Frank Mir was a certifiable trash talker until yesterday. With the ” I want to break (Lesnar’s) neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person that dies due to octagon-related injuries” Frank Mir crossed a line that could make for an anecdotal case for having one’s head examined.
“A lot of individuals are so worried about being politically correct,” Mir said in a radio interview. “I’d rather go ahead and say what’s on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC ‘Oh, the guy is a great fighter and I have a lot of respect for him.’ If I don’t mean it, why is it even coming out of my mouth?”
“I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person. I want to break his neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That’s what’s going through my mind.” (Frank Mir with Mark Madden, Radio Interview)
That Frank’s remark was highly impolitic, regardless of what other purpoted trash-talkers have said in the past, goes without saying – which is why the UFC came down hard on him (More on this later on.) The public significance of that is now moot. Frank has apologized, but not before being publicly lambasted as a “(bleeping) idiot” by Dana White. These are sensitive times:
“Mir is a [expletive] idiot! I have never heard something so unprofessional and idiotic in my life,” (Dana White with Carmichael Dave of KHTK, Sacramento, CA)
The remark was out of line – even when you listen to it in the context of the interview Mir had with Madden:
What does it say about Frank’s frame of mind? His touch or lack thereof with the bounds of propriety in time-space and circumstance? To examine this from a different perspective, we would like to suggest two different ways in which two UFC fighters in recent memory have dealt with the challenge or trauma of losing, namely Frank Mir and Rashad Evans.
Frank Mir stranded on a head trip? A study in contrasts
Rashad Evans: Grounded in victory and defeat? You be the judge.
Legend: The story of Rashad Evans is very instructive of how fighters can handle a traumatic loss, because this is a guy who went into virtual hibernation after the shock and awe of his loss to Lyoto Machida in UFC 98. Evans who should never have given into the temptation of playing the cocky-punk-ass because he doesn’t play a very convincing heel to begin with, had the extra feelings of embarrassment to deal with. His post-hibernation interview posted on Youtube is a riveting study in humility and soul searching. True, Evans’ drubbing was not crowned with eggregious ridicule and unsportmanlike showboating, but his unstinting inner focus is very instructive of a man who had reconnected with his inner man and responsibilities, regardless of what had happened to him. To say that Frank Mir could not have found this inner focus, especially after Lesnar’s unsportsmanlike demonstrations, is to absolve him of personal responsibility in a way that belittles him as a man.
We do have a theory though: Frank found it hard to recover mentally or emotionally because by the time the fight rolled along, he had already invested too much in the mental and emotional bet of trash talking – and that the trash talking may just have been motivated by his own fears of what Lesnar would do to him. Remember that Frank had tussled with Lesnar at UFC 81 and had a pretty good idea of the kind of power Lesnar had. Fighters have a special place for these kinds of memories.
Whichever way one analyzes this, it is clear that Frank never really recovered from the gambit he committed himself to after UFC 81. Our theory would more than explain why someone who had won that fight would resort to over-the-top trash talking as the next fight approached. The champion/interim champion issue doesn’t explain the ensuing back-and-forth that ended up with quite a bit of ill-feeling as UFC 100 would show.
Case closed? Hardly. We are just clearing our throats. Come back in about 24 hours for the fleshing out of this theme. This latest outburst by Frank Mir shows that he is not reliably in touch with the bounds of propriety. This greatly diminishes his status within the MMA community. This is baggage Frank does not need. Beyond his a need to handle his octagon demons better, he is faced with the nearly insurmountable task of winning back the fan goodwill that was his for the taking prior to UFC 81.
Coming up in this article:
What the heck was wrong with Mir’s statement and why he doesn’t seem to be getting it. See Ben Fowlkes article under “Appendices.”
Like Lesnar before him, he has frittered away his P.R. advantage – and for what?
Frank Mir’s win against chiseled Parisian, Cheick Kongo, at UFC 107 last night was impressive, but Frank’s trash talking prior to the fight took more from his win than Kongo’s status as a fighter whose career seems to be on the wane. The post-fight conciliatory gestures did little take away the sour-taste-in-the-mouth following the pre-fight acrimony. It does not matter that Frank’s analysis of Kongo’s talents or lack thereof, was spot on. There is trash talking and then there is trash talking. The fact that the normally reticent Kongo took particular umbrage to it just put an exclamation point to this particular spat. (See how Kongo turned his back to Frank at the weigh-in.) There is a certain unwritten science and art to it as Mir found out in the Brock Lesnar affair.
The unnecessary trash talking against Kongo placed Frank in the unenviable position of being “the jerk” who won; which is an odd position for a man who used to be Mr. Nice. After all the trash talking, there was very little room for the kind of inspirational speech-making he gave after knocking off Big Nog, Antonio Nogueira at UFC 92.
The role of the trash-talking “heel” for Mir is as ill-fitting as a “gi” on Yokozuna. Please note that the trash-talking started around the time Mir’s career had become stagnant. And prior to UFC 107 last night, his mouth was running more than a broken toilet bowl. Coincidence? Perhaps not.
(The fabricated bad blood, such as the ballyhooed one between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans) is the kind of crap the UFC needs to stay away from lest it begins to manifest hereditary genes of the WWE bloodline. (UFC 107: A better card out of the blue – Cyberaxis)
Standing Caveat: This is not your little brother’s WWE: And it cannot be all light-hearted ribbing when your opponent takes umbrage at your talk and bashes your face in a few more times a la Brock Lesnar or Dan Henderson in the case of the pesky Michael Bisping. The only exception to the rule about trash talking is when you have fighters who choose trash talking as part of their persona. Mir did not start off this way, hence our dismay at this insidious drift which leaves him in no-man’s land because Mir is not an avowed heel.
Those who defend this trend as a way to drum publicity should think of the WWE and the fact that its recessive genes may find bothersome expression in UFC culture.
Cyberaxis to Frank Mir: Shut the fuck up and remember this UFC 100 drubbing every time you try to open your mouth. (Photo by Associated Press)
As for Frank, he in the interim, needs to decide whether his spiel is gonna veer more towards comedy which is pardonable or the-walk-the-talk realism which is permissible only if he can walk the talk. In the months and weeks prior to UFC 100, it veered more towards comedy and the people who were disinclined to cut him some slack forgave him because his life was clearly on the line.
Be that as it may, the trash talking against Lesnar, following Mir’s drubbing at UFC 100, created a monumental PR/image problems for the UFC veteran. There was some justifiable sense, pari passu, that Mir’s merciless drubbing and Lesnar’s over-the-top celebration was Mir’s deserved comeuppance. Yes, there are people who withheld sympathy for Mir because of his taunting of Lesnar.
If Frank wasn’t such an insecure prick, he’d be very likable. He’s very good on the WEC as a analyst, but once you put an opponent in front of him, he becomes a tool. What’s funny is that he seems to fluctuate between the insecure toolishness and genuine goodness that he possesses. During the Countdown show, he said Kongo’s striking was mediocre. Then at the pre-fight presser today, he says that he’s a great striker and that he will look to take the fight to the ground. Very interesting guy, he just needs to realize that he’s a great fighter and doesn’t need to mask his insecurities with cockiness. (Spirona, Reader Comments, Five Ounces of Pain 12/10/09)
Mir should resolve to zip it up at this point and let his fighting do the talking, unless he wants to become “the Lesnar of the mouth” – which is really representative of the failure of inner PR.
The news that Quinton Jackson has quit UFC should really come as no surprise. Couture was the first to ever, burst upon that silent sea. And talking about things oceanic, the spoiled sea-food smell around L’affaire de Machida was the first tip off that something was indeed “rotten in the State of UFC” and we said so at the time. (Surprise, surprise.) Now comes the revelation in a no-holds-barred announcement on Quinton Jackson’s website, that that was just one, of a long litany of disappointments, that made him quit UFC. And one of the things he mentions is that Dana White DID NOT give him a shot at Machida’s title after UFC 98, which if true, would bolster our contention that Jackson was clearly dissembling in that well publicized interview in which he defended what he presented at the time as his decision not to fight Machida. Quote:
“When Rashad got knocked out I told them I wanted to fight Machida for the belt but Dana told me if I coach TUF against Rashad that I could fight Machida afterwards cause this was a different type of ultimate fighter show they were doing. After I signed the contract Dana then changes his mind and says I have to fight Rashad and even told me what to say in the press and so my fans think I was scared to fight Machida. After all that I still never complained and I did it all.” (Quinton Jackson)
The plot thickens. Of course there are two sides to every story, even where Dana “The Great” White is concerned. So Quinton may practically be screwing himself in the rear with the timing of his exit and the reason for doing so (the chance to play B. A. Baracus in the movie remake of “The ‘A’ Team“).
Quinton Jackson: Old school slugger holding an incidental flashlight to the belly of the UFC beast. He is not always the most rational, but there are some issues that go beyond him here, namely the UFC's decision making process.
But the fact that Quinton Jackson may not be as smart or as pure as the driven snow does not negate the fact that Dana White makes screwy decisions sometimes. Heck, the fact that a guy as gentlemanly as Randy Couture said sayonara to the Hairless One and the UFC once, should give all level-headed fans a pause for thought. So the bottomline is that Dana is not gonna come out smelling like a rose in this one. He may, like Vince McMahon in the case of Bret Hart, argue that Quinton Jackson owes “loyalty” to the biz that paid his bills when the chips were down, but that won’t wash, especially coming from someone like him. Dana has fanboys that regularly polish his knob (figuratively of course), but there is a large chunk of MMA fandom, that is hip to his machinations. Jackson’s official announcement did a lot to expose the belly of the beast and how fight decisions are made. The Machida-Jackson reversal, if true, may turn out to be one of the worst decisions Dana White made; an unraveling point that denied MMA fans of a historic face-off while depriving Machida of a great exclamation point to his inchoate career.
Iconography of dominance (In the animal kingdom, such verities have distinct ordors): Quinton Jackson as Lobo King of Currumpaw cuts loose with a trademark howl in front of a fallen ungulate ( Read that Chuck Liddell). Can characters like Quinton Rampage Jackson be easily replaced? The question is rhetorical.
This is a messy stew and noone at this juncture can figure out what went into it. But lets be real. This is a shady business. And as Modus Operandi go, it couldn’t be that far removed from the shady world of boxing. Call it a recessive gene of the industry. So the expectations that things are gonna be on the up and up are just stupid. There is enough grease in this business to grease more than one fat pair of hands. It ain’t your mama’s PTA and neither should it be. Cobbling a fight organization from near scratch is no business for matrons or pillars of society. So characters like Dana have their uses.
And Quinton Jackson has had his issues in the past. But just because Dana White and UFC helped him when he was down doesn’t mean UFC can squeeze him at every turn. The more hard-nosed will say, hey, this is business – but even they have to admit that lop-sided quid pro quo’s rarely end with happy tidings.
Our sentimentality vote goes with Quinton Jackson on this one. He is the little guy and he stands to lose this unless he can make a quick re-entry into MMA after his movie. His acting career ain’t going anywhere and the glory days of an MMA fighter are woefully numbered. Ten years, if that, is a tight window for a sport that does not pay very much. And if Jackson burns his bridges with UFC, where is he gonna go?
Everything in our crystal ball says Quinton Jackson will do his movie and quickly come back to MMA either with UFC or via another promotion. If not, he will go quietly into that goodnight while taking obscure exhibition fights to, as he originally put it, “feed his family.” The UFC will do OK without Jackson, but the 205lb division will miss the energy, passion and technicolor he brought to the octagon for the next five years.
Now having said that, here is the resignation statement that Quinton Jackson posted on his website ( log in information required). We are posting it here verbatim:
Quinton Rampage Jackson Resignation Statement:
Quinton Rampage Jackson:Shades of a true original
“I’m done fighting. The UFC has done a lot for me but I think I have done more for them. The UFC bought WFA to get my contract and they saved my life, so I felt loyal to them. They pushed me into a fight with Chuck Liddell even when I clearly stated I wasn’t ready to fight for the belt because the American fans didn’t know me but I took the fight and didn’t complain and after I won the American fans booed me for the first time which changed the way I saw them and it hurt me deeply.
“Then before I can even get out of the cage they announced that I was fighting Dan Henderson without even asking me. After I beat Dan Henderson, I made history in becoming the first undisputed champion in MMA but was never even given the pride belt in the cage and I was never promoted as the undisputed champ. Later Anderson Silva was.
“Then they had me coach TUF season 7 and fight Forrest and the fight was very controversial and normally when a fight is that close and controversial there is normally an instant replay. I can name a couple of instances. Instead they offered me the Vanderlei Silva fight which I gladly accepted even though I know it was a very risky fight for me to take because of all the drama that was happening to me at the time. I fought that fight with a jaw injury and then a couple weeks later Dana called me and asked me to fight Rashad. For the first time I said no, I didn’t want to fight because it was such short notice and I wouldn’t have had a long break between camp. Dana talked me into fighting Rashad anyway but Rashad refused the fight and so I had to fight Jardine as a favor to the UFC instead of getting my belt back (which wasn’t even worth it to me financially).
“Then I reinjured my jaw in the fight with Vanderlei and Jardine. Frank Mir gets hurt so they wanted to switch my fight from UFC 100 to the fight Frank couldn’t make it to but I couldn’t fight cause I needed jaw surgery. So they give Machida the fight against Rashad and they told me they want me to coach TUF season 10 against Rashad. That’s why I wanted Rashad to win so bad but when Rashad got knocked out I told them I wanted to fight Machida for the belt but Dana told me if I coach TUF against Rashad that I could fight Machida afterwards cause this was a different type of ultimate fighter show they were doing. After I signed the contract Dana then changes his mind and says I have to fight Rashad and even told me what to say in the press and so my fans think I was scared to fight Machida. After all that I still never complained and I did it all.
Then this movie role came about that I have been trying to get for over a year and as soon as I found out I was close to getting it, I called Dana right away and asked to push the Memphis fight back just a month or so. I told him what this movie role meant to me. I told him that I used to bond with my father watching the TV show as a kid when my parents where still married & it represents the memories I had with my father when we lived together. My dad became an alcoholic and addicted to drugs and we grew apart. But after my dad got his life back together, I was so proud of my dad and I told him I would always take care of him in the future and make him proud of me. My dad and I are still very big fans of the show and I am basically doing this for the childhood memories I had spending time in front of the TV with my dad. Dana went on the internet and mocked me because of that and I still did nothing. Dana and I finally talked and we made up and then after that he went back on the internet and said some bullshit and he was talking bad about the movie when information is not even supposed to be released and talking about payments which is not even true could really hurt my future acting career, which could very well last longer than my fighting career. I’m not like Randy Couture. My body has been getting so many different injuries that I wont be able to fight until my forties and neither do I want to fight that long. So I feel like my second career could be in jeopardy. So I’m done fighting. I’ve been getting negative reviews from the dumb ass fans that don’t pay my bills or put my kids though college. So I’m hanging it up. I’m gonna miss all my loyal fans but hopefully they’ll follow me to my new career and I will gain more loyal fans along the way. And all you hater fans out there can kiss my big black hairy ass! And anybody that don’t like what I just said can come try to kick my ass!
“I still feel the UFC is a great organization and I felt like I was very loyal to them but they didn’t respect my loyalty but I wish the UFC the best. I did a lot of things for them. I wish no bad blood between us but I have kids and a family back in Memphis to provide for and that’s all that matters to me!” (Quinton Rampage Jackson)
Enter The Dragon:The UFC coming of a Shotokan wunderkind named Lyoto Machida.
Until the Friday morning of June 5, 2009, the much anticipated Machida-Jackson matchup in UFC 104 had been sending out Jurassic Park tremors felt and seen even by little old ladies sipping tea in Bayou trailer parks. The reason for the techtonic “thump, thump, thump” heard around the world, had not been some Jurassic Park monster, but a Shotokan wunderkind named Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida. His showdown with Quinton Jackson for the UFC light heavyweight championship would have roiled the masses, and made Mir vs Lesnar look like an undercard of a three-month fight card …. if you get our drift.
This tantalizing scenario was a distinct possibility until that Friday morning when the equally earth-shaking announcement was made that the much anticipated fight would not happen. Reason? Well, nobody really knows the real reason except Quinton Jackson and Dana White. The story that is being fed the masses is that it was Quinton Jackson who made the final decision to nix the Machida-Jackson title fight in favor of fighting the loser of UFC 98. In other words he was chosing to fight a dethroned gadabout, Rashad Evans instead of the man who had handed him his head in UFC 98 which would stand him a chance of winning back his light heavyweight belt. Makes sense? No?
Well, don’t try too hard because very little makes sense here. The first problem has to do with Quinton Jackson himself who is less than convincing when he tries to tell the world why he is choosing to fight a loser. Locker room humor is no substitute for telling the truth:
Money? Settling a personal score? Jackson sounds like he is dissembling here. The best he stands to win from this is a bit of PPV chump change (if you buy his arguments) but this would really be coming at the expense of whatever credibility he has had as a fighter and career strategist. We believe Jackson when he says that he isn’t afraid of Machida but we also know that he knows he cannot beat Machida at this point in time – which could “splain” the business calculus that went into this. So the fans who are suspicious of his motives when he bobs, ducks and weaves around the question of dodging Machida, are not as crazy as he would like the world to believe. Jackson’s attempt to pooh pooh the fans’ skepticism just pits his shaky credibility against thousands of fans.
Despite the power and mofo swagga, did Jackson blink when faced with the prospect of an almost certain defeat at the hands of Lyoto Machida?
The truth may very well be that Jackson is trying to extend his 15 minutes of fame here; The same 15 minutes that would be eclipsed by a lopsided loss to Machida. Losses at certain junctures of a fighter’s life can create a tricky slippery slope. Just ask Chuck Liddell, or Wanderlei Silva for that matter. The damage can be perceptual, mental, financial or a deleterious combination of all of the three. Talking about which, watch Rashad Evans trying to dig himself out from the deep hole Machida left him in at UFC 98. Existing perceptions of him aside, Evans comes across in that video as a sympathetic, down to earth contender who is willing to shuck former octagon theatrics and eat crow where he deserves to eat crow; a situation which kind of takes the air out of Jackson’s contention that he is fighting Evans for “getting in his face” after his fight with Jardine.
Mauricio Rua will now take Jackson’s place in the Machida/Rua fight at UFC 104 in Los Angeles. This fight will just not pack as much of a media and emotional wallop as Machida/Jackson fight would have. The argument that Jackson’s grudge against Rashad Evans took precedence over winning back his light heavy-weight title is just plain hooey. Rashad, especially after Machida, doesn’t even have the makings of a worthy arch rival. Forget about that staged confrontation following UFC 92. It was tripe and bad acting straight from the cheesiest Vince McMahon playbook.
Message in a bottle: We will probably never know what went on behind the scenes to bring about the delay of the Machida/Jackson fight, but it certainly wasn’t good for MMA. While it may conceivably be good for the “green core” (read that dollars and cents), it certainly isn’t good for the “hard core” which is the spirit of MMA. This smacks too much of the decisions that brought about the inexplicable ascendance of Brock Lesnar to the top of the heavyweight division. Such decisions breed skepticism and make fans step back the way some boxing fans stepped back from Don King and company when the management and promotional jinks just got funkier and funkier. What this means in practical terms to UFC 104 for example, is that some fans who may have shelled out $45 for Pay Per View or flown to Los Angeles for the actual Machida/Jackson fight will either settle for seeing it in a local sports bar or read about it on the internet.
What this also portends for the more perceptive fans is that the UFC is a phenomenon that should be enjoyed from a safe tactical distance; which in practical termsmeans is not falling for every piece of hype and tripe of UFC. This way, they get to keep their wits about them, not to mention their money.
The fact of the matter is that UFC does not really need this crazy baggage … or taint. We hope the Fertitta brothers are reading this and someone talks to Dana White about keeping things on the up and up.
By way of background to an increasingly convoluted story, Lyoto Machida is the Shotokan specialist who punched out Rashad Evans in spectacular fashion at UFC 98 and set the MMA world a-flutter with talk of a new “Machida Era.” Hype or triumph? Read up on the buzz and decide for your self. And just to clear some people’s wilful cobwebs, it was Dana White himself who averred that Jackson would be the first to take a shot at Machida’s title. He accented to this at the post-UFC 98 press conference:
To be fair, he did not say where or when the fight would happen, but he did mention that it would coincide with the first defence of Machida’s title, which would make it UFC 104. Now given that admission, it stretches credibility to a breaking point that the final word on the fight would be left to someone as external to the management loop as Quinton Jackson.
Jackson is to Machida what Rua will never be: No man is invincible, but Machida looks impressive right about now. His last two wins have established him as an uber technician who combines speed with power and accuracy in ways that are unprecedented in MMA. (Check out “The Machida Era Begins” by Richard Hubbard at Nokaut)
After his impressive win over Evans, his seventh in the UFC, Machida is now set to face fellow compatriot Mauricio Rua whose aggressive stand-up is a clear foil to his counter-striking style. While from a technical standpoint, the fight has the potential of igniting jaw-dropping pyrotechnics, it just doesn’t pack the same wallop on an stylistic and iconographic level. While the outcome of a Machida-Jackson fight was a foregone conclusion, it still made for a more intriguing fight than Machida vs Rua will ever be. And the reason has to do with what Machida vs Jackson represented (The old vs the new with a tinge of the corn-fed vs the range-fed rivalry, if you get our drift.)
Jackson, a tough-as-nails Pride vet who brings a Tysonesque frenzy to the octagon would have been a perfect foil to Machida; a martial artist whose will o’ wisp elusiveness is only matched by his blinding speed. The two fighter’s physical stats are almost identical. However Machida’s speed and south-paw/back leaning style would have created serious problems for Jackson. Very few fighters have figured out how to deal with Machida’s extended “event horizon.” He creates it by a spring-loaded left foot that is always cocked on a hair trigger. The quick retraction of that foot upon devastating impact may be one of the secrets behind the Machida mojo. He retracts it to create tactical distance as well as regain balance in almost zero time. It is this very foot that took the air out of Evans before Machida moved in for the coup de grace. (That short video clip will be studied for years to come.)
Jackson’s problem would not only have been his vulnerability to kicks ( four of his seven losses have been due to knees and kicks), but his lack of speed in and outside of the clinch zone. Jackson would have been a conventional fighter in a fight that would have been anything but conventional. His 30 fights would have been nothing but an open book for Machida to study and dissect before stepping into the ring to blow his head off. Jackson would have been a sitting duck short of bringing something new to the octagon; a prospect which would have been as unlikely as his victory. Perhaps more than anything, Jackson’s bull-headedness would have stood to do him in quicker than Machida’s “fists of fury.”
UFC104 at the Staples Center in September 2009 down-graded to a shootout between fellow Brazilians Machida and Rua. This fight card, while good, will not lead to the PPV Lolapalooza that Jackson vs Machida would have garnered.
UFC 104 with Machida vs Jackson would have clearly overshadowed UFC 100 by a long shot. Pay Per View would have gone through the roof because of people clamoring to see how the newest kid on the block was gonna put a Shotokan kibosh on one of MMA’s toughest muthas. The dojo vs the mean streets. Brilliant!
Frank Mir vs Brock Lesnar is gonna be big in its own right, but there is a relative limit to how big it can get because of what it represents; namely more of the same. Machida vs Jackson would have been different; the charge of the new light brigade versus the old …. and all on a tab and timetable that would have pleased MMA fans to no end. After the Brock Lesnar fandango, Dana White at least owed MMA fans that much.
The fair breeze blew,
The white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Samuel Coleridge Taylor
(Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner)
"O Novo Dragao," Lyoto Machida: The UFC coming of a Shotokan wunderkind.
“In the year of the Dragon
Lots of men disappear,
It’s quiet as a cat
It will be back next year”
Lauryn Hill, The Fugees
Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida gives an intriguing peek into the kind of fighter Bruce Lee would have been had the UFC existed in his time. (Yes, beyond big screen pyrotechnics, Bruce Lee had serious street game. The story of what he did to a thug who challenged him on the set of one of his movies is the stuff of urban legend.) Hyperbole? Perhaps, but not one that is without substance. Granted that Shotokan Karate is not Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee’s style), one has to admit that both styles are strike-based systems in a field dominated by anything but strike based systems from the martial arts side. Machida’s style relies on speed, accuracy and tactical elusiveness. Ditto the style that brought Bruce Lee fame. Both styles are predicated on a classic mind-over-matter philosophy.
Enter “O Novo Dragao” Lyoto Machida, the Shotokan “wunderkind” who methodically obliterated Rashad Evans in the second round of a UFC 98 match-up to claim the light heavyweight champion of the UFC on May 23, 2009. The way Rashad hit the canvass, with neck and extremities at odd angles stunned everyone, including people who thought he was gonna be knocked out.
Don't Taze Me Bro! The body of Rashad Evans succumbs to the cumulative power and precision of a Machida barrage as if to the charge of an electric tazer.
The textbook dismantling of a young tough who could have equally knocked Machida’s head off, signified the catalyzation of a style first seen in a 2003 MMA debut in Japan. So inspite of the more dramatic UFC wins, it has been something of a “long and winding road.” Machida debuted in the UFC at UFC 67 against Sam Hogar on February 3, 2007. He did not realize his first knock out until his fifth UFC fight, wich was UFC 94 against compatriot Thiago Silva in January of 2009.
The deafening buzz around Machida sounds premature until one realizes that he is bringing to the UFC something it has never had; a Karateka champion. Far beyond hype, this is something that brings undeniable sizzle to the UFC and launches it into a stratosphere, light years removed from boxing and other less eclectic forms of fighting. The thrill of seeing a lean-and-mean Bruce Lee-like fighter beat the crap out of beefier brawlers is the stuff of UFC lore that will be written in dollars and cents to the nth exponent. Dana White and the Fertitta brothers are creaming their pants right now- and for a good reason. Machida represents something they haven’t had since Chuck Liddel; a poster boy for an organization sorely in need of one. The urine drinking, well ….. that is a story for another day. If Machida lasts past the first defence of his new-fangled title, Dana White and the Fertitta brothers make a lot of money. If not, oh well …. Next!
The upside and downside of a Machida legacy: The upside of what Machida can do to the UFC playbook has been on full display since UFC 79 when Machida triangle choked Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in December 0f 2007. After that he bested Tito Ortiz at his own game (no mean feat by the way) he then went on to knock out Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans within the short space of just 12 months. In that feat, he held an unforgiving mirror to the lacunae in established UFC styles; the lack of effective counter-striking as a key strategy in a fighter’s arsenal.
The downside to Machida’s possible legacy lies with less gifted fighters who may try to cop his style in ways that make them look like the Ginger Rogers troupe of the octagon. (Talk about an endless source of boo-worthy performances …..) Machida himself has been criticized for this and with good reason. His reliance on other fighters to commit first makes him look like a weasly opportunist as opposed to a ballsy fighter. And if you watch his past fights, you will notice that he appears quite timid in that he does not utilize most counter-striking opportunities after the other fighter strikes out and misses. Machida cannot afford the “weasly opportunist” tag – and neither can his clones. This weasly trend needs to be nipped in the bud and a good place to start would be with Machida’s own trainers.
Maiming from outside the strike zone: A nuveau clinic by Lyoto Machida
Chuck Liddell does it; That is the back-pedalling/counter-striking thing, but Lyoto Machida does it with the method and aplomb of a classically trained artist, just like his father Yoshizo Machida taught him. The tactically conceived foot-movement: left and right, right and left and back and forth diagonally. This is not movement by numbers but motion and counter-motion by necessity because nothing in the Yoshizo manual is wasted or choreographed by rote.
Machida gets away with what he does because lately he has established himself as a premier striker who puts it all together with stunning speed and accuracy. In real terms this equals power by an inordinate exponent for a man who is quite slight compared to his more corn-fed opponents. His strategy appears to be built on four words: hair trigger counter defence. (with the notable exception of when he is not utilising more conter-striking opportunities when his opponents commit and miss.) Machida’s style is proving to be quite devastating in an organization that hasn’t seen the likes of it.
The thing we noticed during Machida’s fight with Evans was that for all his back-pedalling, Machida really projected an extended event horizon created primarily by his left foot, which was always spring-loaded and ready to deliver tenderizing kicks to the head or rib cage. Add to that the tremendously fast and accurate fists of fury and you had the makings of an event horizon that swallowed Evans whole.
In The Name of the Father: Yoshizo Machida - Pater Familias of the Machida clan (Enter 36 Chambers Wutang's style). Lyoto Machida credits his father with crafting his style.
In the name of the father: There is meticulous method beyond the Machida reserve that comes to the son straight from a 5′ 6″ father who had to devise a fighting style that brooked no waste. The result? A 65% strike accuracy and 84% takedown defence. (These numbers differ in some reports.) The legendary footwork, among other things, makes Machida’s movement look less like a break-and-run performance. His backward movement seamlessly meshes with lateral and diagonal movements in a way that makes what he is doing less blatant – but there are limits to doing this without raising the ire of fans and detractors.
Tito Ortiz, who says he wants to take the light heavyweight title from the new champion, has already called Machida out on this. Chiding Machida for his penchant for running during fights prior to his most recent UFC victories, Tito wondered if Machida would learn to stand and fight as a champion. Paraphrased fighting words to that effect. (Tom Ngo, 5th Round)
Eyes on the prize: Lyoto Machida makes up for lack of eyes in the back of his head by fully using the ones he has. (More on this later)
UFC 104: Machida is not gonna be fighting Quinton Jackson as Dana White had intimated at the post fight press conference of UFC 98. Instead, compatriot Mauricio Rua is gonna step up to the plate for the first shot at Machida’s title.
Read about why UFC 104 is not gonna be the same without Quinton Jackson, a tested Pride veteran who has historically relished to walk where angels fear to tread. What gives this time? His big hairy balls attitude would have made for a very entertaining fight.
The UFC 98promo clip of the Matt Hughes Matt Serra fight is a few fries short of a WWE happy meal. This frothy hype has little place in an organization that aspires to be worlds removed from the infantile shennanigans of Vince McMahon‘s traveling circus.
Going to the Matt in UFC 98 - Matt Serra (left) and Matt Hughes (right):The so-called war of words gets sillier with UFC enshrining them in breathless pre-fight promo. Oi vei!
That Matt Serra (15-5-0) doesn’t care for Matt Hughes (43-7-0) shouldn’t come as any news to anybody (a lot of people don’t like Matt Hughes) but elevating this aspect to the defining significance of the fight not only degrades the de rigeur sportsmanship but the I.Q. of UFC fans which is supposed to be above that of WWE hordes.
Matt Hughes, like Dana White, is a certifiable dick and Matt Serra, for better or worse wears his heart on his sleeve. We here at Cyberaxis call the fight for Nick Serra in the second or third round.
Rashad Evans versus Lyoto Machida:
Rashad Evans (13-0-1) is a gladiator from the Quinton Jackson school of hard knocks. He has youth on his side and is fearless. But he will not win today against Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida(14-0-0) today because his discipline and skill regimen has not risen to the level of Lyoto Machida . Both have a thing or two to prove, so the fight will not come down to a decision. Cyberaxis calls it for Machida by a knockout.
Update – 05/24/09: Matt Serra versus Matt Hughes turned out to be a lackluster event with a questionable decision going to Matt Hughes after three rounds. Matt Serra has nothing to be ashamed off and Hughes has nothing to preen about. He came across as a one trick pony with little or no stand-up game.
The little hugging and “pillow-talk” at the end of that fight just proved how nonsensical that pre-fight spittle ‘n booger flicking was all about. Our point, as mede earlier, is that the UFC didn’t have to amplify it in their pre-fight promo. Nuff of that.
Machida versus Evans did not disappoint. The denouement came down just like we predicted. More on this in an upcoming Machida feature.
But the mini-minute thriller of the night came from the Drew McFedries(7-5-0) against Frenchman Xavier Foupa-Pokam figh(20-10-0). While the fighters had similar win/loss percentages, Foupa-Pokam clearly had more fights under his belt – besides being a more colorful a fighter. Like fellow compatriot Cheick Kongo, Foupa-Pokam who goes by the nickname Professor X, cuts an impressive physical specimen. But that did not save him from being knocked down like a rag doll 30 seconds into the fight by a pumped up Drew McFedries. Seven seconds later it was all over for the Muay Thai operative. Professor X did not have a chance to deploy any of his formidable weapons; kicks and knees. We wish him well next time. He has lost all of his UFC fights to date. The first one went to Dennis Kang by a decision in round three on 4/18/09.
