Phil Davis vs Lyoto Machida

Machida sadly just doesn't have a judge friendly style. Whilst those of us who love technical striking, the UFC seem to want all their fighters to fight wild, basically come out swinging. That will never be Lyoto's style. He is more calculated, slows the pace down, uses defence and footwork and looks to counter. I felt Machida won the fight, but didn't put a stamp on it.

Saying that I still felt he should have got the decision. Davis aside from the take downs barely did a thing. Many failed take down attempts too. Machida picked him off quite often in the striking.

I guess you have to throw a 1000 punches a round now to win it, or alternatively, get a take down at the end of it, and lay on top for a minute, and that also seems to work.

 

I know Machida's style is countering and I don't expect the man to turn in to a mindless brawler to win a fight, but Machida needs to be more active. When he's not knocking somebody out, he's standing back, willing to wait a little to long for the counter and never really separates himself as the winner of the round.
He's like a pro boxer who doesn't have enough power to KO anybody and doesn't throw 100 punches per round to win on activity... A lot of times you see those guys in plenty of draws. That's what plenty of Machida fights are except there is 3 rounds and usually no even scoring for the round, so he leaves it in the hands of the judges yet again. Again I understand his style, but he should know he has to do a little more.

 

If you're a striker but you can't manufacture an opening to land your shots it's only half of the game. Simply waiting for your opponent to expose his chin for 3 rounds so you can land a shot is **** poor and explains why Machida has been in the top 10 for a long time but will never hold a strap. He dances and skips around half-feigning shots but it is completely ineffectual against top guys, it didn't even work against Davies who is only marginally better than **** IMO. I think he may well have entered the 'gatekeeper' phase of his career after this loss and performance.

 

This was clearly a ploy from the UFC to cheat Machida from regaining his title. Last thing they want is for their poster boy to lose. Now we have to pretend like Glover is a legit challenger.

 

The UFC has nothing to do with the judges.

They don't hire them and have no say on who does get hired to judge a night of fights.

 

Same conspiracy nuts that said the Dana fixed the Silva fight, even though he was arguably the no 1 poster boy in the UFC.

Everytime a fighter loses, a portion of their fans cry conspiracy. People are ****ing weird.

 

Conspiracy theories are cute, but really it comes down to this: MMA uses boxing scoring with boxing judges. When you try to wrap a cracked pipe with duct tape, there will be leaks. These leaks come through where the gaps between action and criteria open. MMA is fluid, but these rules commissions want to carry it in a wicker basket.

 

Much like the Rampage fight, Machida has lost himself another bout through over rating what he's done. Sure he threw some punches but there was little of note. There was little to stop the takedown swaying the first 2 rounds. They weren't definitive but he can't cry. Then when he finally switched on he showed what he could do with great takedown defence and sharp punches and won the third round, just like against Rampage.

 

The UFC selects the judges and referees who work cards in places like Brazil that don't have any real governmental regulation of MMA.

That doesn't mean that there's a conspiracy. Most MMA officials are incompetent.

 

Absolute ****ing robbery. A lot of people had it 30-27 for Machida. I scored it 29-28 for Machida but really wasn't expecting that if I'm honest.

 

I thought Machida did a lot more in the fight and Davis just landed some takedowns but didn't deserve to win. Machida will have to learn to be more aggressive. Davis...I don't know if he's that much better than the guy who got beaten easily by Evans.

 

Machida didn't do "a lot more," he was just more effective. They landed the same number of strikes and Davis outthrew him by almost 40 strikes over the course of the fight.

I thought Machida clearly should have won too, but this is what happens when you fight in a super conservative, negative style in front of incompetent judges.