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That third one looked like a closed fits, but hey, it's machida, he can take it.

From Antonio Inoki's wiki:
During one visit to a school in the 80's, Inoki was punched twice by a student. Inoki slapped the student across the face, knocking him down. The student, who later turned out to be an Inoki fan, then rose, bowed deeply, and thanked Inoki for the slap. The incident became very famous as the then live clip of the binta (slap in the face) was shown many times on Japanese television. Now various celebrities and even common people in Japan ask Inoki to slap them to install courage or even as some sort of strange blessing. The slap's name is the "Fighting Spirit (or Toukon) Slap."

photo from sherdog.com

I blogged about the upcoming light-heavyweight title fight between champion Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua recently, saying it should be interesting to see if/how they alter their styles in the fight.

from mmajunkie.com:
"I know Lyoto very well," Rua said. "I have studied his game a lot. I know his style. I trained my strategy for the fight for three months in a row, focusing on that.

"I hope to be able to keep up with the strategy for the whole fight because we know what to expect, and we don't plan on getting frustrated and changing the plan. We worked on that, and we'll follow the plan."

The 2005-era Rua was an aggressive, wild foe. But in facing Machida's patient, karate-based counter-striking style, Rua believes his own patience will be key.

It may prove a test of the mind as much as an examination of Rua's physical form.

"We can only know for sure what's going to happen when the fight starts," Rua said. "You never really know what's going to happen in a fight. You can try to predict something, but anything can happen. Anything can change at any given moment during a fight.

"I trained for something. I plan and hope on doing what I trained and the strategy I prepared for, but a fight is a fight. Let's wait and see."

I know Machida has said he adapted his style to please the fans - becoming more aggressive - but with the ultra-aggressive Shogun coming at him, we might see Machida revert back to the elusive, patient counter-striker. Either way, we're in for a good one. These are two of the most exciting and talented LHWs out there and so I don't see this one getting out of maybe the second round.

Do it again: Riggs and Diaz for Strikeforce 8/15?

MMAJunkie.com has some interesting rumors, so I'll run 'em down real quick:

- We may see Shane Carwin vs. Cain Velasquez at UFC 104 in Los Angeles.

- For UFC 107 in Memphis, it looks like native son Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will take on nemesis Rashad Evans, in a fight that will most likely determine the number-one contender to Lyoto Machida's title.

- Jow Riggs and Nick Diaz fought once in the UFC, and once unofficially afterward in a hospital ER. They make it official for the second time at Strikeforce's Aug. 15 event.