The Doggy Bag: Greasy Situation

Analyzing Machida

I'm not too impressed with Lyoto Machida. Let me explain, I know he's very good, quick, and accurate, but his chin is straight up in the air and his hands are low. Plus, when he strikes he leaps in with those strikes with his chin straight up. It's worked for him I know, but in my opinion, when he fights somebody with a good left hook or a good straight right, they're going to clobber Machida.

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Just imagine Quinton Jackson standing in front of him and Machida leaps in to throw a straight left with his chin up and Rampage throws a left hook at the same time, if he connects, Machida's going to go down. He has no protection for his chin. What do you think?
-- Matt in South Carolina

Jordan Breen, radio host and columnist: There's no doubt that Machida does a lot of things that typically get fighters into trouble: he carries his chin high, his hands often low, he often moves straight backwards instead of circling out, and so forth. However, Lyoto's defensive savvy goes beyond the token "elusiveness" ascribed to him.

Landing punches on Machida tends to be extremely difficult, as Machida's best offensive weapon is his counter left cross which he uses to preempt his opponent's strikes. Because of his fantastic hand speed and reflexes, Machida is able to key on his opponent setting up strikes, moving forward, and landing his left cross before they're able to get strikes off.

More than that, Machida's forward movement is also technically constructed. When he steps forward with the left cross (or his left knee to the body) he brings his head and body across his opponent on angle toward their lead and away from their power side, usually clinching up to either avoid any counterstrikes, or to generate more offense of his own.

However, the real defensive brilliance of Machida is not that he doesn't get hit. Several fighters, from Bonnar to Franklin to Nakamura to Sokoudjou to Ortiz have been able to land single power shots on him. Machida's real defensive strength is that although he moves straight back away from single strikes, when he does get hit, he doesn't retreat backwards, he comes forward and clinches up. Should a fighter be lucky enough to land on Machida, following up with strikes is even more difficult, and in fact, an opponent is liable to quickly be on the defensive, due to Machida's adroitness in the clinch, where he's shown the leverage and technique to toss around larger fighters with legitimate skills inside.

Certainly, the hand speed, power and boxing fundamentals of “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans are the most interesting stylistic challenges for Machida at this point, and may prove to be the most difficult to overcome. However, Machida is not a one-trick pony, who has simply gotten away with poor defensive tactics. He's shown the ability to avoid strikes with footwork, to use his offense as a defense to stop opponents from attacking, to absorb legitimate power shots, and to disable his opponents from capitalizing. Machida's defensive technique isn't just "elusive," it's consummate.

Referee blues

I wondered if you thought the stoppage on the Danillo Villefort-Mike Campbell fight at WEC 38 was premature. The referee admonished Campbell to fight back, but I think his strategy was correct. If you have a Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion on your back, and he’s banging on your skull, covering up is a smart move. It forces the guy to go for a submission, and then you can try to escape. Does it say in the rules that you have to expose yourself to blows to the head rather than wait for an opportunity to do something else?

Villefort seemed to be just swinging his hands, knowing the referee would stop it if he just kept going through the motions. I don’t think Villefort was trying to finish it any more than Campbell was defending himself, which I thought was the requirement -- that you intelligently defend yourself. Now the referee is deciding if your defense is sufficient? I thought the point was to protect the fighters. Absorbing blows to the hands while they’re around your head doesn’t seem like a risky move, and if it saves you until you can get back to your feet, it seems totally legitimate. The crowd certainly didn’t like the call and booed Villefort. I would love to hear your thoughts.
-- David Green from Toronto

Brian Knapp, associate editor: David, while I feel your pain, I disagree with your assessment on the stoppage. A lot of gray area exists when it comes to officiating. Was Campbell’s safety in jeopardy? Probably not. However, I do not believe the correct strategy calls for one to simply cover up and offer no resistance, no matter who’s on your back -- a world-class jiu-jitsu player like Villefort or the 300-pound neighbor with the bratty kid and eight dogs who lives next door.

The mixed martial arts referee has perhaps no more important job than determining whether or not a given fighter’s defense is sufficient. Villefort mounted Campbell with roughly two minutes left in the first round, and 30 seconds later, he had him flattened out and was getting in some impromptu bongo practice. He fired some 40 unanswered blows at Campbell. Some of them found their mark; many of them did not. However, once the action reaches that point of no return, the competitive phase of the fight ends. Campbell did nothing to improve his position. He simply covered up and let Villefort have his way. Referee Josh Rosenthal made the correct call, despite how the onlookers felt.