UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida

[jmt225]

Main Card

• Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida
  [*]Welterweight bout: Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra
  [*]Middleweight bout: James Irvin vs. Drew McFedries
  [*]Middleweight bout: Yushin Okami vs. Dan Miller
  [*]Lightweight bout: Sean Sherk vs. Frank Edgar
  

Preliminary Card

• Welterweight bout: Brock Larson vs. Chris Wilson
  [*]Heavyweight bout: Pat Barry vs. Tim Hague
  [*]Lightweight bout: Phillipe Nover vs. Kyle Bradley
  [*]Light Heavyweight bout: Houston Alexander vs. Andre Gusmao
  [*]Welterweight bout: Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs. Brandon Wolff
  [*]Lightweight bout: Dave Kaplan vs. George Roop
  

You know, people are complaining about last night's main event being a snooze fest, but man oh man... the main event here has potential to be much, much worse. I mean, both men are great fighters, but both are very cautious and always wait for their opponent to make the first move. On paper, two undefeated fighters with the names these two gentlemen have defeated makes it seem a fight one would kill to see, but both have been criticized heavily in the past about their fights not being exciting. But hey... you never know, if both these guys bring their A game and bring it fucking hard, then we could end up with a Fight of the Year canidate. They both can strike, have knockout power, have good wrestling, and good Jiu-Jitsu defense. So, if they're both aggressive, we could end up with a masterpiece the likes of Forrest/Bonner 1, but if both are on the defensive... then we'll end up with Shamrock vs. Severn 2.

But how about the fight before that one? I'm so fucking excited for this one! It’s about time Serra and Hughes meet in the Octagon. I've been wanting to see these two fight for a couple of years now, lol. While I like Hughes, I hope Serra kicks his ass and then moves back down to Lightweight and have some awesome fights in that division. Can you imagine Serra vs. Nate Diaz? Talk about a Ground War. But yeah... this fight here should be a GREAT one.

James Irvin vs. Drew McFedries should be a stand-up war. Someone's definitely getting KTFO in that one; probably McFedries.

And Sean Sherk vs. Frank Edgar should be a good fight as well. Both guys always bring it, and both are looking for the win since Sherk will most likely get the winner of Penn/Florian if he wins, and Edgar will be a fight or two away from getting a title shot himself if he is victorious.

And I don't have much to say about the Preliminaries other then I hope Houston Alexander does well. He needs a win BIG TIME.

 

[theneil450]

As usual agree with most everything you wrote. Thanks btw for being one of the only people to post in this mma section.

My thoughts:
* Evans/Machida definitely has potential snooze fest written all over it but after that Silva/Leities debacle I see Evans going all out and forcing to action to beat a very game Machida.

* I too have eagerly waited for Hughes/Serra but seriously how much can you expect from 2 guys who have more ring rust than the tin man's balls in a jacuzzi? The hatred they seemingly have for each other could counteract that and I hope it does, but I don't see a "technical masterpiece" coming. I'll still be excited though.

* Sherk/Edgar should be cool and as a final thought why are Kaplan and Roop even in the ufc?

 

[pampero firpo]

machida and evans are counter punchers. they arent straight ahead fighters like rampage,guida, and gsp. probably will be a snooze fest like anderson silvas last fight. a dream matchup would be gsp vs. anderson silva at 175 -180. gsp wouldnt let silva rest.

 

[theneil450]

Prediction: Evans tko round 4 & Serra ko round 1

 

[jmt225]

Man... I cannot wait to watch this show in the morning

From the looks of it, Lyoto Machida fucking destroyed Rashad Evans. I can't believe it. I thought Machida was going to win, but not in such a dominating fashion. Apparently, Machida completely controlled the first round, and at 3:57 of the second... Machida knocked Evans' ass clean out. Unbelievable.

I cannot wait for Machida vs. Rampage. And if Machida can defeat Rampage, then I don't think there is anyone in the Light Heavyweight Division who will be able to defeat him.

But yeah... congrats to Lyoto Machida! He's going to be one hell of a champion. Not only is he a tremendous fighter, but he's as classy as they come, with a heart of a true Warrior. He definitely deserves to be a champion.

I'm disappointed Serra lost, but it looks like he put up a good enough fight. He lost a unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the bout 29-28 for Hughes. Like I said at another forum, the only way Hughes would be able to win is to take Serra down and hold him there, and that’s exactly what he did. And from the sounds of it, it looks like the crowd wasn't into the fight because of this and I guess I can't blame them. This was hyped as one of the biggest rivalries in MMA history, and unfortunately... Matt Hughes did the smart thing to win the fight, instead of trying to have a war.

And it looks like Frankie Edgar completely dominated Sean Sherk. I can't fucking believe that shit! If Edgar can win one or two more fights, he's on his way to a title shot for sure. But to be honest, I don't ever see him defeating Penn, or Florian for that matter.

 

[jmt225]

So I've watched the two main events and my description above describes both matches perfectly.

The first round between Rashad and Machida was nothing special. Literally, in the first 80 seconds or so, absolutely NOTHING happened. But thank God that didn't happen the entire fight like I, and I'm sure everyone else, feared. With about one minute left in the round, Machida caught Rashad with a left and dropped him. And man... whenever Machida smells blood, the guy is on you like a fucking pitbull. But much to Rashad's credit, he was able to recover and get back to his feet.

At the start of the second, again, nothing special, but then Rashad gets rocked once again within around three minutes into it and this time, Machida makes sure Rashad doesn't recover. And while Rashad is trying his hardest to come to his full senses, BAM! Machida knocks the dude clean out. Unbelievable.

I don’t think guy is going to lose any time soon. As great as Rampage is in all aspects, I just don’t see how he will be able to catch Machida, or even get him to the ground. Even though he doesn’t look such, Machida has to be P4P one of the strongest fighters in MMA. How he’s able to keep guys like Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans from being able to take him down is truly unbelievable.

The only person I think who can defeat this dude right now is Anderson Silva, and I don’t see that fight happening ever considering how close they are. We are really about to experience one long ass era of Lyoto Machida. And I, for one, am looking forward to it.

And Hughes vs. Serra was a pretty good fight I thought. I agree completely with the judges' decision after watching it. I give the first to Serra, and the second and third to Hughes.

 

[Marquis]

So i finally got done watching the event since i was away for the weekend, and was very pleased with this PPV.

Lyoto Vs. Evans. Going into this match i was expecting this to be a 5 rounder decision. I was expecting Evans to come in with a great game plan to combat Lyoto. So i thought i was gonna see a long strategic fight. Instead i get treated to seeing Lyoto absolutely fuckin school Rashad. I can't believe how green Lyoto made him look. I would like to think Rashad was a bit off in this fight, but there's no denying Lyoto is just on another level. His reflexes and movements are just sick. At one point Lyoto actually caught one of Rashads straight punches, lowered it with his right, and hit him with a left. That takes damn good precision and reflex. The Lyoto Era has arrived, and with the current LHW pool in the UFC, i don't see this era ending anytime soon.

Serra Vs. Hughes. Although this match should have happened months ago, and most of its hype may have died down. I was still looking very much forward to this match. I do not like Hughes, and was looking forward to seeing him get his ass kicked. Sadly that did not happen. At one point in the match Serra had Hughes completely out of it. He caught hughes with a headbutt on the chin by mistake, and landed some strikes. Sadly Serra did not capitalize on this. Serra didn't smell blood in the water like he should have, and pummeled him. Hughes wins by UD, which i thought was wrong. I thought Serra should have won the decision, or at least lose by split decision. Although i don't like him, props to Hughes on his takedowns. Still some of the best looking takedowns in MMA.

As for the other fights. I was displeased to see Sherk lose. I thought he was well on his way to a another title shot, till this big setback lose to Edgar. I really don't understand why he tried to stand and box with Edgar. congratulations to Edgar, this was a real sink or swim fight for him. Miller Vs. Sonnen surprised me. I was expecting Miller to pull a easy sub victory here, which almost did happen, but props to Sonnen for holding out and LNPing Miller. Krzysztof also picked up a great KO that night, boy was it a good few weeks for team quest. Too bad Mayhems fight ended in NC. Also i didn't get to see the fight since it didn't air, but Pat Barry lost his fight. Shame since i was looking forward to seeing him climb up the ranks quickly. Seems like a cool fella, and if you watch some vids on him, has some devastating leg kicks. Which is always fun to watch. Hope to see him get back on track soon. Overall great PPV.

 

[WrestlingAuthority90]

I loved the ppv. I personally cant stand Rashad Evans. So I LOVED seeing him getting knocked out. Hopefully Lyoto Machida can put together a good long title reign instead of dropping it in his first defense like the last few champions have. I was suprised by how entertaining Lyoto was. I figured he'd just run around all fight and win a decision. But he suprised me by basically being a damn badass. He earned me as a fan after that! lol

Matt Sera vs Matt Hughes was a good fight. I expected more sense they "hated" each other. But it was still a good fight. I was happy to see Hughes win. He's one of my favorite all time fighters, so I'm glad his career is back on track.