10 Thoughts on UFC Fight Night 36:
1. Lyoto Machida is arguably the most frustrating fighter to fight and watch. Ask his opponents and they’ll confirm that statement 100%. Ask fans and they’ll probably tell you the same thing. He is without question extremely gifted, talented and skilled. He’s proven it numerous times in his career and he’s already won a title as a UFC Light Heavyweight. Very few people can say that. He puts on electric performances and you just never know when he will unleash “the Dragon” and stun his opponent in devastating fashion (a la Randy Couture, Mark Munoz). That’s the problem, because sometimes he doesn’t (a la Dan Henderson, Phil Davis). We’ve become accustomed to seeing him throw flurries or a spectacular kick that floors his opponents, but when he doesn’t, we’re left waiting. It’s simultaneously the gift and the curse of his fighting style. People will sit entranced, just waiting for it…waiting…waiting…waiting. Sometimes he delivers and sometimes he doesn’t. When he doesn’t, he plays it safe and avoids a ton of damage, which is to his credit and will undoubtedly serve him in his post-fighter days. Opponents just can’t catch him and hit him. He never really seemed in any danger against Mousasi, and that adds to the frustration because Mousasi never seemed in any danger either. The scorecards made it seem like a devastatingly dominant performance when really, Machida just did a better job of avoiding strikes. To put things in perspective, consider the difference between a GSP vs. Fitch 50-45 score, as opposed to a Machida vs. Mousasi 50-45 score.
2. How to solve the Machida puzzle? Simple, have an iron chin and bully the guy. Shogun Rua laid the formula out. You’re not going to beat him by out-counterstriking him. His split decision losses to Rampage Jackson and Phil Davis could easily have gone the other way. A guy like Jon Jones is too physically gifted and skilled to emulate easily. Mousasi looked like a lot of other people who went up against Machida. Pursue, pursue, pursue and eventually get tagged by a few counters that interrupts the pursuit. Then, pursue, pursue, pursue and eventually…well, you get the picture. Throw in a takedown attempt here and there, and some extended clinching against the cage until a break happens and there you have your typical Machida fight. The way to beat him dominantly is to break through that outer defense of counter striking and get to Machida quicker than he can react and respond. That’s clearly easier said than done, but just plodding after him for the entire round, waiting for him to stand still and show an opening…well, that’s not going to work. A fighter has to be willing and able to absorb some shots in order to dish out greater punishment, and so far very few guys have been able to do it.
3. Jacare is a problem. He didn’t have that super impressive performance that many people were probably expecting, but he did what he had to and dominated a very tough opponent in Francis Carmont. He’s got the striking, conditioning, toughness, and most of all, a suffocating ground game. Up to this point, he is arguably the most successful Strikeforce fighter to make the transition to the UFC, if not the most successful period. There’s a strong chance he fights for the title sometime this year.
4. Carmont is almost ready for the big stage. Almost. Jacare had his back and it looked like it was over a few times, but Carmont survived. That says a lot about his tenacity and defense. Jacare Souza on your back, that close to sinking in a rear naked choke on multiple occasions? Camont has a ton of potential. But he had to avoid getting in those positions in the first place. That third round might have been the deciding round in that fight and you could hear GSP urging Carmont to control the distance before it started. Carmont was more than capable of doing so with his reach and powerful strikes, but he let Jacare get in on him and drag him down. That sealed it. Carmont is very close though, with just a bit more development and work, he is very close to reaching that next level.
5. Erick Silva gets an easy one. Not to downplay his effort or brilliance or preparation in training camp, but let’s be honest. Silva looks like he could fight tomorrow. He probably could. Sato was holding onto Silva’s leg for his dear life and it wasn’t the smartest strategy, as it left him exposed to a bevy of hammer fists and punches. A very impressive performance from Silva, but he got a lot of help from that odd strategy by Sato. Plenty of guys on this card took a bunch of hard shots that turned their legs to noodles, but they managed to hang out and some even gutted out wins (see #6). Silva made it happen though and he’ll probably get a crack at the top 15. If he was as focused and motivated as his camp said he was, maybe we just saw the start of something special.
6. Biggest high to low moment goes to…Viscardi Andrade. Talk about premature celebrations. The worst thing that could have happened, happened. Not only did Musoke not get pounded out by strikes when it looked like a given, he also recovered while Andrade almost gassed himself going for the finish. When he didn’t get it, it looked like the aftermath of an adrenaline dump. Such a disappointing finish and performance. He went from sitting on top of the world with his arms raised in triumph, to getting mauled and put on his back for the rest of the fight. Take a lesson from that folks, it ain’t over til the fat lady sings.
7. Oliveira breaks two streaks…by getting back into the win column and pulling off the first finish of the card. Give him credit for bouncing back from losing to Cub Swanson and Frankie Edgar. Andy Ogle was game, but you could sense Oliveira was oozing confidence and didn’t really feel threatened. A submission for him seemed inevitable and it happened in the third to give this card it’s first finish. He’s still only 24 and should get someone closer to his level than one of the top guys again. This guy needs some solid wins under his belt and he has to diversify his skill set before taking on one of the heavy hitters again.
8. Split decisions abound. How do two judges score it 30-27 for one guy, while the third judge has it 29-28 for the other guy? That happened in more than one fight. Some big inconsistencies in the judging overall. Damm probably shouldn’t even have won his match, but he got a unanimous nod. Wilson Reis easily could have won his match, but found himself on the losing end. The prelims seemed to be filled with eyebrow raisers and head scratchers.
9. Alcantara and Reis put on a show. First off, give credit to Wilson Reis for not breaking during the fight. That guy could have crumbled and thrown it in several times throughout the fight, but it seemed like every time he got in trouble, it lit a fire under him and he turned it up a notch. No panic and no quit. But Alcantara got the split decision nod to get a hard fought bounce back victory after losing to Urijah Faber. There were plenty of exciting moments in the fight and it was full of transitions, sweeps, and reversals. Reis lost, but there wasn’t really a clear “loser” in this one.
10. Lowblow decision time. What is the policy going to be on deducting points for lowblows? The kick from Maximo Blanco looked to be unintentional, but the damage done was visibly significant nonetheless. The usual standard is a warning or two before deducting any sorts of points. Obviously the severity of that particular blow played in Mario Yamasaki’s decision to deduct a point, but if it’s at the referee’s discretion, it’s too subjective. There have been other low blow instances that were just as bad as what we saw, but no point was deducted. In some fights, it takes three accidental low blows before a point is taken away. That fight was so close that the one point was a big deal. Not saying the decision was right or wrong, but consistency is key in situations like this. (props to Felipe Arantes for gutting it out and going through with the fight)
