Lyoto Machida Is Not Necessarily MMA's Karate Bellwether

The problem with lunging at Lyoto is that most of the time he’s not “loading up his hands”. If he cocked his hands, people could dodge coming forward. The problem is that he often keeps his guard high, and uses short, ultimately less powerful but incredibly accurate short punches with short extension to keep his opponents from coming forward. It’s like taking one step into someone’s fist.

Then, even when he’s too close to cut off guys like that, he throws that diving punch into the clinch, where he can either swim to neck control, throw a guy, or disengage and reset. It’s consummate, all-phase domination.

In order to catch Machida, his opponent has to either be speedy enough to catch him while staying relatively defensive to the counter, or like many of his opponents, lunge forward with aggressiveness to catch him.

- Fastest LHW – Rashad.
- Rashad is not overly aggressive.

It’ll be interesting to see how Rashad will try to counter Machida’s countering abilities because in the end, he’ll have to rely on Machida potentially coming after him. If Rashad can get him into the cage at some point, he may have a chance on the floor I suppose.

- You seem to have very little faith that Evans/Winklejohn/Jackson have even bothered to think of ways to counteract Machida’s rope-a-dope. That right there is probably why they’re some of the most highly regarded in the business – their analysis is able to reach a point that others don’t even consider.

There’s a huge swell of support to embrace the oddity that is Lyoto Machida and that is admirable. But let’s not forget one of the smartest, most adaptable, mobile, reactive, explosive, and most importantly – well-prepared – fighters in the game today. Machida has gotten to point where he’s been underrated/underexposed for so long that now he’s overrated.

You’re absolutely right, there aren’t legions of Shotokan Karate black belts chomping at the bit to get a chance to come into MMA and run roughshod. Shotokan doesn’t even really cover the ground and barely covers throws and any level of grappling. And no, there aren’t scores of Shotokan Karate practitioners with the athletic prowess to be able to adapt themselves to wrestling, muay thai, BJJ the way Lyoto has been able to. I mean, I seriously doubt the average Shotokan Karate black belt will be able to go to rAw and hang with those guys much less get glowing praises from the likes of Frank Trigg the way Lyoto was able to. But there are so many misconceptions on how to be a striker that come from Western boxing and Muay Thai influences that I would go as far as to say Shotokan Karate could ‘correct’. Like the idea that it’s ok to lift your back heel when throwing a reverse punch the way boxers do to be able to pivot or how Muay Thai fighters spin on the balls of their feet when throwing a kick. Those are big no-nos in Shotokan. Does anyone wonder why Lyoto was able to adapt to wrestling so well? Yes he took sumo, which many Shotokan practitioners study if at least in theory if not in practice (can’t practice sumo very easily in this country) because the principles on never compromising your center of gravity are the same in sumo as they are in Shotokan.

Not to mention the idea of smacking your shin against an opponent repeatedly results in several injuries that hamper fighters down the line. Lyoto throws Muay Thai leg kicks since they are good at keeping distance and good for setting up more traditional karate blows and are the hardest kicks to catch if you are a wrestler. But he throws them more of as a nuisance, not with any killer intents because he doesn’t want to injure himself which many MMA fighters wind up doing. His more serious blows (Tito Ortiz knee to the body for example) he throws traditional Shotokan style.

You don’t ever kick with your shin in Shotokan, always with either the balls of your feet, the ridges of your feet or heel if you are throwing an axe kick or back kick. By minimizing the striking surface area, you can transfer much more power from your blows. In many ways, I look at kicks with the shin kind of like smacking someone with your forearms. If you throw hard enough, and if your forearms are conditioned enough, you can knock people out…but why not strike with a smaller surface area? That’s why you punch with your fist or strike with your palm or elbows. The power of the blow doesn’t get dissipated over a large striking surface area like the forearm bone (ulna?) or the shin bone. Simple physics. The biggest drawback with Shotokan kicks (although I would say they are much more effective and powerful if thrown properly than even your best Muay Thai kick) is that they are way to easy to grab if you are a good wrestler with quick reflexes. But Lyoto has shown a simple concession to technique, and Shotokan can be applied in an MMA setting.

I used to cringe watching a striker with such a gifted sense of timing like Cro Cop almost cripple his legs after every fight (he has to ice them down for days) or watch gifted athletes from AKA come out throwing leg kicks like spinning tops. There is a much better way, a much more disciplined way, and Lyoto is showing it.