I’d take Machida any day over another guy with a C-level college wrestling ‘pedigree’ and sloppy kickboxing. Plus I like that he sticks to his guns. A guy like Koscheck adjusted his style to be ‘exciting’ and he just had an incredibly embarrassing loss.

So, which is it?
What do MMA fans want?

For every fighter to aspire to be that so called “perfect” blend of skills like a GSP or for there to be many varied athletes with unique styles like a Machida?
Personally, you can mark me down as being in the latter camp.
I have an eclectic appreciation for all different styles of fighting, especially for an individual like Machida who looks nothing at all like any other combatant in the ring or the cage.

Sure, not every one of his contests are of the variety that have you on the edge of your seat screaming at the TV screen like last year’s Liddell-Silva fight did. But, IMO, even the least action packed of Machida’s performances has been nothing less than very interesting to behold.

The person to beat lyoto is gonna have to bring a thinking mans game.

Randy Couture could be that man IMO.

The reason he knocked out thiago out was because thiago plods forward and overpowered his previous opponents.

But if Lyoto fights somebody smarter than that it can go to a decision because he is perfectly capable of KOing someone if they give him an opening, but he’s not as good at creating that opening.

Lytoto’s strategic technique seems anchored in his defense, like playing chess.
I’ve played chess in the park with guys who are good, and as long as I watch my back and they watch theirs, we’ll go around in circles for hours.
This usually instigates me to try something rash just to get something done which usually results in me paying for my impatience if my opponent is worth a damn.

Thats Lyoto.

Hansen and Kawajiri are overrated? Are there actually people saying that? I haven’t heard it. I don’t know if they’re top 10 but they’re top 20 and inside that range you can pick and choose without much in the way of repercussions from me.

Takedowns in wrestling have a lot to do with “Setting up the shot”. It’s a combination of hand movements, level changes, and footwork. A lot of those techniques can’t be used in MMA because of the punches being thrown.

This makes it much tougher to take an opponent down. Look at Munoz, who is a really good wrestler. Without the ability to set-up a shot, he was diving in from too far away, and no wrestler can secure a takedown from that distance.

Plus it is tiring to continue to take shots… And fighters are quick to get back to their feet…

Example: Sean Sherk vs. Tyson Griffin

Sean Sherk could have went for takedowns the entire fight. But he would have been exhausted and could have tired himself out by the 3rd round and been vulnerable.

This is attributed to two things:

1. Griffin was hard to take down.

2. Once Griffin was taken down, he was impossible to keep down.

Most fighters are good enough at getting to their feet so quickly now (Carwin/Gonzaga), that shooting for a takedown is pointless in certain fights. This creates the stand-up fights.

As this sport progresses, even the best wrestlers are having a hard time being wet blankets for 15 minutes.

DREAM 7 had lots of submission guys, and only two submissions… Both of them were designed to be squash matches anyways. Not one submission in the entire Tournament so far. Fighters are too good now to get caught that often.

Plus, we are seeing more striking on the feet because wrestlers are doing more things (on average) to improve their game compared to the submission guys. A few years ago, it was the submission guys who were striking better, forcing the wrestlers to take the fight to the ground and take a chance.

Now we have guys like Gray Maynard who has developed into a very competant striker, and he doesn’t have to force the fight to the ground with a submission guy like Jim Miller.

Fighters need to be more creative. Too many fighters are being way too conventional. Take for example Maynard vs. Miller. Maynard had no reason to take chances. But Miller should have. No spinning kicks. No front kicks. No unique ways of trying to pull guard.

Sherk did the same thing against Penn. He just stood up and boxed for 3 rounds, despite losing the entire time. It is stupid fighting. The sport can be so FREE FLOWING, yet too many fighters treat it like it’s 2 Dimensional Game. Fighters, especially at the highest level, need to find ways to be innovative. Really good fighters can stop everything they expect. Most can’t stop things they don’t expect.

This is what submission guys need to do in order to be more successful. Shinya Aoki is a great example of this. His style is so unique that he catches great fighters off guard with his unique fighting style. Is he the best pure grappler? No!! But he mixes it up.

Oh, and Jon Jones does the same thing. So does Anderson Silva.

I have been a bit disturbed at all the Ultimate Kickboxing we have been seeing lately. My theory is that it has to do with fighters moving away from Muay Thai and taking up boxing training. Traditional Muay Thai is stand in front of the opponent and slug it out. Boxers use more footwork, and in the case of recent MMA, have introduced more backpedalling.

Add to that the fact that the level of wrestling is getting better ( this means takedown defence), no gis or rashguards for friction, baby oil/vaseline/penzoil/etc, and you have more fights staying standing.

I do think this is largely just a phase and within a few months, grappling will be a bigger part of the fights again.