Passing The Guard: UFC on Fox 4 Thoughts

Music to listen to:  Blood on the Motorway by DJ Shadow

 

Some quick thoughts on UFC on Fox 4:

 

-It wasn’t a good night for Phil Davis.  The last time that the UFC was on Fox, Davis was in the main event against Rashad Evans in a light heavyweight title eliminator that could have earned a chance to fight Jon Jones for the belt.  However, a lackluster decision loss to Evans sent Davis down the pecking order to the point that he wasn’t even on the main card of UFC on Fox 4.  Furthermore, due to his inadvertent poke in the eye to opponent Wagner Prado, he now has to wait two more months for a rematch on UFC on FX in October against the same opponent.  The night started off as four men vying for the chance to fight Jones in a rematch for the title in the future but the one man who hadn’t faced the champion, Davis, may never get the chance again after Saturday.

 

-I thought that Mike Swick’s layoff would affect his durability and I was correct…for one round.  DeMarques Johnson did an excellent job of using physical aggression to put pressure on Swick and when he gained full mount, I thought the fight could be over.  However, Swick took advantage of an off-balance Johnson to slip a decisive left hand to earn the knockout.

 

-I have to stop doubting Joe Lauzon.  Maybe it’s the appearance, the pitch of his voice or something else deeper but I pick Lauzon to lose the majority of his fights even though he has proven to be one of the more durable competitors in his division along with providing a majority of entertaining matches.  He proved it once again with a third-round submission of Jamie Varner in the fight of the night.  I was particularly impressed with Lauzon’s ability to…wait for it…Pass The Guard (see what I did there?) of Varner in the second round to establish the ground control.

 

-I should have known not to pick against Machida.  In the NBA, there’s a short list of guys over time whose physical abilities along with the juxtaposition of their position make them memorable.  We will never see another 6’9’’ point guard like Magic Johnson.  We will never see another player 6’0’’ (and that might be generous) dominate at shooting guard like Allen Iverson.  Find me another 6’5’’ power forward like Charles Barkley become a Hall of Famer.  LeBron James.  Those guys aren’t necessarily the greatest basketball players of all-time, even though some may make cases for them.  The point is that their style of play made them unique matchup problems for their opponents.  For Magic, do you stick a smaller quick guy that can outrun him but what happens when Magic posts up on offense.  If you put a bigger guy to handle Magic on defense, what happens when he can’t keep up with Magic on the fast break.

 

The point of all of this is to say that Machida has become this type of matchup problem for the rest of the light heavyweight division.  The only guys to give him trouble is Rua, who we’ll get to later, and Jon Jones who’s in his own category at this point.  If you stay outside on Machida, he’ll pick you apart with his karate techniques, especially when he decides to switch stances similar to what he did against Bader on Saturday.  If you go inside, you can get knocked out like Bader did in the second round.

 

I’m not saying that Machida is the best light heavyweight in the division but he may be the most unique mixed martial arts fighter I’ve ever seen.  His dedication to the craft of karate and his constant implementation of it into a sport that’s dominated by kickboxing, jiu jitsu, wrestling and to a lesser degree judo, taekwondo and muay thai has been enjoyable to watch.

 

-If someone could look good by losing, it was Brandon Vera.  There hasn’t been a heavier critic of the Vera hype train more than me over the years.  I’ve been inundated with the talk of him being the most talented fighter in the world to never put together in fights.  I’ve heard guys keep saying that Vera can be the best fighter in practice and training but just has to stay focused and make his fights like a “sparring session” and we would be immersed in the abilities.  However, another fight would come and go and the excuses would start and I’d drown them all out.

 

However, Vera showed me more in his loss to Shogun Rua than arguably any of his other fights.  I liked seeing Vera use his muay thai effectively in the fight and attempting to dictate the pace of the fight.  The ground work could have been better and as Joe Rogan pointed out throughout the fight, there we’re potential moments for Vera to change body positions and gain the advantage but it wasn’t taken.

 

While Vera will never meet the lofty expectations of holding the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles at the same time (btw, he’s in the wrong ballpark, I think we’ll see someone hold the middleweight and light heavy titles or the lightweight and featherweight titles at the same time before Vera’s combo) there’s a chance that he can be a name fighter in the UFC for years to come because he’s a known guy, especially internationally (don’t discount his popularity in Asian countries), he talks a good game and brings effort most of the time.

 

-I’m on Team Brian Stann and thought that Shogun looked the best at UFC on Fox 4.  I understand why Machida is getting the title shot.  The intrigue of Jones figuring out Machida again makes the rematch an easy selling point.  However, while I picked Bader to win the fight, I thought that Rua had the tougher opponent and showed more resolve in victory.  Its hard to nit-pick a second-round TKO but Rua’s implementation of ground attacks showed more diversity in victory in my opinion.

 

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?