The Machida Era is officially underway in UFC
Published by on June 2nd, 2009 in Current Events

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Recap of May 28th edition of ESPN’s MMA Live program
Hosts: Jon Anik w/ Kenny Florian & Franklin McNeil
Main topic – The Machida Era is officially underway in UFC

Kenny Florian described Machida’s fight style as organized chaos that is diverse and features direct karate attacks. Machida caused so much confusion for Rashad Evans that he made him look bad. Machida now belongs in the upper echelon of MMA fighters and belongs in the Top 5 list of best pound-for-pound MMA fighters in the world. Kenny thought that the one fighter at 205 pounds who could Machida problems would be Evans. However, Evans got destroyed and there is nobody who is close to Machida (who is ‘two years ahead of everyone else’ in the 205 pound division). Franklin McNeil said that Machida’s athleticism is underrated and we weren’t exactly sure how quick and strong Machida’s hands would be until the carnage we’ve seen in his fights over the last 18 months. Plus, Machida is a big 205 pounder.

Can Quinton “Rampage” Jackson give Machida problems and beat him? Florian said that Rampage has a shot with his powerful left hook, but it won’t be enough to beat Machida who is tell well-rounded, smart, and too disciplined to make a mistake that would cost him the fight. McNeil said that Rampage has a puncher’s chance and that he’s not intimidated. He could test Machida’s chin. If Rampage can’t beat Machida, McNeil says that Jon Jones (after a couple more years of experience) could be the guy to really give the Brazilian champion a test. Franklin says that Machida keeps his hands low and his chin up, which you can’t call a ‘weakness’ right now but will be called as such if someone can exploit it.

Highlights of Frankie Edgar’s big win over Sean Sherk at UFC 98 are shown.

Franklin McNeil says that Rashad Evans is really down right now and might need some time off. Kenny Florian rebutted by saying that Evans has had too many long layoffs and needs to be fighting as much as possible. Kenny says Rashad needs a couple of wins to build his confidence back up. Kenny said that Evans is not an ‘overrated’ fighter.

Regarding Frankie Edgar’s big win over Sean Sherk, Franklin McNeil said he wasn’t surprised by it at all due to Frankie’s improved stand-up game. He moved his feet a lot and used more of the cage to cause problems against an exposed Sherk. Sherk’s loss is big because of the depth of the 155 pound division. Florian admitted that he wanted Sherk to win so that he could get a re-match against him. Franklin says Edgar is a couple of fights away from a 155 -pound title shot.

Reader question to Kenny — why are many fighters not properly gameplanning for fights and instead are getting caught up with flashy wins? (Perhaps because UFC’s bonus system and Dana White encourages for exciting fights?) Florian says that a fighter’s top priority should be to win first and you need a game plan to make it happen. He says that he is surprised by many fighters who admit that they don’t watch film or study their opponents more often.

Next, coverage of the DREAM 9 5/26 Yokohama Arena event. Jose Canseco vs. Choi Hong-Man described as “a pathetic display overall.” Franklin says that Jose has not closed the door on fighting and will likely continue freak show match-ups. Host Jon Anik claims that Canseco tried to get Frank Trigg to be his cornerman but was rebuffed. The topic moved onto Joe Warren’s big win over Kid Yamamoto. Florian said that Warren is the best wrestler to enter MMA outside of Rulon Gardner and that with such a rare talent like Joe, he has a shot at winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics and making waves in MMA. His first two fights have results in wins against Chase Beebe and Kid Yamamoto, which is amazing. In response to Tatsuya Kawajiri’s big win over JZ Calvan, Kenny said that Kawajiri is on a tear but that Calvan is coming off of a knee injury and that his timing had to be screwed up.

Back to recapping UFC 98, there was a little attention paid to Matt Serra and Matt Hughes. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not both men will retire. Neither Kenny nor Franklin see either man retiring or changing what they are doing right now.

As far as the biggest win at UFC 98, Kenny says that it was Chael Sonnen’s win over Dan Miller. Franklin said that Drew McFedries showed tremendous punching power in his win over Professor X.

Reader question: With Machida as UFC’s 205-pound champion, will karate explode like BJJ blew up when Royce became the icon of UFC? Kenny said that the key to Machida is that he’s not just great at karate, but he’s great at wrestling and BJJ as well. The early UFC events were style vs. style matches, whereas to succeed in today’s landscape you have to be well-rounded.

Reader question: Did Gray Maynard come out as the big winner of the Edgar/Sherk fight given that Maynard beat Edgar? Kenny says that he buys that premise. He also said that he was shocked at Sherk’s cardio not being up to par and that it was a weird fight performance. Will Maynard face the winner of the upcoming BJ Penn/Kenny Florian fight?

Final questions asked to Kenny and Franklin by show host Jon Anik:

Buy or sell Rashad Evans fighting at 185 — both men sold that premise. True or false — Matt Hughes will retire and Matt Serra will fight at 155… both men sold that premise. Over/under two years for Machida’s reign as UFC Light Heavyweight champion — both Kenny & Franklin said over, but slightly and that it will be a close call.