Evans vs Machida. Who you got?

[MMATycoon]

Personally I'm delighted to see Machida get the shot instead of Rampage, who will be portrayed as injured but in no way is he injured, he's just having some deserved time off.

 

Anyway, it will be fascinating to see whether Machida can remain as un-work-out-able against a top competitor, especially now there is so much tape on him.

 

On gut instinct you've got to go with Machida but I don't really know. I'm really looking forward to it and will be delighted if someone like Machida becomes champion and stays champ for a long time.

[Guest]

I am thinking Machida.

 

The reason I think this isn't because of how good he is I just think that he won't make the mistakes that fighters like Liddell and Griffin made. In my opinion both of these guys were winning their fight against Evans and got sloppy. Evans then capitalized on their mistakes and KO'd them. I just don't see Machida doing this. He will wait for Evans to make the mistake and KO him.

[Guest]

Rashad by dominance. I predict Rashad takes Lyoto down and does whatever he wants to him.

[Guest]

lol... so they made you a mod eh? =P

 

I think that if you're gonna break this fight down, theres a couple things you need to keep in mind.

 

1. Rashad is fighting out of JSF... if anybody can figure out machida, its greg jackson. I think thats a big intangible coming into this fight.

 

2. Rashad is a smart fighter... despite his 'showboating' and in-ring antics, he puts a lot of faith into his game plan and sticks to it. Thats how he beat liddell, thats part of how he beat griffin, thats how he can beat machida.

 

3. Rashad and Machida have a relatively recent common opponent: Ortiz. With Machida handling ortiz's takedown attempts fairly easily, it makes you wonder if rashad will have any better luck. If machida can keep it standing, his style will frustrate rashad. It'll be a boring fight... but machida will have a distinct advantage.

[Nitrus]

Machida for sure!

 

If Tito outwrestled Rashad in first two rounds, then Machida stuffed ALL Tito attempts and even take Tito down one time, why Rashad will have wrestling advantage?

 

Oblivious Rashad is easier to clinch than Machida, but this will not matter at all.

 

Machida probably will elude Rashad too, but this fight will be for sure the hardest in Machida carrer, 'cause Rashad is fuc*ing fast and powerfull.

 

I think this fight will depends if Rashad can hit Machida, dont think he'll look for takedowns in the early rounds, maybe inthe last ones, but I doubt that will happen WAR MACHIDA!

[Guest]

I'm surprised by how enamoured people are with Machida. Machida's a very good fighter, but this isn't, IMO, someone in the Anderson Silva/GSP class of fighter.

 

In fact, I'm a lot more inclined to put Rashad into that class than Machida.

 

Machida evaded a couple takedown attempts from Tito. That's good to see, but it's much easier to avoid the TD from a guy who you have absolutely no fear of on the feet.

 

Rashad has proven over time that he can knock you out on your feet. You have to be worried about getting KOed, knocked down and taken down with Rashad. It creates an entirely different world when it comes to preventing the takedown.

 

This will be the first time Machida has faced someone who is faster than him as well. I think this will create a lot of problems for his quick strike and move strategy.

 

In summary, I'm hopeful the betting lines will favour Machida because I'm big on Evans in this fight.

[Nitrus]

I'll not put Machida in same level as Anderson and GSP ( and Fedor), but I think he's one class down, and I think he's better than Rashad, and I think Rashad is better than anyone else with name not being Machida.

 

As you can say that unarmored poeple are with Machida, i can say that I'm surprised how unarmored people don't see that Machida is better than Evans. You know, everyone has one opinion.

 

I completelly agree what you said about takedowns, and completelly agree about Rashad having a great chance of winning, i'm not saying that i'm pretty confident, for me this fight is 51-49% Machida, I'm one of Rashad biggest fan, but I just think that he'll lose to MAchida (as he lost to Forrest first and second round, and don't say that Forrest is in the same league as Machida), I just think that Rashad will not be able to takedown Machida and GnP for the victory

 

Hope you got my opinion, and that's not personal you know bro

[Guest]

Nothing's ever personal for me, especially not in the anonymous world of the Internet.

 

I absolutely agree that either guy could win the fight. We just see the handicapping a little different.

 

I think it's going to be a very tactical fight. Lyoto has shown he knows how to not get hit. Rashad has shown that he can get a guy's timing over the course of a fight and take full advantage of a minor error. The guy who can be more successful at what they do best will obviously win.

 

 

[Nitrus]

HAHA, agreed

 

 

You think that Rashad can be more successful than Machida take more advantage than Machida capitalizing errors?

 

That's Machida speciality :S

 

 

[Guest]

I think Rashad takes advantage of the mistakes with far more finality.

i.e., when Sean Salmon, Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin made errors, Rashad put them out.

 

For the most part, Lyoto hasn't really recently shown that ability to end a fight with one slight error from his opponent. He did with Thiago, but that's really the only instance of that in recent memory.

[Zombie Jesus]

I think the commonality of their opponent doesn't have much relevance, Rashad has improved 10 fold since that fight, if he faced Ortiz today he would most likely TKO him, back then he was a very, very green striker and was almost all wrestling, hell people thought he was boring blanket back then. Now he's knocking out people left and right.

 

I think if Rashad comes in with a good game plan and mixes it up and is able to be the stronger more physical person in this fight, he has a good chance, if he turn it into a striking match it will be rough, he needs to clinch, dirty box and take him down and grind him out.

 

It will definitely be interesting, Machida hasn't been tested and who knows if Rashad will be able to test him, if he is able to then it should be and interesting fight. I think this will be Machida's coming out party, it will show how good he really is or how over hyped he is, no one knows which one it will be until the fight goes down.

[Nitrus]

I got your point and I agree that when Rashad take advantage, he does with style

 

But, I just think that Machida will not made the mistakes that Salmon (wtf?) Chuck and Griffin made, Chuck was overconfident (Machidawill not do that) and Forrest just open his guard to GnP, against Keith, he did the same thing, and got TKOed. We never saw Machida working in his back, don't think he'll do well too, but I doubt that he'll do what Forrest did twice.

 

 

Machida did well against Nakamura (great chin) against Soukdjou he submitted and against Tito he ALMOST TKOed (almost means nothing, I know)

 

 

I agree that Rashad has more power, and when you make a mistake you'll probably will pay, different from Machida, that when you made a mistake, YOU WILL pay.

 

 

Don't know, still think thats 51-49 fight

[Guest]

I just think that Machida will not made the mistakes that Salmon (wtf?) Chuck and Griffin made, Chuck was overconfident (Machidawill not do that) and Forrest just open his guard to GnP, against Keith, he did the same thing, and got TKOed.

 

This is what I was thinking but I have it 52% for Machida.

[MMATycoon]

According to a thread on Sherdog,

 

CURRENT LINE

 

Lyoto Machida -200

Rashad Evans +160

 

The opening lines was:

 

Lyoto Machida -175

Rashad Evans +145

[Guest]

I've got Machida beating Rashad pretty easily. I hope he beats him and goes on a long title reign.

[Guest]

I really hope the betting line continues to skew towards Macheetah.

[Guest]

I can't picture any scenario where Evans comes out victorious in this fight. But if he does, I'll eat my hat.

[Zombie Jesus]

I don't think has shown or been tested enough to know how this will actually play out. Machida has never been in trouble so it's hard gauge how good he really is, he could be phenomenal or he could just be really good. Hopefully we find out with this fight. I'm hoping to see something back and forth that tests both fighters so we know just how good these guys are. I think Machida may be a little over hyped and Rashad be a little under hyped but we'll just have to wait and see.

[Nitrus]

The fact that Machida never been in trouble IMO means that he's good.

 

Why? Just look into his record, and we'll find a lot of good opponents, and he schooled big part of them.

 

And about Rashad being underrated, don't count me in, I really think that Rashad is #2 LHW, behind Machida.. but i completely agree that has a LOT of people that don't see Rashad as a great fighter as I see, and I supossed that you see it too.

[Zombie Jesus]

Machida has fought good competition but there hasn't been anything great. He beat Rich Franklin but that was over 5 years ago, he beat a down and out Tito and he just beat Thiago Silva which might be his most impressive, mainly because of how he won. He's definitely good, but he hasn't been tested enough to know how good he actually is, that's the great mystique about him.

 

Rashad on the other hand just keeps impressing and surprising everyone. He wasn't suppose to win his last two fights and he did fairly handily mind you. I think the Forrest fight is most impressive based on how he preformed and what Forrest had done recently.

 

I really just hope this is an all out war, I really don't care who wins because I just want the best to be at the top and whoever does win will legitimize them self in my mind and hope everyones. After that they have what I think is the ultimate test in Rampage, I'm not saying I think he's a favorite in either match up I just think hes the top dog right now and you have to beat him to show you are the best in the world in the LHW division.

[Nitrus]

Yes, Rich Franklin doesn't count that much, I agree..

 

But fights that he fought that I really count it in, is BJ, cause even being much heavier, BJ is BJ, he did good in that fight and Machida did great in BJ guard too

 

Soukdjou, he just came clean in a fight against one of the hardest hitters in LHW, I think Soukdjou is overrated being considered a great fighter, but IMO, he's the Melvin Guillard of LHW, extremelly strong, fast and explosive, without ground game. Machida won in the ground right, but to take one Judo Black Belt to the ground, after school him in their feet, was good IMO..

 

Fights against mid level fighters as Heath, Nakamura and Roger, where he almost didn't got punched, shows his potencial about being elusive..

 

And against Tito, I say what I said before, Tito is very strong, even Dana White said that fighters that fought Tito, say that... and Machida just throwed Tito away, at least his takedown defense showed to be good (All right that he was expecting only for that, diffrently from Rashad, that can Take down or hit with one of this fu*kng punches)

 

And Thiago, to be serious... OVERRATED. Thiago is a bad dude, strong GnP, but man, he's not part of top tier, and Forrest will outschool him..

 

 

And if you ask me, who was more tested? Rashad for sure

[Guest]

It's going to be a revealing fight for both guys no question.

 

For the first time ever we're going to see Lyoto fight a guy who he has to be scared about knocking him out and taking him down. Machida's UFC bouts have typically been against uni-dimensional guys (or those low level enough like Sam Hoger that specialities were really irrelevant) such as Tito - nothing but takedowns - and Thiago Silva - who in my opinion was going to do nothing but throw. It will be interesting to see what happens when faced with different threats.

 

I think you can fairly ask if Rashad has beat someone at the top of their game. It's obvious Chuck isn't the same fighter he was in 2005. Sure, he's a counter-puncher and so is Machida, but I don't think anyone really would compare the two stylistically. I'm not certain too many people are convinced Forrest is that good of a fighter period despite defeating Rampage and Shogun.

 

It's a compelling fight for sure. To me it's on par with GSP/Thiago (whcih I think is a far tougher fight for GSP than BJ Penn was).

[MMATycoon]

To me it's on par with GSP/Thiago (whcih I think is a far tougher fight for GSP than BJ Penn was).

 

Now that's a whole new can of worms but I totally agree with you there

[Nitrus]

It's a compelling fight for sure. To me it's on par with GSP/Thiago (whcih I think is a far tougher fight for GSP than BJ Penn was).

 

I agree with that too, Alves will give GSP some trouble (I think), but I can see GSP winning this one too.

 

And about Rashad, I think that his fight with Chuck and Forrest( especcialy this one) was very good tests..

 

Oblivious that for both fighters will be the best test for each fighter, but I think in this fight, fighiting experience wouldn't be the main factor, if this would be the main factor, I'd pick Rashad for sure, but I think the talent and skills will define the new champion , and thats IMO is Machida.

 

Also, I don't think Rampage would take the belt from any of these fighters

[Zombie Jesus]

I think everyone is pretty much agreeing that both these fighters are really good and haven't really been tested yet given their undefeated records. It's going to be really exciting to see this fight unfold.

 

As far as Alves vs. GSP goes I think Alves is the most dangerous as far as explosive striking goes, but if GSP has a smart game plan (which seems pretty certain he will) I think this fight could be very one sided. GSP's wrestling and top game will completely overwhelm Alves and he will be gassing pretty hard by the 2nd round. I don't think alves would beat Fitch, I don't think he's as tough as Fitch and unless he can somehow keep the fight standing or rock GSP early then I think Alves would be lucky to make to the 3rd round. GSP is just a bad match up for him, just like Fitch and still would be.