Will other fighters begin to pay attention to Lyoto Machida’s strategy?

“He fought a smart fight, a very technical fight,”

Roger stated during post fight interview. He also admitted to going back to his old habits after the 1st round. To his credit Roger Huerta continued to chase Florian but every time he got within striking range Kenny made Roger pay for it with punches, kicks, one grazing elbow, knees, a flying knee and a great front kick to the jaw.

What I really liked about Florian’s brilliant technical-elusive-performance was his output. Florian could have pressed the action a little bit more but he did more than enough to hurt and frustrate Huerta. Just like Machida, he imposed his style and game plan on his opponent. I appreciate Florian a bit more simply because he offers more offense. Kenny Florian did not stray from his game plan, his comfort zone, which is very important in a fight game. So should other fighters take note and consider working on their footwork, position and angles when standing up? Or should fools rush in and the suffer the fate of presenting easy punching targets a-la Chris Leban vs Anderson Silva, Houston Alexander vs James Irvin and Rob Emerson vs Manvel Gamburyan?

Vee can also be found writing and drawing for Scritch and Scratch, a blog about Drawings, Doodles & Illustrations.

There are a lot of things that bug me about Lyoto Machida.

He’s a striker who hasn’t knocked out a UFC opponent. He talks at length about this striking style that doesn’t finish. He fights off of his back foot. He throws combinations almost as rarely as he moves forwards. He gets credit as being the top striker at 205, when there are a half dozen guys who have finished more fights standing up than he has.

Still, while I’m open about the problems I have with the way that Machida fights, there’s one thing I won’t deny: he’s going to get a title shot.

He’s one of the only fighters in the division without a loss on his recent record, and the only one who’s one a substantial winning streak against the opponents that the UFC cares about.

The UFC has used him as a high profile hitman. They brought him in to prove that Sokoudjou wasn’t as destructive as everyone thought. They brought him in to end the UFC career of Tito Ortiz on a note that will make it much harder for the former Champ to get resigned in a major organization.

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Or is he really that good? I’m certainly assuming it’s the former as I was not impressed with the Brazilian once again during UFC 84. As Machida pulled off a 30-27 decision win over Tito Ortiz, I wondered if UFC judges were really listening to Mike Goldberg when he told us (once again) that each five minute round would by decided by effective striking, grappling, aggression, and octagon control by the judges.

For the record, I have nothing against Machida. Sure, he was boring at UFC 84, but I didn’t think BJ Penn was exciting as he jabbed his way through nearly three full rounds either. I’m also not a Tito Ortiz fan more than any MMA junkie. Ortiz has been around long enough that I’m aware of his abilities and I respect him as a ground and pound fighter.

It’s not that Machida is a bad fighter, he is just able to exploit the flaw in the judging system to win 8 out of 13 fights via decision. So more than 60% of his fights are left to the judges as he dances away from the fight and he continues to move on up in the UFC’s light heavyweight division. Two TKO’s in 2003, a guillotine in 2004, a rare technical knockout in 2005, and an arm triangle choke against Rameau Sokoudjou in 2007 make up his decisive wins as a fighter. The rest of his fights, the eight he didn’t end, were left to three judges to decide and only once did a split decision nearly cost him his undefeated status. That was in 2003, quite a while back if we are talking about current MMA standards, against an unknown Sam Greco.

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The UFC 84 fight card was a great one. It was jam packed with huge names, big fights, and plenty of controversy. One of the largest stories of the event and over the past 6 months was the ongoing feud between Dana White and Tito Ortiz. The post fight press conference only added more fuel to this fire as Tito was not invited! For the post event Tito interview go to http://opinionatedsports.com/Tito_after_UFC_84.html. Tito and his lady were definitely not happy about not getting an invite and did not hold back in the interview. Here is an update on the top fights of the night, the complete results and awards.

BJ Penn def. Sean Sherk via TKO - Round 3, 5:00 UFC Lightweight Championship

This was the main event, and was a solid performance for the champ. Penn used his jab and length to his advantage. Sherk wanted to establish his standup game prior to attempting takedowns; he wanted to show the world that he could box. Unfortunately Sherk never got to that point. Penn’s jab was used to perfection and let him control the fight from start to finish. The fight ended in a fury at the end of the 3^rd round. Penn pushed and got the better of an exchange. Sherk then stepped back and leaned into the cage. Once his momentum brought him off the cage, Penn landed a flying knee and dropped punches until the bell. At first glance it seemed like Sherk had been saved by the bell, but between rounds the referee stopped the fight. Throughout the 3^rd round it seemed like Sherk was favoring his right hand, and seemed to be throwing more leg kicks and less rights. The medical results aren’t out of yet. In a move of bad sportsmanship and one that many are talking about, Penn ran over to Sherk after the fight was stopped, wiped some of Sherk’s blood and licked it. Prior to the fight it was assumed that the winner would fight the winner of the Ken-Flo vs. Huerta fight, but Penn says the fans want him to bump up and fight GSP. The future of Sherk is unknown, but the loser of the Huerta Florian in Minnesota was hinted in the post fight press conference (if Penn gets the winner). That could happen unless Penn bumps up. If he does then the 155 division will be shaken up and a fight for the title could ensue.

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I won’t say that UFC 84 changed the entire sport, because that would be an outright lie, but the 205 pound division needs to be seriously rethought, and the UFC management has been neglecting restructuring it for a while. It’s clear that there are fighters that are ranked way to high in that division and other fighters who need to be reevaluated and reappraised.

The return of Wanderlei Silva to form may have been the most important thing that happened last night and, unfortunately, everyone simply sees it as a last hurrah for Silva, because after his loss to Liddell he seems almost unmarketable for title contention, and I think that’s the right judgement, but at the same time, there are guys that Wanderlei should be fighting, guys that he should step in with because they need to be tested as much as he needs to gain some more practice and credibility in the cage.

Questioning Wanderlei’s credibility as a fighter is like questioning Mirko CroCop’s ability to hit hard. It’s an unquestionable truth in the world of MMA, but the question is whether or not his return to the top tier is legitimate, or if it is just, as some seem to think, a last hurrah. It makes alot of sense to put him in and test him against top tier opponents like, say, Houston Alexander or Rameau Thierry Soukoudjou.

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The Huntington Beach Bad Boy Tito Ortiz will have one large thing in common with Barry Bonds, Allen Iverson, and Daunte Culpepper after his much anticipated fight with Lyoto Machida this weekend at UFC 84. They will all be free agents looking to make a contract to solidify their future.

Almost all athletes will come to a crossroads in their athletic career where they will be forced to decide if they should move to another city and get paid, or stay where they are and be happy with what they are offered. If you pay attention to the current MLB season, most of the players that are in the final year of their contract are playing better than previous years. In a way they are acting like a personal billboard - advertising their talent so that in the offseason another team will spend the big bucks on them.

Tito Ortiz is at this cross road and will be looking to advertise himself this Saturday at UFC 84. Every MMA organization would love to have Ortiz in their organization. He is a big name, bring with him a billion dollar company in Punishment Athletics, and is one of the most dominate fighters in UFC history. On the horizon he looks to be in movies, and to be hosting his very own reality show. However, they will only pay big bucks for the Tito Ortiz that once dominated the cage. This second Gary Shaw is running numbers in his head and is sure to make a strong run at Tito. A Tito that can’t win isn’t worth nearly as much as one that does.

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This is my first post on the site, and I’m glad to be here. Looks like a great group of guys and a solid think-tank. Given my background in the sport, and some of the results from the recent UFC cards, I thought this would be a good way to start this off.

There was a time when many a sherdog columnist wrote that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was done, and that the new fighter was a hybrid of wrestling and muay thai, with a little jiu-jitsu and some submission defense. There was a time when there was not a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter could be found in the UFC.

That time wasn’t too long ago, but you’d never guess it by looking at the current status of the UFC, and objective assessment will show that those predictions, that BJJ would become an obsolete style when people figured out how to defend the armbar and utilize the groundnpound form guard, are clearly wrong.

Four of the UFC’s five champions are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelts. Anderson Silva, Matt Serra, BJ Penn and recently crowned heavyweight king Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (who gave Silva his blackbelt) all hold the honor, but they’re not the only one, and it’s clear that the knowledge of the ground game is something that can’t just be learned from wrestling and transitioning to grappling, as we’ve seen time and time again.

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After all kinds of speculation that Tito Ortiz wouldn’t take a fight against Lyoto Machida, word came down today via a Sirius Fight Network Radio interview with Tito that he has agreed to the fight. Ortiz stepped back from his typical public relations driven verbiage, and took the candid stance that is standard for him when discussing money.

“They don’t want the fighters to get as big as a ‘Tyson’ or a ‘De La Hoya’ or one of those types because all of a sudden, they’ll be expecting to see a lot more payment,” Tito explains. “The UFC makes about 99 percent of the money, and the rest goes to the fighters. That one percent ain’t nothing compared to what they make on merchandising, on pay-per-view, and everything else they make around the world.”

Now, I’m not certain where Tito is getting his numbers from. But I find it pretty hard to believe that the ones he quoted above are accurate. As usual when it comes to Tito negotiating, he’s overstating things to make himself look like the mistreated dog in the situation. But he’s right when he says that the “UFC” is making 99% of the money. I noticed how he said “The UFC” instead of “Zuffa”. I thought this was actually pretty amusing, considering what followed from Tito in the interview.

“They said I wasn’t worth the money, that I was worth no more than what I’m getting paid now, and I’m not a commodity to them anymore. I’m not as viable to them anymore. That was a sign of disrespect.”

But seriously, is it disrespect or is it just reality? Word around the mats is that Tito’s constant nagging “back injuries” that he references after each fight is actually one specific spinal issue, and his takedowns have lost their former explosiveness because of this. This has crushed Tito’s ability to finish fights off, unless he’s fighting Ken Shamrock. A simple glance at history reveals that Ortiz hasn’t finished an opponent other than Shamrock in six and a half years. June 29th, 2001 against perennial journeyman Elvis Sinosic is the last time Tito ended a fight before time expired.

It is also important to note that Tito’s negotiations have not involved Dana White at all. He’s been at the table with Lorenzo Fertitta, and Lorenzo is one of the 400 richest people in the world. Who do you think has the better business sense out of the two?

Another standard tactic employed by Tito is his implication that his fight with Machida will be his last fight in the UFC.

“…I’m just looking to get my final fight over with the UFC.”

Now, regarding Tito’s talk about the UFC making all the money? Well, that’s true if you’ve been paying attention. No one fighter is bigger than the company itself, and I’m pretty certain this is what Fertitta and White had in mind when they followed the business model of the WWE. It is the UFC that is the product, not specific fighters.

Lorenzo Fertitta loves boxing. So should it come as a surprise that he doesn’t want Tysons and De La Hoyas? When you have a phenom driving the entire sport, your success has a shelf life that is only as long as that phenom maintains dominance. Boxing’s slide isn’t entirely due to this, but there is no doubt that it has been a significant factor in that equation. The UFC won’t go down the same road boxing went down, but there will always be the catch 22 in that the people running the company want to maximize profits, and the fighters will always want more money.

And so, here we go again. Tito has one fight left on his contract and he’s not happy that he’s getting lined up against the dangerous, yet still not marquee-ready Machida. Whether he likes it or not, the fine gentlemen at Zuffa are still the highest paying game in town, and he’s now posed with a situation that every other fighter under a Zuffa contract must deal with:

Earn your keep via putting on exciting performances, and you’ll be taken care of. The days of needing one posterboy are over. The days of being one of the top paid guys just because you’ve got an image that doesn’t live up to itself through your performances are over. The guys who are out there finishing people and putting on exciting fights are the people who should be collecting the lion’s share. And it will never be in Zuffa’s best interest to bring their champions to the status of multi-multi-millionaire, because these fighters lose their edge when that happens.

Too bad it had to be Lorenzo who filled Tito in on these minor little details. I’d think a businessman who got himself onto Trump’s program would understand these things…….

I have been successfully wagering on MMA events since I was a full-time executive in the biggest offshore gaming company in the industry, encouraging other books to put up lines on MMA events. In those early days, the books took some bad beats for a couple of reasons:

1. There was not enough bettors to easily balance the line, and;

2. Virtually all of the bettors were sharps - fanatic MMA enthusiasts who knew the fighters and knew the game.

Remember, no matter what ANYONE tells you, sportsbooks want to attract an equal amount to each side of a line. Responsible professional sportsbooks do not take a position on an event, they set and adjust the line in an attempt to attract equal action to the favorite and the underdog. Achieving this guarantees them the theoretical hold percentage or profit regardless of the outcome. While perfectly balanced action is never achieved, the line is managed according to this principle.

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