I have to say the best match of the night was Machidas victory over Tito. His use of feints and good tai sabaki(foot work) frustrated the shit out of Tito. Its amazing how much he frustrates his opponents simply by not trying to stand and bash with them but by using alot of skill and evasive technique. When he nailed Tito with that knee in the sternum i was screaming like crazy. anyone elses thought on the match and Machidas footwork/striking?
If anyone says shit about running... Lyoto for the first two rounds pretty much embarrassed Tito with the old "I can hit you but you can't hit me", and for all Tito's bitching about Lyoto's movement, he stepped-in deep with a jab not once. Lyoto sticks his chin up when he circles-out, 1-1-2, or 1-1-3, and he'd have been hit. I think Tito started to figure that out, but too late in the fight. He fell into every trap Lyoto set. He even got hit by shit you hear people in here exclaiming that a good MMA guy would never get hit by.
I love the guy, but... He is basically the most cautious pure counter fighter that I have ever seen. He is like the textbook definition of a hit and run fighter and counter fighter. And he was gassed out there. He looked and acted rather weird towards the middle of the 2nd round. And he put his hand down a lot more frequently than usual. And he started makin those funny ass facial expressions. I thought they were done to taunt, but he was just breathing deep in and out. But his wrestling really impressed me. but his punch power doesnt. He's built to fight that way it seems. But Tito's bottom game really fucking surprised me. I thought i was gonna have a heart attack.
Actually, in the 3rd round, there were couple of times where Lyoto stood still right in front of tito, but tito didnt engage at all. Ricco told him to engage with the multiple jabs, but tito really didnt do that either. All in all, Tito just didnt have it to beat machida standing.
he was really reading ortiz's movement and everytime there was an opening he would attack, highly technical striking but too much like karate point sparring sadly.
LOL at the end of the second round when Tito throws p his arms because Machida wouldn't stand and trade with him.
don't get me wrong saying he has no power. but i thought he fought his fight by breaking down the opponent with many technical strikes and winning by points. not to take anything away from his power
Well the problem with starnes was that, whenever Starnes engaged, he got the worse end of the stick each time. So he got scared and literally circled around the whole octagon. At least, Machida showed some sort of superiority.
I didn't think you were, just saying the dude kicks hard. He may not punch hard (and I think that has to do with two things, one is Karate style punching, two that his feet aren't planted when he throws his hands), but he definitely kicks hard.
I laughed when Tito shot in for a TD and Machida was standing about a foot to the side. I don't think I have ever seen that before, like Machida was a matador
This is where i agree 100% he doenst seem to have great hand power, at times he would counter titos wild hooks with 2-3 decent punches but none seemed to do much to tito. But his kicks seemed to have good/very good power, and he had some pretty front/round/cut kicks. I enjoy watching the guy fight, id be intrested to see someone with GOOD hands fight him though where they dont fall into his traps. His power surprised me with the GnP at the end of the first, but titos sub at the end of round 3 had my screaming as well. :icon_chee I thought it was a verfy good fight.
He almost has a very sqaure stance (old school Karate) so that would explain it. Also gives him the great side movement. Wonder how a good kickboxer/thai boxer would do if they could catch him in his his latteral movement with good kicks.
Lyoto is one of the top 3 strikers in MMA in my opinion (With Anderson and Mirko). I love his style and footwork.
Uh...I don't know about that. His boxing is pretty much non-existant! I'd rank Jens Pulver's striking better than his.
Jen's has solid striking, but he doesn't have the footwork, kicking, or clinch of Machida. But I would have to agree that Jens has superior hands, few people have better hands than Jens in MMA.
his style is definetly interesting, but i dont find it weird at all(mainly cause i trained with so many different stylists). I think he's a little overcautios which makes him not so dangerous, and less exciting. his mind games are brilliant he's really good at reading distance which is missing in many mmaists. i would rank range as his biggest weapon. he tends to fight at a longer distance than most mma guys, so he can hit and run a lot. but he has to be since point sparring is all get hit without getting tagged. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4nqbAfzrg-E&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4nqbAfzrg-E&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object> watch his patience point sparring. it is similar to the way he fights in the cage. just a higher guard and follow through on strikes, and less kia
Glad to see Machida getting some love in here Dudes getting a lot of hate and being accused of running away ala Kalib Starnes in the HW forum. A lot of "I hope I never see him fight again" posts, when will people realise that hitting your opponent without them being able to effectively do the same back is advance striking skills I knew I could rely on the stand up forum guys to recognise and appreciate such abilities
People that say Machida is boring don't appreciate the sport. Lyoto made a fool out of Tito tonight. His style is just so hard to adapt to. Fighters probably watch this and think, "c'mon, the guy can't be that hard to hit." But when you fight him, it's a totally different story. Congrats to Lyoto on an impressive victory.
