Rashad Evans Vs Lyoto Machida UFC 98 – Fighter Analysis With PicsFiled Under: Rantings
Everybody has their favorite fighters. When they win, it’s non-stop hero worship. When they lose, it’s tears and excuse making. Maybe Rashad Evans looks like your dad, or you studied Karate as a kid, just little Lyoto Machida. Who knows why you like ‘em, but you do. And if you’re on this particular fanboat, UFC 98 will bathe you in an epic shockwave of fanboy emotion. Glorious.
Anyway, debating predictions of who’s going to win and why has been intense. Dissecting each guy’s game is really pretty interesting. Here’s the some of my thoughts, as well as those floating around the web on how each fighter stacks up in different areas.
Explosiveness
The Rashad Camp: Rashad’s very athletic – he’s got a super strong wrestling background and he hits hard. He can burst with power and knock you out. He’s just too much for Lyoto to handle. Lyoto just can’t throw hard punches in bunches like Evans.
The Machida Camp: Machida doesn’t throw as often as Evans, but he makes them count. He doesn’t waste his power, getting beat up and exchanging blows. He explodes when explodin’ needs to be done. Like an assassin.
MMA Record
The Rashad Camp: Chuck Liddell + Forrest Griffin > Tito Ortiz + Sokoudjou. He’s beat some tough dudes, and he’s undefeated. Plus, you may know this, but he does have the the currently the UFC light heavyweight belt.
TMC: Rashad’s undefeated record isn’t as hardcore as Machida’s. Out of his last nine fights, Rashad had 4 SPLIT decision wins and one was a draw. More than half of the time (5/9), there was a judge who thought Rashad lost those fights. Now with his two big wins – Evans was losing until the last round of the Griffin fight, and beating Chuck recently and beating Chuck in his heyday are two different things.
Take a minute and think about fighters that both Machida and Evans have fought. He definitively beat Tito Ortiz, a fighter that Rashad pulled a lucky draw against. During the Evan’s/Tito fight, Ortiz was deducted a point for holding the fence – without this point deduction, Ortiz would have won the judges cards.
Then there’s the tough Stephan Bonner – who Rashad beat via 3rd round split decision, while Machida put him away in 1 round.
Then there’s Sam Hoger – Rashad got a split decision, while Machida took a unanimous decision.
Outside the fighters already mentioned, he’s put down some pretty tough dudes himself. Rich Franklin, Bj Penn, and (at that time) undefeated Thiago Silva.
Gameplan
The Rashad Camp: Greg Jackson. He’s a mastermind. Listening to his fighter’s post-fight interviews gives you a glimpse at how they unravel their opponents at the gym before the fight begins. Rashad has even said that his KO of Chuck Liddell was an exact copy of a technique they drilled specifically for the Iceman.
Mike Winklejohn, striking coach for Rashad, has said
Machida is a tough nut to crack.He’s a talented guy with good reactions; he steps back, causes a hole and counters real well. [The] plan is to have Rashad not be there when Machida wants to counter. We are going to counter the counter or make Machida come at Rashad.”
I told Rashad if the crowd starts booing, that’s a good thing; we have the right gameplan. [The] plan is to have Rashad not be there when Machida wants to counter. We are going to counter the counter or make Machida come at Rashad.
…
I told Rashad if the crowd starts booing, that’s a good thing; we have the right gameplan,” said Winklejohn, echoing the sentiments he imparted before Evans knocked out Liddell in Atlanta.
Rashad has said,
… I don’t think he’s too busy with his strikes. He’s a very technical fighter. He’s not going to throw punches in bunches, but when he does throw, he tries to make them count. I’m looking for him to try to explode a lot and see what he can get …
.
The Machida Camp: He’s a tad bit more tight lipped about the specifics of his game plan. Playing up to the camera’s a bit, Lyoto has put it bluntly: “My strategy is to knock him out … Rashad can’t defend my style. No one can… if you can conquer the will of a man you will conquer the man himself. That is my quest.” (See the UFC 98 trailer).
Outside of that, he’s mentioned how he’s noticed Rashad’s calm scheming style.
Rashad is a very strategic and calm fighter. Against Forrest he was being punished badly and turned the fight around, but my father and my brother are helping me a lot to bring up my game. I always dreamed for this opportunity and I’m training harder than ever to get this belt.
Training Camps
The Rashad Camp: GSP, Jason McDonald, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine…
The Machida Camp: Anderson Silva, Machida senior, his brother Chinzo, Olympic Gold medalist Satoshi Ishii.
Chin
The Rashad Camp: Brad Imes hit him with some pretty big shots, and he still pulled through.
The Machida Camp: Lyoto’s style is to not take damage – however, he probably has a decent one since he got hit pretty hard in his fight with BJ Penn a couple of times and even with a stout elbow in his fight with Kazuhiro Nakamura. Still, his chin is “not being there”.
General Badass-ness
The Rashad Camp: He’s stared down Ramapage Jackson. It takes some serious balls to not back down against an aggressive mofo like that. (I hear Quinton eats babies and puppies, just to make him immune to being a pansy.)
The Machida Camp: Machida has said that fights are equal part mental and physical challenge, saying that “… he thinks the fight begins before he steps into the ring, and that his mind can be used as a weapon. He sees his body as a sword, as a samurai would.”
Standup
The Rashad Camp: So far, we’ve seen accurate punching at range, and some good punching close up. Evans has good take downs, a strong wrestling clinch, mean ground and pound … he can do damage to you at all distances. In addiction to being a precise striker, for a 205 ‘er, he’s exceptionally nimble and quick with his hands. Stylistically, he’s very technical and cautious. Also, Evans has good movement, head fakes, and footwork. He’s fluid. All in all, he’s one of the best striker/wrestler combinations in the game right now.
The Machida Camp: Lyoto excels at striking from outside the pocket, outside of the other fighters range. He’s got solid ground and pound, and uses judo sweeps from the clinch often. His stance is wide and a little lower, making it hard to sweep and take him down. This strong base helps provide power to his long range strikes. His style is elusive, avoiding engagement with the enemy until he has a major advantage with his attack angles and timing. IF he does start to take damage, he can use his clinch game to nullify a lot of the damage he might take, then execute a sweep or throw to gain dominant position.
Vegas Odds
Most betting places put Machida as the heavy favorite to win this fight (about a -200 advantage). Over at MMA Fanhouse, they point out this betting favoritism by saying,
It’s rare for an undefeated champion like Evans to be an underdog, but then again it’s rare for an undefeated champion to be taking on an opponent like Machida, who isn’t just undefeated but has used his elusive style to frustrate opponents and win all his fights rather easily.
Who Has Cooler Sponsors?
Well, there you have it. What are you thoughts?
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Tags: greg jackson, lyoto machida, rashad evans, ufc 98
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- BartB
- 19 May 2009 5:16 PM
- Comments (2)
May 19th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
[...] Rashad Evans Vs Lyoto Machida UFC 98 – Fighter Analysis With Pics This Article is comes from SLC MMA To see the full original article click here [...]
October 16th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Ahh…. It makes it so clear now that Lyoto viciously KO’d rashad.