Results tagged “Lyoto Machida” from MMA Explosion

MMA Live dissects Brock Lesnar's withdrawal from UFC 106 and talks to his opponent, Shane Carwin. A complete breakdown of UFC 104 and Marcus Jones joins the set to talk TUF 10

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.

DW saying Rampage caused "collateral damage."

By Gavin Vincent of fiveknuckles:
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's decision to sign a movie contract to play B.A. Baracus in the upcoming "A-Team" movie has left UFC officials, fans and experts with a sour taste in their mouth. Even Rampage's personal website is flooded with negative comments and accusations of him dodging what will be two consecutive fights.

Jackson was rumored to face Lyoto Machida for the light-heavyweight title but chose instead on to sign on as a TUF 10 coach to fight nemesis, Rashad Evans. As with all previous Ultimate Fighter seasons, the coaches generally square off against one another but his decision to do a movie instead has forced UFC President, Dana White, to play musical chairs with the main event for TUF 10 finale on Dec. 12.

Last week, White announced that a lightweight title fight between B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez will replace the Jackson-Evans bout. White also announced Jackson's decision will have "collateral damage" but has not confirmed what those ramifications will be.

Jackson can't even escape criticism on his personal website as his homepage and "blog posts" section are flooded with negative comments and inappropriate posts.

If you couldn't tell already, I'm psyched for this season of The Ultimate Fighter, probably like no other, because we get to see all heavyweights, we get to see Rampage and Rashad yap back and forth at each other (see DW's quote above), see how the NFL players do, and then, see how long (or how short) Kimbo's stint on the show will be. It all starts tomorrow night (Wednesday) with Ultimate Fight Night at 8 p.m., and the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter at 10 p.m.

Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Rua

Here's an excerpt from John Morgan's story on Anderson Silva on mmajunkie.com:
While Silva has always said defending the middleweight title is of utmost importance to him, the Brazilian suggested he may be willing to continue a run at light heavyweight - despite the difficulties of fighting bigger men.

"It's a big problem, because these guys at 205 (pounds) are a lot bigger than me," Silva said. "But I want to fight against the best. Whoever the best is at the time, that's who I want to fight."

Silva is now an astounding 10-0 in the UFC, and his dominance in two divisions warrants real consideration for the dangerous striker as the world's top pound-for-pound fighter.

Ted: Notice Silva didn't say "I want to fight against the best, but not my close buddy Lyoto." OK, so we know that Silva and Lyoto Machida, UFC's light-heavyweight champ, have said they will not fight each other. They train together, although I did not see Machida in attendence at Silva's training camp for last night's fight.

As to who would win, man, I'm just shaking my head right now.

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.

Right now, the two LHWs are coaches on the set of The Ultimate Fighter 10 (which is actually for heavyweights, but whatever) and ever since their in-Octagon confrontation a while back, can't stand each other.