The fight with Ortiz may have been expected to send Lyoto packing. Tito was gone either way, and a loss would let him fire the “boring” Machida. But the win, and impressive fighting, I think Machida made his own luck.

I was always surprised that people (especially those who should have known better like Greg Savage and Jeff Sherwood) didn’t clue into the UFC’s attitude towards Machida when he was given a fight against Tito. Fighting Tito probably has the highest ratio of reward to risk of any fighter in MMA.

I became a fan around the same time when Machida fougth Sokoudjou. I hadn’t seen his previous fights before that and was just amazed at how technical he was. I had never seen anyone fight like him. I always figured if he had enough time, he could find his killer instinct in the cage. I’m glad Dana had enough faith to keep him around. He’s gonna be a great champ.

I was of the opinion that White and Silva were putting Machida on the backburner (giving him subpar competition) because he was such a fan haterite. I thought that they thought that they were feeding him to Soko, who they really expected would obliterate Machida and be on his way to becoming a superstar UFC cash cow, and the loss would give them a reason to cut Machida from their roster. When they gave him Tito, I thought it was solely because White knew that his specific style would frustrate the shit out of Ortiz. I thought that they gave Machida a “step up” in SIlva out of gratitude for clowning Dana’s nemesis, but were totally shocked when he KTFO’d Thiago, thus making himself so much more marketable. The masses of new fans, and the relentless outcry from the MMA blogosphere declaring that Machida is overdue for a title shot (and Rampage’s injury), may have helped secure the Dragon a shot at the strap.

In retrospect, I have only heard Dana say good/great things about Machida, and they’ve put him on the main card since UFC 76 (despite so-called boring performances.) Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe I owe Dana an e-pology. Maybe I’m just happy that my boy is champ, and I can look past prior “high hat” behavior.

I was always a huge fan of Lyoto. Watch how he tags Rashad and evades almost at the same time.

Against Hoger:

Against Franklin:

I think it’s safe to say Machida has overtaken Brock Lesnar as my 2nd favorite fighter. Of course GSP is still 1st.

On a different note, is it pretty much a sure thing that Machida and Rampage will be the coaches next season or is there still a chance they will go in a different direction? I’d really rather see this fight sooner than later and while Rampage is entertaining I think it’s a little too soon to put him back on TUF.

You know what’s sad, is smoogy isn’t around here to say sorry for always bitching about how Machida was never going to get a title shot.

Wait. He’d never apologize for that.