Comments on: Fight Critic: Breaking down UFC 84

By: wesley

wesley — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:22:58 +0000

p.s.
if you don’t appreciate what someone like machida does, then you’re not really an mma fan; machida fights using mixed martial arts. there’s not much “mixed” about what someone like liddell does in the cage.

By: wesley

wesley — Sat, 31 May 2008 07:33:34 +0000

the complaints against machida sound as though they’re coming from 5 yr. old children. any mma aficianado/fan who couldn’t appreciate what machida (and ortiz) were doing is both blind and obtuse. i saw machida sidestep a few times but never saw him “run”. “running” is something floyd mayweather does. if you want to see “running” in a fight, check out mayweather v. de la hoya. it’s a f—ing track meet thanks to floyd. i guarantee that you’ll nod off faster than you would watching c-span. machida juked, ducked, bobbed, weaved, punched, threw, threw-off, wrestled, kicked, kicked ass and otherwise dominated ortiz except for the brief moment he was being triangled and most mma fighters would have tapped had tito had them in the same position. machida’s switch kicks, takedown preventions, speed, agility, coordination and his occasional embarrassment of tito, such as when he floored hijm a few times with judo sweeps etc., was exhilarating compared to, for example, liddell’s one-dimensional stand-up. i think it’s amazing liddell has accomplished what he has given his dearth of other skills. i think liddell-machida would be almost as exciting as lidell-silva II if i weren’t such a big wanderlei fan. if chuck is such a great boxer, i assume if he fought someone like antonio tarver in an mma contest, he would have absolutely no problem (heh). while i think someone like machida would embarrass tarver, i have serious doubt as to whether liddell could survive given his insistence on stand-up only. can’t wait ’til the crossover fights begin—and they will—there’s way too much money to be made for them not to happen.

By: Mikee

Mikee — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:44:21 +0000

Sorry my typing is crap.

By: Mikee

Mikee — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:19:18 +0000

Tao of boring the hell out of me and thousands of other $44.95 paying fans maybe, is the only thing I have gotten from watching Machida fight. Very very very intelligent fighter, no doubt. Noone can evr say different. If I was in a street fight I would only pray I could be half as elusive as that dude. But I don’t pay $44.95 a month to watch someone run the whole time and engage for a few seconds a round. WTF?? I have been a fan for a very very long time and I understand his game plan, his style and mentality but inn the end you know what? He is in the business of entertaining and damnit, I want to be entertained. I even have my old lady into mma now and she says “god I hate watching that guy fight!” People demand entertainment for their dollar, not the crap I see when he gets in the cage. He has acknowledged even being boring and trying to adopt a more entertaining style. Kudos to him for at least admitting it.

By: platypus

platypus — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:11:58 +0000

machida is elite, and there should be elite level fighters in ufc

By: syd o

syd o — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:48:23 +0000

I agree that UFC curbed it’s marketing inanity. The # of adds and UFC “self hype” were much more subdued on both the UFC 84 countdown and the show itself. Perhaps it’s a move to legitmize itself as it would have done had it signed the CBS deal or they realize that it doens’t have to be as “in your face” as it used to be to create drama. Sometimes the fights sell themselves.

Also, I agree the Machida isn’t the most exciting but sa for a Art of War type of fighter he can’t be beat. He stays calm, avoids bad positions and jumps on any weakness his opponents present. He had Tito in a full crucifix and if there had been 10 more seconds the fight would have been stopped. Yes, he doesn’t allow himself to be walloped like Leben but isn’t that the point, to take much less damage than your opponent? Have you seen anyone get the Tao of fighting more than Machida?

By: MoreThanUFC

MoreThanUFC — Mon, 26 May 2008 05:25:38 +0000

You play both sides of the Machida debate. How….MMAJunkie of you.

By: Kogepan

Kogepan — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:32:28 +0000

UFC’s worst nightmare -> Machida LWH champ, Okami, MW champ!

Overall, pretty meh for me. All three main card fights were disappointiing, especially tito/machida. How anyone could say that any aspect of that fight was ‘breath taking’ is beyond me. Machida maybe skilled…but in terms of fight entertainment he fails horribly.

Good win for wanderlei, but quick KO really didn’t demonstrate that he is back. He got a flash knockdown against a guy with a suspect chin.

And Sherk is a complete idiot for standing 3 full rounds with BJ. The guy is 5’6 with alligator arms…

By: Jer

Jer — Mon, 26 May 2008 01:34:01 +0000

Sam, I usually love your commentary and fight analysis, but you through me off this time with your Kimbo comments. Did your really call him a superhero and put him on the same level as Chuck or Wandi? He MAY have all the potential in the world, but he only has three professional fights against opponents that are washed up with loosing records. Yes, I understand Shaw wants to pad his record and hype him up (he is a boxing promoter after all), but that tells us next to nothing about him as a fighter. Does he have a ground game? We don’t know. How will he react if he is put into danger? We don’t know. Etc, etc. The only thing we know is he is untested and unproven. To me it came off as a plug for Kimbo, maybe I am wrong, than a knowledgeable assessment of kimbo’s MMA credentials.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:42:45 +0000

I think it’s kind of BS to say Machida doesn’t ever deserve a title shot. He wins fights, period. If you really love the stuff, you’ll find the beauty in the way he fights, he’s exceptionally smart and has a very effective style whether people want to admit it or not.

Tim Sylvia got the HW title/title shots, Machida should get a LHW title shot if he gets up to #1 contender status. (I’ll say that he does have to go through either Wand, Shogun or Chuck to be considered the #1 contender, however he is deserving of the chance for sure.

By: Joe from Chile

Joe from Chile — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:45:15 +0000

Excellent piece Sam. I totally agree with everything, especially with the analysis you give on Lyoto Machida. In my humble opinion, he might be a good martial artist, and he can be very effective, but if he keeps fighting like that, he doesn’t deserve any kind of title shot ever. I also agree on everything you say about fights getting personal and then hearing those “i didn’t mean it” phrases. I remember how disgusted I was when I heard Shamrock say them, it sucks to hear it again from someone I actually respect like BJ.

By: Nate

Nate — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:33:15 +0000

Well said about the Sokoudjou vs. Nakamura fight, I was very eager to see it. I would be STOKED to see Shogun vs Sokoudjou, and appreciate you mentioning it.

I am not a Machida fan, but love his intelligent fight style.

Great analysis on Tito, he did carry the UFC. Interestingly the fight you mention was where I stopped watching him, that was in 2001.. since then every one of his fights have ended in losses or decisions. The only exception is against the washed up Ken Shamrock.

Wanderlei’s fight = INCREDIBLE. well said on him, I’ve been wanting him to look like he did last night for a while. Vicious. Shaved head + his PRIDE FC intro music, he was spot on.

By: Captain Popetastic

Captain Popetastic — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:14:35 +0000

http://www.sherdog.com/videos/videos.asp?v_id=1594

Sam, I don’t know if you saw this, and I apologize if anybody posted this above me, I didn’t notice. Greg Jackson was interviewed last night and he said Jardine was doing alright at that point.

By: HexRei

HexRei — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:52:54 +0000

I disagree with the Penn-Silva fight tho, I don’t see what the point would be. They are both incredible fighters but Anderson is very big middleweight. He would have an insane reach advantage over Penn in addition to 5 inches of height, and even if BJ started packing on weight again I think Silva would still come in at least twenty pounds heavier than BJ.

I think BJ vs GSP is actually a much more sensible fight.

By: HexRei

HexRei — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:34:25 +0000

Correct me if I am wrong, but did he not shoot in at one point and whiff completely?

Yep Sam, I noticed that too, Machida just sidestepped the shot completely and Tito didn’t even make contact. Machida also did an excellent job of avoiding any takedowns from the clinch, he just threw Tito away every time they clinched up- I think we saw a little of Lyoto’s sumo background there the way he was able to push Tito around in the clinch despite being smaller.

In fact, I really thought given Tito’s back and knees, he would use his size advantage to work takedowns from the clinch instead of shoots to make this more of a ground war. And he probably should have, that triangle almost finished Machida!

By: 5percentbodyfat

5percentbodyfat — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:48:34 +0000

One more thing I was thinking about:

Why is it, that the UFC has started to making pairings that favor a particular fighter, or a particular style. Hear we are talking about Wanderlei, when his last two fights in the UFC has been against two stand up fighters. Did the UFC feel that they made a mistake with Lesnar, and said whoops we made him fight Mir when we really should have made him fight Mark Coleman. Enough of the blatant style favoritism.

By: 5percentbodyfat

5percentbodyfat — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:20:15 +0000

Sam, for some reason over the past couple of UFC’s I’ve been repeatedly disappointed by your fight analysis. I understand that everyone has their own opinion but your criticism has either been way off base of avoiding the main points of the evening.

1. Everyone’s HD is going to be different, and has more to do with your television and your cable provider. Last night I watched the fight on a 61 inch HD rear projection, and it was utterly crappy. But if I watch the fight on a 32 inch LCD or plasma it almost comes in picture perfect.

2. Full disclosure: I am not heavily into the PRIDE fighters, and I believe there are reasons for many of their poor performances.

Moving On, Keith Jardine is not a benchmark for which someone should judge themselves by. His chin is always suspect as many of us saw in the Houston fight. Many overlooked that fight as a lucky punch or were too heavily into the racial overtones to really see Jardines weakness.

What is his weakness exactly? Yes, on the surface it is his weak chin, but in both the Houston fight and in last night’s fight can we say that it is really his poor decision making. Come on, who says to themselves, “Wow, I’m in a punch-a-thon with Wanderlei Silva, I must throw a weak kick to Silva’s calf.” Really that is what lead to the KO, a poor ill-timed kick.

Silva is not back. He needs to fight someone with more credibility to be back. How about a Silva versus Machida or going down in weight to fight Bisping. But no he does not get a title shot for winning 1 out of his last 4 against Keith Jardine.

———————————————————————-

Where does Penn move next? If Huerta wins, then Huerta, if not then GSP.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:53:33 +0000

Fantastic analysis. I don’t necessarily agree with all of it (re. Machida = boring) but your arguments are sound.

I’d have liked you to have called out Yamasaki a little more for his wishy-washy stoppage of the fight but overall, excellent job.

By: mike wolfe

mike wolfe — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:51:19 +0000

Quote of the night: David Spade’s lip synched “Holy Sh**” after Wanderlai’s ko of Jardine. Not much more to say after that.

By: slimm

slimm — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:48:21 +0000

Sam no offense having Kimbo in a coversation with Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell, and Mike Tyson is horrible, i know u were talking about pure aggression in the cage or ring….. but beating up the always dangerous Bo Cantrell and the devstating Tank Abbott doesnt realy give him the killer instinct and true rage of likes of Wanderlei Chuck or Tyson…. those fighters have destroyed with their rage some of the best…. o and i like Kimbo and hope he has great success yet he doesnt ever ever need to be compaired to Wanderlei or Chuck

Lyoto….. i can understand where people get that he may be boring, yet when he “turns it on” the guy is awesome, he made Tito miss bottom line pickd his shots and dominateted the fight look at Tito’s face he got hit once or twice

Wanderlei….. i have alway been a fan and that is exactly why, his destruction of people is classic what he has done over in Pride, hell he owns Rampage he has demolished him twice and now finally the UFC fans get to see why Wanderlei is considered one of the best ever….

Jardine…. that was scary i was sooo happy Wand won the it was like is dude ok he didnt look right at all even when he walked out he still didnt look right

Baby J…… thatnk god for the flying knee perfect and great, he was out boxing Sean and just taking his time, why would u let BJ dictate how u fight ever that was dumb… and thankfully BJ came out the victor, classic licking of the blood… wonderful….. and he wants to build his legacy and holding two belts at the same time if he were to beat GSP would make him the best P4P and quite possibly the best fighter in the world and is that too much to ask….? just my opionion on a night of fantastatic fight…. cheers…