Two Views of Lyoto Machida vs Rashad Evans at UFC 98

This Saturday's UFC Light Heavyweight Title fight is building buzz in an unusual way. Leaving the interpersonal heat and drama to Hughes vs Serra, Machida vs Evans is all about teh strategery.

Kevin Iole uses a baseball metaphor to describe Machida:

...Machida is Greg Maddux.

Maddux’ fastball might have been, oh, 15 or 20 miles per hour slower than Ryan’s. Ryan get batters out by letting them know what was coming and then throwing the ball so hard they simply couldn’t get around quickly enough to hit it.

Maddux was slyer. Look outside and he came in. Expect something hard and get something offspeed. It was almost impossible to hit the middle of the ball with the barrel of the bat when Maddux was in his prime. Guys would sit in the on deck circle and salivate at the thought of hitting against him, but then would drag their bats back to the dugout wondering what had happened.

And that’s how Machida’s career has gone. Machida probably strikes fear in no one. He doesn’t have a devastating move he’s renowned for pulling off. But he wins by playing chess as everyone else is playing checkers.

Josh Gross on the other hand thinks the strategic advantage goes to the reigning champ and his highly touted camp:

Here's why I'm more excited for this fight than any other so far in 2009. And why I can't imagine a boring outcome. (Oh, there will be lulls. But they'll be strategic lulls.) Just because Evans and Machida aren't the kind of fighters who will try to kill each other for 25 minutes won't mean they aren't deeply locked in a fight.

My expectation is the need for both camps to adapt on the fly, and as much as Machida and his crew are pros, there isn't a better camp at identifying exploitable weaknesses during a fight than Greg Jackson, Mike Winkeljohn and others.

In-fight strategy will be a major factor in determining a winner at UFC 98.

Personally I think Jackson's camp is as good as anyone's but let's not forget that Jackson is the same coach who's Yoda'd his heart out in many a losing UFC effort -- think Nate Marquardt vs Anderson Silva, Diego Sanchez vs Josh Koscheck, GSP vs Matt Serra 1, Keith Jardine vs Houston Alexander/Wanderlei Silva etc etc.

Jackson's a great coach who's been on a hot streak, but at this level anything can happen.