SB Nation User Blog: Flying Gogoplata

Rashad Evans talks about his mental troubles before his fight with Lyoto Machida and what he was...

Flying Gogoplata — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:31:28 -0000

Rashad Evans talks about his mental troubles before his fight with Lyoto Machida and what he was really thinking before he got KTFO.

Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans: Possible Weaknesses

Flying Gogoplata — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:17:20 -0000

Fronted from the FanPosts by Kid Nate

Following Rashad Evans' victory over Forrest Griffin at UFC 92, Lyoto Machida gave an interview to TATAME magazine where he stated the following:

Look, I think Rashad is a complete guy, has the wrestling as a background, but I see some flaws in his game, although I’m not worried with him now. My focus is Thiago. I look, but I don’t get much information of the opponents that I’m not focused, but I see some holes in his game (Rashad), but I prefer not to think yet, he is not the one for now.

Rashad Evans has yet to find flaws in Machida's game, but he's on the right track. After UFC 94, Evans told Sherdog:

With that said, there may be some kinks in his armor that I have yet to see that I can exploit when I look at the tapes more closely. Nobody’s unbeatable. Machida’s been looking slicker than I don’t know what, but everybody has a weakness even if you do look slick as oil. Everyone has a weakness.

Two days later, Evans elaborated on his strategy and plans:

"There are a lot of things [Silva] did against Machida that I won't do," Evans told ESPN.com. "Mainly, when I'm on the ground I wouldn't be so relaxed; I won't just lay there like he did.

"He underestimated Machida's ability to close the distance and his ground and pound. There are a lot of mistakes he made that I probably won't make."

[...]

"I already have my training partners in place for Machida; the partners who can give me the best look for Machida. We're going to put a good game plan together and stop this guy."

The questions now are, what are the flaws Machida sees in Evans and what will Evans' game plan against Machida look like?

Read more in the full entry.

For starters, let's look at how Evans threw his jab against Griffin:

Evans appears to throw a lot of his weight forward and to the right. The red circles indicate where this momentum can be exploited by a technique such as this:

Granted, Machida used his left thigh as leverage in this gif, but since he defaults to a southpaw stance, he should be able to easily take advantage of Evans' exposed left leg if and when he jabs like he did against Griffin.

That's just one example of possibly many Evans weaknesses. But for now, let's move onwards to Evans' game plan.

Evans' hand speed and footwork are better than all of Machida's UFC opponents. And Machida has had trouble with very quick strikers in the past. He had a tough time with a small, fast Penn a few years ago. Lyoto's younger, faster, more aggressive brother Chinzo regularly beats Lyoto in Shotokan competitions. Now Evans can attempt to use his speed to out-point Machida, but there's little guarantee that he'll get the better of the exchanges. Machida is no slouch himself and will undoubtedly work hard with his brother and strength/conditioning coach in the coming months.

Evans can try to take Machida down. But Machida has proven to be very difficult to put on his back. Sokoudjou did succeed in tripping Machida, but Machida likely wanted it that way. He had a sweep ready immediately and stayed on the ground for most of the fight. Tito Ortiz had zero success taking down Machida, but according to Shonie Carter, it's because Ortiz couldn't deal with the southpaw stance:

Tito was confused off of the southpaw lead. I've learned years ago you learn your techniques, right-handed and left-handed.
[...]
He couldn't take that lead leg away from Machida, but Machida could take away his lead leg when Tito was shooting that double leg shot. When you shoot like that against a southpaw, you have to switch step lead; you can't just shoot off your back leg. You have to do a switch step and then take the double leg. You find your punches on the way in to an upper body clinch and you don't use your Greco, but you can use your Judo.

But even if Evans adapts well to the southpaw stance, I think he'll still have tons of trouble putting Machida on his back. His sumo base and overall defensive submission wrestling skills are phenomenal. For that reason, I think Evans would not adopt a strategy that depends heavily on a top game.

Evans can attempt to lure Machida into his guard and attempt to submit Machida. After all, Tito almost beat Machida that way. But Machida had the flu during that fight and like almost everybody ignored or underestimated Ortiz' bottom game. Those two factors contributed to Machida's momentary defensive lapse. Also, we haven't seen Evans' bottom game in a long while and at this point it is a relative unknown. And let's not forget how easily Machida can escape from a closed guard.

So from this cursory analysis, it would appear Team Jackson will have a very tough time coming up with a game plan that will "stop this guy." Machida on the other hand found flaws in Evans months in advance.

BE previously covered Lyoto Machida's excellent defensive grappling skills. Luke Thomas cited...

Flying Gogoplata — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:19:29 -0000

BE previously covered Lyoto Machida's excellent defensive grappling skills. Luke Thomas cited Machida's submission wrestling performance against Rafael Lovato, Jr. as proof of that. Well here is the actual event. Notice that at 8:51 of the first video Machida uses the same leglock escape shown in the Thiago Silva fight. Machida continues to use it throughout the match. Machida eventually wins through positional dominance and superior wrestling. He was never put on his back, shrugged off Lovato's submission attempts and kept the match standing as much as possible. At the post-match press conference (end of video #2), Lovato acknowledges Machida's sumo background.

Fedor Emelianenko Responds to Freddie Roach's Comments

Flying Gogoplata — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:54:23 -0000

Five Ounces of Pain has an exclusive interview with #1 ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. The Russian fighter responds to comments made by Dana White, Andre Arlovski and Arlovski's boxing trainer Freddie Roach. Roach has previously claimed that Emelianenko has "no technique" and that Arlovski will "knock him out." Here are some choice quotes from the interview:

Sam Caplan: During a recent press conference to promote "Day of Reckoning," Andrei Arlovski questioned the sincerity of a statement you made last month regarding the your loss at the Combat Sambo Championships. Can you respond to that statement?

Fedor Emelianenko: Maybe Andrei is trying to convince himself that I have been weakened in some way. But it [doesn’t] matter [as] we are not fighting Sambo with Andrei. The only thing I am 100 percent sure about is that I will be 100 percent ready to fight MMA against Andrei. And that is the only thing I care about right now.

Sam Caplan: One of Arlovski’s trainers, famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach, questioned some aspects of your standup from a technical boxing perspective, most notably your footwork. Do you feel Roach’s criticisms are relevant to MMA?

Fedor Emelianenko: The beauty about MMA is that every fighter has his own unique style and preferences. But it’s not a beauty contest. We fight to see which fighter’s approach prevails. But again, we are not boxing and we are not fighting Sambo. We fight MMA.

Sam Caplan: During a recent radio interview, UFC president Dana White once again made some negative remarks about you. He especially tried to discredit your victory over Tim Sylvia. Could you respond to that statement?

Fedor Emelianenko: I think if Dana White says something negative about his [former] champions then he is only saying something negative about his own organization. I have victories over many of the UFC’s champions. If he says something bad about them or me then he only makes his organization look weak.

Sam Caplan: If you fought for the UFC, do you think Dana would be referring to you as the number one heavyweight in the world?

Fedor Emelianenko: (Laughs) I think if I fought for the UFC, he would try to sell me as the greatest MMA fighter that ever lived.

As expected, Emelianenko handles himself well in this interview, but one has to wonder whether his opponents' mind games are having some effect on the normally stoic fighter.

Lyoto Machida to Possibly Fight in October

Flying Gogoplata — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:53:33 -0000

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

The TAGG Radio Network recently interviewed Machida's manager Ed Soares. Here's what he had to say:

...I know he's not going to get a shot at the title right away. Some things are in works right now for him to be fighting in October.

...Most likely he's probably going to have one more fight before he fights for the title.

When questioned on the opponent, Soares wouldn't spill the beans:

It's not signed yet. It's going to be a good match, though, for sure.

The interview can be heard here. Soares' interview starts at 31:07 and the Machida discussion starts at 38:54.

Personally I think this opponent could be Jackson. Wanderlei turned down Machida and chose to fight Thiago Silva instead. Since Wanderlei's preferences most likely takes precedence over Machida's, Thiago would be out of the picture as well. Shogun lost his last fight and has had a long injury-related layoff. Jardine just suffered a broken jaw and won't be able to fight for awhile. The other possible opponents for Machida are either already tied up in an upcoming fight or not worthy enough.