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UFC 98 turned out to be a pretty good night of fights which included the settling of a grudge match and another title changing hands in the 205 pound division. It was Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida’s win over “Suga” Rashad Evans that is going to be remembered most, and for good reason. It served notice that the Light Heavyweight division may have it’s first long time champ in…a long time.
Of the last 3 Light Heavyweight Champions, only 1 has defended his belt successfully, that being Rampage Jackson when he defeated Dan Henderson in 2007. For a champion who defended his title multiple times, you have to go back to Chuck Liddell who did it 4 times before falling to Rampage. The last 2 champs (Forrest Griffin, Evans) have been one-and-done Champions. The new champion doesn’t strike me as being in that same category.
First of all, lets go through the fight. It was as expected between 2 guys who aren’t especially known for their ability to finish fights. It was very tentative to start, with both fighters feeling eachother out and being very selective with their chances at engaging. But the second round transpired exactly as the calculated Machida had hoped. He found an opening, he was able to hurt Evans with a few shots and really start to take control of the round. Give Suga credit, he’s got a great chin and showed admirable heart staying alive as the round went on. But Machida smelled blood and he finished like many thought he was unable to do (even with the Thiago Silva KO). The way he finished the fight, the win over Silva, his perfect 14-0 record, and the body of work in his fights add up to 1 thing. One bad ass dude at the top of the 205 pound heap.
The reason I say that is because I just have a hard time believing there are many guys in this division that are going to be able to stop the Machida train. He’s now proven that his undefated record is 100% legit, and he’s proven in 2 consecutive fights that not only is he extremely elusive and frustrating to fight against; but he’s also got explosive and devestating knockout power. His calling card has been, and will remain, his elusiveness. The inability from top notch fighters to strike effectively against Machida has been well documented. Ask Rich Franklin, BJ Penn, Tito Ortiz, and now Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans. He still chooses his spots when to strike and has shown a great ability to defend the takedown. Already, that makes him top notch. But the KO power he’s shown makes him really, really scary to me. There aren’t very many guys at 205 pounds that I can see giving him a run…so maybe we will see a reign of more than 1 title defence for the first time in a long time.
Also on the card, the grudge match between Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. Hughes wins a unanimous decision in a fight that can only be summed up as “meh”. Neither fighter looked great; Hughes looked better than he has the last little bit and used his superior wrestling to work an all right ground and pound game. Serra had the advantage standing, but Hughes did the smart thing and took that away from him by forcing most of the 2nd and 3rd rounds the ground. But damn, how good did Frankie Edgar look in his 3 round dismantling of Sean Sherk? I thought that would be real close fight, but it wasn’t. Edgar controlled and simply dominated the whole time standing and was effective the few times he was taken down by Sherk. The 155 pound division should be on notice for “The Answer”.
Next up, UFC 99 in Germany on June 13th. Some really intriguing fights from the hardcore standpoint, but I wonder if the UFC ends up putting it on free TV without the huge name fights on the card. Love the main event, with Rich Franklin taking on Wanderlei Silva at 195 pounds.
I have a feeling Machida will be holding onto the title as long as he wants it.
PS: And from what I’ve seen of the conditioning from the guy, he’s about as focused a fighter as there is right now.
- BlaineAgreed Pat. Machida looked head and shoulders above Evans. Evans just couldn’t solve the quickness and the possible dangers.
However, I wasn’t as impressed with Edgar’s win over Sherk. To me, Sherk is done because he is a plodding, straight-ahead type fighter who can’t seem to move his head while coming in. His face told the story. I refuse to use Sherk as a measuring stick for Edgar. He’s going to have to fight someone else before I’ll give him some credit.
PS: On the Sherk front, I think you make a good point. He hasn’t showed any head movement in his last 3 fights, when he has gone 1-2. The BJ Penn fight was very similar, as he could not seem to move his head out of the way while throwing a punch and was continually peppered by the jab of Penn. However, what I did like was Edgar’s ability to not only out-strike Sherk, but to also do a fairly good job in neutralizing his wrestling and ground-and-pound game, so I give him a lot of credit for that.
- DarrenFirst I’ll offer up some of my takes on how the fights looked on Saturday.
Machida and Evans sorta went exactly like I thought it would. Both fighters were waiting on the other to make the first move. Rashad ended up making the first move and it ended up being his last. The one thing that did shock me a bit though…when Rashad got hit he tried to punch his way out of it, he threw punches to try and get a lucky one in and end the fight. I’m shocked he didn’t grab Machida in the clinch and try his best to recover. I’m also shocked that Rashad let him go so many times when he did get him in the clinch. Machida has not been tested much in the clinch, and I think Rashad letting him out was a big hole in his game plan.
Sera and Hughes solved nothing in my eyes. There were very few questions answered about who was actually the better fight. Sera let it get to the judges scorecards and thus deserves his fate. I think the allure of Matt Hughes won him in the match on the cards more than the actual fight itself.
Good on Frankie Edgar with his big win over Sean Sherk. Edgar had struggled in the past against strong wrestlers, but Sherk came in with a totally bone-headed strategy. Sherk made his money with strong wrestling and ground and pound. We saw neither in this fight. He stood still, took predictable angles, and barely even tried a take down. He has a long way to go before he’s ready for a title shot again, and I’m still uncomfortable with the whole banned substance thing, the guy looks totally jacked up and I haven’t seen any body change since his first bust for an illegal substance. This leads me to believe he’s still on something.
Finally shout out goes to Drew McFedries. This guy is hilarious to watch in a fight. He’s either going to knock someone out in a minute, or get knocked out himself. He reminds me of when Forrest Griffin first started fighting, they were always the most entertaining fight. I read an article on UFC.com suggesting that Anderson Silva should fight Drew just to put some spice back into the Silva brand of fighting. You know Drew would come out throwing.
PS: First off on the Machida fight, I agree. Rashad had some serious holes in gameplan, not the least of which was to try and out wait Machida. The other was the lack of any clinch game; and he made some bad decisions on top of that. I will credit him in the fact that he has a chin though! Again, agree 100% on the Hughes/Serra front. Nothing was solved! Matt Hughes is a Hall of Famer and got the decision on the back of that. Sherk, well, both you and Darren are on the same page, and you guys are both absoloutely correct. Plus, even when he DID try and shoot in this fight, he wasn’t very effective. At 35 years of age, you wonder how much more he’s got left, especially if he’s continually cutting 20 to 25 pounds per fight. McFedries is awesome. I remember when he fought Patrick Cote…it was the perfect main event, because you knew exactly what you were going to get! 2 guys who were going to come out swinging. He’s the type of guy that is never going to be at the top end of his weight class (he’s 8-5), but the UFC will keep him around because you know you’ll always get entertaining finishes out of him; regardless of if they go against him or for him.
- Jordan P