massive money maker, and one everyone wants to see, Anderson Silva vs Lyoto Machida, one of the few fights that could probably compare to BJ Penn vs Georges St-Pierre.
Shogun will clearly dominate for a while yet regardless, anyone remember when he met rampage think on pride ? Rampage got ko, ended up on the floor wondering where he was....
The same happened with Rampage against Wanderlei. In fact, it happened twice, however when Rampage was in the Octagon it was a completely different situation.
Rampage vs Shogun is the fight I want to see, I think it would make a better fight than it would with Rashad Evans, but let's be honest, both of them are certainly worthy competitors who are capable of beating Shogun Rua. The UFC's light-heavyweight division is it's masterpiece. They keep trying to build up the Heavyweight division, and it's getting there, Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin are monsters as competitors for Brock Lesnar, so it's nice to see people capable of perhaps moving the frame of Brock, especially the latter, but I'd like more attention back on the LHW's, where no one is unbeatable. No one in that division has it as easy as Anderson Silva does, which is why I fear he's reluctant to step up permanently.
I still wanna see Frank Mir back soon, and Anderson silva justice/gsp/bj penn need to fight in the next few months, Brock and Carwin are ages away! either that or put that Chinese Zombie from that WEC PPv few weeks ago back in the ring
Frank Mir is a monster, but his confidence is shattered. Brock has bothered him, so he put extra weight on to try and move these fighters around a bit better and it did no good at all, Shane Carwin still had hold of him and imposed his will, and that was whilst standing, it's much harder on the ground as we saw in Lesnar vs Mir 2.
Mir is one of the greatest, if not the greatest BJJ practitioner in any Heavyweight division, but the Mir of old would never have simply stood there, waiting to make a move. I really like the guy, he's a great spokesman for the UFC (
usually) but it took him long enough to get back from his bike injury, now his weight issue, I'm not sure we'll ever see the Frank Mir we wanted him to become.
And the guy you're talking about was 'The Korean Zombie' Chan Sung Jung, and there was no way on earth he lost that fight against Garcia. But that is almost certain to take the fight of the year crown, I'd love to see him in the UFC if only so that more people could see him fight.
I think that is a good comparison, Werdum versus Dos Santos is another example that comes to mind.
Hopefully Randy won't make the same mistake against Toney, although I have to admit it would be quite funny if he was KO'd in seconds ala Silvia/Mercer.
I would normally like it, but not to Randy Couture. I think he's a little too smart to stand and bang, it was never a fight I wanted to see, Randy gets absolutely nothing from it, it's a fight beneath him (the same would be said for Roy Nelson if it had gone that way too) and Randy has nothing to gain and everything to lose.
If Couture gets him against the cage, then that's it.
