Phil Davis vs Lyoto Machida

His style isn't negative. The issue really is how the two takedowns swung the round in favor of Davis despite Machida getting the best of the standup.

In this fight, Machida wasn't just waiting for a counter, he was actually trying to create openings and led with kicks and punches at times. Davis was also fighting cautiously himself knowing Machida's style, and really fought a smart fight. it's hard to judge those takedowns, because Davis couldn't do any ground and pound. Machida also stuffed many of Davis's takedowns. UFC tries to judge MMA fights by boxing scoring, and takedowns are tricky when you are weighing that vs the standup.

 

If you look at my scorecard, I scored the first two rounds even. Rd 1 Machida didn't land that much, but slightly better than Davis, and the Davis takedown in round 1 was not as good as his takedown in round 2 and his ground and pound didn't last as long as it did in round 2. (end of the round)

Machida's knee barely missed in that first round combo by Machida. That knee could have hurt Davis badly but it barely missed (inches). When you look at the first round, the takedown happened at the very end of the round, so it was only a very small portion of what happened in the round. They were on their feet for the large majority of the round. By giving Davis that round based on that late takedown, you are rendering that rally by Machida and his other strikes meaningless. I thought 10-10 was fair, giving Davis credit for the takedown, otherwise it was 10-9 Machida. (barely but clear)

Round 2 Machida was more active and Davis's take down was much better and longer. One judge gave Rd1 to Machida and Rd 2 to Davis, and that would have been an okay score. (better than 20-18 Davis after 2, which imo is a ridiculous score) What makes this tough is that I think Machida landed his best strike of the fight in this round, a straight left hand that was by far the best strike landed in the round. So that's why this round is so hard to score and why I scored it even.

If Machida stays on his feet in rounds 1 and 2, I think he wins clearly wins the round. However, the rounds were close as a lot of Machida fights are against top competition. Davis is definitely a well rounded athlete in his prime.

Right and that's why I gave Machida round 3, and two of the three official judges did too. Machida once again edged him slightly in the quality of the striking, but this time there were no takedowns and multiple stuffed takedown attempts by Machida.

A vastly inferior striker? Davis is an above average striker, but he's coming from a wrestling backround. Davis was an NCAA wrestling champion in college. Machida is imho the most superior striker in MMA, so all of his opponents are inferior in striking compared to him. Where Davis excels in his wrestling and takedowns.

It's not his fault that he put himself in a position to lose like that, because he fought his fight and did what he had to do to win. However he let himself get taken down, and in such close rounds he can't do that. I don't think he planned on getting taken down. Machida is a guy that prefers to stay on his feet, and part of that is a very good takedown defense where he moves his legs quickly. He showed this in round 3. If he didn't fight the way he did, he could have gotten taken down more or submitted. I think fights like this where one guy wins the striking and the other guy gets takedowns should be scored a draw and not seen as either guy winning. MMA scores are always debatable, but your critique of Machida is the same type of thing we heard after Machida won a controversial 5 round decision of Rua in their first fight. Machida then was more aggressive (listening to the opinions too much) and got badly knocked out by not fighting his usual style. Remember Machida was winning and looking great and more active early in the 2nd Rua fight, but then he got too aggressive, trying to win the rounds too convincingly and got stopped. So he has to be careful not to abandon his Karate style. The takedown defense is the key, and it's not like he has to re-invent the wheel. What Lyoto is doing works, he just has to try and not get taken down as much. Though I don't think a takedown like Davis's in the 1st round is enough to swing anything, even a close striking win. You really have to evaluate the quality of the takedown, the damage done on the ground, and the length of the ground work.