The light heavy weight belt hasn’t had a stable home since Chuck Liddell defended his title four times. Although Rampage Jackson who defeated Liddell for the belt was then able to defend his title against Dan Henderson, the belt has made its way from Jackson to Forrest Griffin, then to Rashad Evans and now is on the waist of the current champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida (15-0).
The awe inspiring Lyoto Machida has become an overnight legend after systematically destroying the previously undefeated champion Rashad Evans in two rounds. Machida’s road to success began back in 2003 in Japan and continued with victories over a then undefeated Rich Franklin, K-1 fighter Sam Greco and BJ Penn. His path to the belt sky rocketed once he started to collect big name scalps in the UFC such as Sokoudjou, Tito Ortiz and Thiago Silva.
Lyoto’s success lies in his orthodox style, his ability to avoid the strikes of his opponents and counter strike them from all angles. Not only does he have strong striking in his arsenal, his ground game and submission skills are of note, demonstrating that he definitely has the overall package. Take his fight with Tito Ortiz for example. Ortiz, known for his wrestling, take downs and his ground and pound skills unfortunately failed to deploy is strengths effectively. The Dragon has an uncanny ability to feel out his opponents distance, judge their timing and spot a flaw in their game before starting to lay out the punishment that will ultimately lead him to victory.
On the road back to recovery is Lyoto’s opponent Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (18-3). After suffering multiple knee injuries and loss of cardio fitness and conditioning, the former Pride FC Middle Weight Grand Prix Champion has most recently struggled to display his dominate form which earned him the consideration by MMA observers to be the number one light heavy weight in the world in 2007.
Make no mistakes, Shogun is just as a complete martial artists as Machida. He has fought against the best of the best and has consistently beaten his opposition in devastating fashion with his trade mark Chute Box striking and aggression. Some of his biggest scalps to date are Akihiro Gono, Quinton Jackson, little Nog, Alistair Overeem , Ricardo Arona, Mark Coleman and most recently Chuck Liddell. Rua is an excellent Brazilian Jujitsu black Belt, and a natural athlete- this he has inherited from his mother who was a track athlete and still competes in marathons to this day.
Ultimately the fighter that will win will be the one who has the best game plan and can actually stick to it as both Machida and Shogun’s strong striking techniques and ground game will both nullify each other. If Machida can make Shogun play his game by getting Shogun to be aggressive and attack Machida, then Machida will win the way he always win by counter striking and waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. If Shogun can stick to the game plan like he had against Liddell – which was to be patient, hold back on the aggression and wait for an opening and force his opponent to fight uncharacteristically by being the aggressor, Shogun can take Machida apart as The Dragon strays away from his game plan and into unchartered waters .
What are both fighters’ weaknesses? Everyone knows that Shogun’s cardio is questionable since his fight with Coleman and the quickly finishing fight with Liddell.
However, the million dollar question that everyone is asking is what is Lyoto Machida’s weakness? Nobody knows at the moment because he has remained undefeated so far. One flaw that can be noticed is that for the smallest amount of time Lyoto doesn’t protect his chin when going in for strikes.
Many observers and commentators have stated that “The Machida Era” has begun, but it’s very clear that they have forgotten that Shogun was on his way to the ultimate glory of being a champion before suffering those injuries. I wonder if everyone would write off the likes of Fedor Emelianenko or Anderson Silva if they endured the injuries Shogun has endured?
It only takes one punch to end an era and begin a dynasty, this could be a fight for the ages.
Heavy weight champion Brock Lesnar has been forced to pull out of his upcoming title defence against Shane Carwin at UFC 106 which is to be held on November 21, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
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