I love Rashad, believe me read my earlier posts. When he Koed Griffin we cheered in a bar full of Forrest fans. Now in saying that, Ill be shocked if Rashad lands one punch on Lyoto. The betting line would be, If Lyoto gets hit, you win $100 bucks, If he loses a round its $1,000
Perhaps the proper boxing analogy would be to compare the fight between Pernell Whitaker and Diosbelys Hurtado. Hurtado moved away from the counterpunching wizard Whitaker all night long - forcing the normally defensive minded Sweat Pea to take the initiative to press the attack. Whitaker - used to slick counterpunching - was awkward with his attack and almost entirely ineffective against the moving Cuban. In the eleventh round, Sweat Pea caught Hurtado on the ropes and unleashed a series of left handed ghetto whoppers to end the fight. Hurtado was frighteningly draped across the ropes. That final outcome notwithstanding - Hurtado had the right gameplan against Whitaker. He could very well have been on the verge of scoring a unanimous victory were it not for Whitaker's eleventh round KO. Conversely, take the fighter arguably considered the greatest agressive fighter of the past twenty years - Julio Cesar Chavez - and look at his performance against Whitaker. Chavez charged Sweat Pea all night long and found himself outboxed, outmaneuvered and effectively rendered impotent by the counterpunching master Whitaker. That's the way I see it anyhow. It's entirely possible that no one would be able to counter Machida in that manner - or outgrapple him. The guy is undefeated and I'm certainly interested to see where he goes from here. In theory, he could eventually clean out the division.
I think someone like Rampage has a shot of beating him. Thiago Silva tried to be aggressive and passive at the same time. He never really tried to just crowd him and shoot for atake down. IMO noone would beat them if they just follow him around trying to strike. Hes definitely going to go down as one of the all time greats
Rampage needs to beat a guy like ForrestGriffin before he can dream of beating Lyoto. Rampage really is not even Top 5 in this division IMHO
Forrest - Already beat Rampage Machida - Lets not go there Rashad - Too Fast and way better wrestler Manhoef - Can we say Comatose Sobral - This is the easiest fight for Rampage but Babalu will likely choke him out Rampage is the most overrated fighter in the UFC. This guy Koed a Chuck that is way way past it, Rashad did it better. Lost to a prime but limited fighter in Forrest and defeated another way past it fighter in Wand (Who brutalized him in his prime twice!) Rampage has really nothing extraordinary except his persona, tell me one thing he's very good at?
Rampage beat Forrest in a rematch, just wait and see Rampage beat Manhoef, lol Manhoef has shitty wrestling, bad ground game, and always gass, Rampage will fight smart and wear him down, than GnP the **** outta him He would beat Sobral, please... For god sake, Rampage is a top 5 at 205. Saying otherwise is silly, sorry One thing he is very good at? Rampage is a ****in good complete fighter
Course its relevant - Tito is a better GNP fighter than Rashad and got dominated by LM. Wait, you dont mean Evans is going to outstrike Machida?
Absolutely. In no way am I saying any decent fighter could use such a strategy and come out victorious. I'm just saying that my strategy is ground zero on how to beat the guy, since everyone seems to go at him the same way.. If you just stand your ground, he is going to lunge in, pop in and out with strikes. A fighter is going to need to be a sharp counter striker to take advantage of that. If you retreat and make him close, its harder for the stalker to work with feints if they are dealing with feints themselves. Forcing a guy into something unfamiliar is usually going to yield the best results.
I don't think being agressive is something that's unfamiliar to him, though. Karate is a pretty offensive minded combat sport too, in short, quick bursts. One shot at a time. A very patient offensive style.
