Doggy Bag: Machida’s Secret Weapon

I’ve heard a lot of talk on how to beat Lyoto Machida, and I’m wondering if people are looking at the situation the wrong way. Some have argued it will take a better striker than he’s faced to catch him on the feet; or a stronger fighter like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to bully him around; or someone with speed to match; or a wrestler with better credentials than Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans. This assumes that doing more of the same, only better, will work. Maybe beating him requires a paradigm shift, not related to level of skill. Let me offer up a comparison.

Royce Gracie achieved legendary status by beating up one-dimensional strikers when people didn’t know a rear-naked choke from an armbar. Fighters eventually cracked the Brazilian jiu-jitsu style by studying it, and they eventually became competent enough to avoid submissions and work ground-and-pound or force stand-up fights.

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Flash forward to 2009. Nobody has solved Machida’s riddle. Perhaps we’re dealing with another situation in which fighters must shift their perspective in order to develop a winning strategy. Will it take a better striker to knock him out? Maybe not, because he doesn’t play by the same muay Thai or boxing rules everyone else does. Will it take a better wrestler to get him down? Maybe not, because you need to close the distance to score takedowns, and Machida only allows the distance to be closed on his terms; that’s why he has had to fend off so few takedown attempts.

I’m not suggesting Shotokan karate will become as influential as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but the principles governing the sport remain the same. Maybe fighters will need to study Shotokan karate, not to master it but to understand it enough to unravel it. I’d like to know what you think.
-- Kyle Antonelli

Brian Knapp, associate editor: Kyle, you bring up some good points. I’ll make this short and sweet. Machida’s background in Shotokan karate, while certainly a strength, is not the only fuel behind his rise to the top of the light heavyweight division. The man has very few weaknesses. His strikes are short, powerful and precise. He outwrestled Tito Ortiz and submitted Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. Plus, there might not be a better strategist in the game.

Nothing in this sport lasts forever, and someone, someday will handle Machida inside the Octagon. Ortiz proved he was at least vulnerable when he locked up that triangle choke at UFC 84. A more accomplished jiu-jitsu player might have finished Machida that night in May 2008.

Training has become so diverse and fighters so cross-pollinated that it’s hard to imagine a fighter like Gracie, strong in just one area, ever lording over the sport again. Times have changed, and to compare Machida to Gracie would do the current light heavyweight champion a great disservice. Yes, his roots are in Shotokan karate, but he has also taken the time to sharpen his skills in other areas, something Gracie never did.

I like how Sherdog.com’s Jordan Breen put it: “If Machida was a one-trick pony, he himself would be covering up his own shortcomings. Instead, he is a complete fighter with a gift for strategy and recognition, while his contemporaries have yet to even approach an understanding of the techniques he’s using. Many of MMA’s best fighters have convinced their foes to ‘pay no attention to that man behind the curtain’ -- a bit of clever deceit Machida has been soundly subverting, as he puts them under an unforgiving microscope.”