I know sod all about MMA really (which is why I've put this in general), but you can guess why I'm a Machida fan. I've decided this is going to be an awesome fight, not least because of the stats Anyone have any expert opinion?
Haha... my friend who's getting his Masters in English actually pointed out to me that "evasive" would be a more correct term. To which I promptly told him to shut up, he was spoiling the fight. Silva is probably better on the ground; Machida seems to use his ground skills defensively unless he completely outclasses the guy. And Silva has more power. The thing is that he's agressive and sloppy, which means that he'll probably play right into Machida's hands. Machida also has good enough takedown defense so that the ground probably won't be an issue. I'm picking Machida by UD (unanimous decission, for the newbs).
I agree completely, Machida by UD. On the other hand, I'd be more surprised if Machida won by knockout or submission than if Silva did.
I don't have an 'expert' opinion... But Machida by TKO is my bet. Late in 2nd round. Machida is probably one of my favorites...
Man Machida really divides people. He's like marmite it seems. I've not seen enough of either to call it but an aggressive and sloppy fighter up against a renowned evasive and technical counter striker seems a win for Machida a likely outcome.
Machida by UD in my opinion. Yet I hope he doesn't because last time I saw him fight against Tito it was possibly one of the worst "fights" ever. It was so bad I ended up supporting tito.
An evasive technician like Machida should take this, but only if he can control the setpoint. If he does this, it's his fight to win or lose. However, if he gets sloppy or makes a big mistake, he can easily give this one away.
I'm not trying to be smart here, but couldn't that be said about any fighter? I mean you're basically saying, "If he controls the fight, he'll win; if he makes a mistake, he'll lose." I mean that's true, but it's been true of just about every fight I've ever seen.
I actually really enjoyed that fight (as far as I can remember). I don't want every fight to be like a machida fight, but I find having him fight on a card adds diversity in the way of seeing a really technical striker who does some uncommon moves (like his punch trip against soko).
Dang. I predicted tko, but I expected it to at least go to the 2nd. I also enjoyed the Tito fight. Machida is fun to watch, imho.
Callsignfuzzy, The majority of fighters in my experience do very little to actively and deliberately work on setpoint control in a fight and only a small percentage are very good at it. Most either control the fight by their superior attributes or by default. Machida is one of the fighters who have put a priority on this and has spent a lot of time, effort, and energy at mastering this. Even so, you have to be on your "A"-game with such tactics and when fighting an opponent with great striking power, a slip up can cost you the fight. A great example of that is Randy Couture's loss to Brock Lesnar. I've never seen Randy nearly as good at setpoint control as Machida, but it was evident that he had put a lot of work into it for his victory over Tim Sylvia. It was also just as obvious that he hadn't put as much time and energy into setpoint control against Lesnar.
SPOILERS Spoiler Well I was right but for slightly the wrong reasons. Machida's TKO (or was it a KO) was the only finish of the main card, slightly ironic.
Jesus, people, after every event. Let's try this one more time: Use spoiler tags if your post reveals the outcome of a match/event until 24 hours after the event! Read the stickies on spoilers if you need a reminder.
Interesting quote from the Sherdog main page (article UFC 94 Analysis: On Prominence and Possibility): I'm surprised he doesn't have this huge karate fan base? I rarely see posts about him in the karate forum of this site. Here is a guy who is, almost single-handedly, making people take a second look at shotokan (and by extention shotokan descendents like ITF TKD) and yet he gets little discussion or praise by practitioners of that art. Very strange.
well, i've seen him get bashed by a local high ranking karateka (and a very good one, btw, and shotokan, no less), basically because he views MMA not exactly as thuggish, but as a futile exercise in hurting each other. go figure. he doesn't have a lot of karate following because most karatekas have their prejudices too
The portion of karatekas who actually like MMA is probably a small percentage of overall karatekas. Apparently, Machida still isn't getting a title shot.
MacWombat and Fish of Doom- You guys are both right (and I've seen some of the same). But I still find it very, very, strange. I'd think the guy would have a fan base as big than anyone...but it isn't the case.