UFC Options

[Robert]

Fight Night for UFC 98, I'm so exited, can't wait.
My cul-de-sac is having a little block party tonight, I'm moving my big screen into the garage so whoever is interested can watch it.
I'm looking forward to so many of the fights.

Rashad Evans Vs. Lyoto Machida
This is going to be a war. Im pretty sure my boy Machida will win the fight.
I've been doing a lot of reading about him, his fight statistics are amazing. He's got a 14-0 record while taking less punishment than any other fighter in the whole UFC. This is copied from one of the sites which does fighter stats.

One of the best ways to measure effective defense and dominance is to look at the number of strikes a fighter absorbs. This gets a little tricky when making comparisons because not all fights are the same length. So instead of using a cumulative total, we use a ratio. The easiest way to consistently calculate this is to figure the number of strikes absorbed divided by the number of minutes fought. That gives you the number of strikes absorbed per minute of fighting, which we abbreviate as SApM. Here are some SApM figures for the current slate of UFC champions:
Anderson Silva: 0.71 SApM Georges St. Pierre: 1.01 SApM BJ Penn: 1.23 SApM Rashad Evans: 1.39
Machida's career SApM is is 0.64
In fact, the only MMA fighter in the whole world with a lower SPaM is the great Fedor Emelianenko, with a SApM of 0.59

Some of Machida's other stats is...
He's never been knocked out
He's never even been knocked down from a punch.
He's never lost a single round on the judges scorecards.

Maybe Evans will win but I find it amazing that even though Evans himself has an undefeated 18-0 record, he's considered the underdog by a 3/1 margin.



Matt Hughes Vs. Matt Serra
Will be another great fight. I think Serra has a 50/50 chance. Serra by all rights should be fighting in the lower weight class. He's the only 5'6" fighter in the 170 lb division. His real strength is his jujitsu but his size really holds him back. It's really funny to watch him fight someone the size of Hughes because Serra's legs are barely long enough to lock him in his guard.
One of those guys will be crying when the match is over, they both hate each other.
I love Serra's new quote
"I already feel like a winner just knowing I get to hit Hughes in his face."
That's freaking awesome.

I even like several of the under card matches
Sean Sherk Vs. Frank Edgar
Phillipe Nover Vs. Kyle Bradley Some people don't like the 155ers but I think they put on some of the best fights, they are always so active.
Krzysztof Soszynski Vs. Andre Gusmao . Soszynski will never be a title holder but he puts on a good fight.



It's going to be great......

[Genocide Junkie]

We skipped out on this one. I have to say I'm glad it went down as it did though. Nobody deserves a face pounding like Evans. Should be interesting to see where the division goes from here. Seems like there will be plenty of people in line to fight Machida now.

[Robert]

Definitely one of the best UFC's I seen for a while, lots of great fights I heard even the un-aired prelims were good.

Warning ......
Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't watched the fight






















Here are some of the highlights from the Evans Machida fight.

1st time Machia buckled Evans



2nd time Machida knocked Evans down




Then the brutal knockout after getting knocked down 3 more times in rapid succession



Another view of the end of the fight




Here is why Machida puts the Art back into Mixed Martial Arts.
During the whole 9 minute match, Evans landed a total of 2 right hands and one really good leg kick.
Of the right hands, one was partially blocked and the other barely connected, more of a glancing blow.
This is Evans best exchange of the interior fight.


1st right completely misses
The 2nd right is partially blocked from Machida's arm and shoulder
The 3rd right barely connected
Machida ducked away from the final right.
Whats funny is Evans gets frustrated and tosses his hand up at the end of the exchange doing a little "whats up" gesture but less than 2 minutes later he's knocked out.

Got to say though, I was still impressed with Evans. His striking has really improved an he's so damn fast. I think he would have won against any other challenger. He just can't compete with someone like Machida who is so unorthodox and doesn't trade strikes from a normal stance.

You have to love Machida's interview right after the fight
"Karate is back"
This guy is the modern day version of Royce Gracie. Just like Royce fought to prove Gracie jujitsu was the best, Machida is fighting to build an defend the name of Machia Karate.


The Hughes/Serra Match was great too.
Even though I predicated a win for Hughes, I'm in the group who thinks Serra was robbed of the win or it should have at least been a split decision.
1st round Serra dominated, almost winning a KO victory
2nd round Hughes wins
3rd Round Hughes got the take down but did zero to advance his position, while during period Serra threatened 3 times with submission attempts from the bottom. Had Hughes partially locked up in an Omoplata, almost had a triangle. Then went for a arm bar when he lost the triangle. All Hughes did was lay and pray until the ref stood them up.After the stand up, Hughes constantly backed away while Serra tried to attack. Hughes then tries for another take down but Serra reversed it and slammed Hughes. ( should have gotten big points for the reversal ).
Most importantly Serra did a lot more damage from the top then Hughes did.
I think it should have been a 29-28 Serra.