When Lyoto Machida is beaten, he mentally folds. Just like he did tonight against Luke Rockhold at UFC on Fox 15 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (April 18, 2015). The end for “The Dragon” was clearly decided by the end of the first round ….. and just like it was in Lyoto’s loss to Jon Jones, he became totally indisposed/incapacitated or mentally folded. To his retrospective defense, Machida later disclosed that he was pretty much out of it by the end of the first round due to being clubbed on the head. Nothing to dispute that, really. The beating Machida took was brutal – almost as brutal as the one he took from Jones, which brings us the conclusion that Machida just can’t take much by way of beating. But he is not alone in this dept. Lesnar couldn’t either. And so it would appear at this juncture that the way Machida survived earlier in his career was most probably a function of not being matched with muggers ‘n sluggers who could contain his slippin’ ‘n slidin’ ways. Whichever way one looks at this, the result has been that in the case of Jon Jones and Luke Rockhold, Machida’s defences collapsed …… advertently or inadvertently, but with the same result: a traumatic loss. Note the bolded words for future reference.
The fight with John Jones showed a man who was physically and technically overmatched and when the beating started Machida left himself wide open to all sorts of technical exploits. But even then, the standing choke came as a bit of a surprise. Could he have been concussed and woozy as he said he was with Rockhold? It’s possible, but who really knows? Who really knows what the extent of the wooziness really was? There is nothing to definitively discount the possibility that Machida may have been looking for the most dignified way to exit the excruciating beating he was receiving. (Rampage did the same thing when Jon Jones was cracking his rib cage. Rampage’s choking appears to have been deliberately allowed by a veteran who just wanted the bruising fight to end. Go back and watch it if you doubt this.)
Machida’s fight with Rockhold saw a fighter who appears to have left his neck open for a rear naked choke for the same reason – but then again, he may have really been out as he says. Who really knows, but it is not insignificant that Joe Rogan commented that Machida appears to have left a left hand free to tap, instead of frantically trying to protect his neck. So at the end of this infinite loop, “how then shall we presume”?
“Once (Rockhold) got (Machida) to the ground, and that this is of course after the beating that Lyoto took in that first round ….. but once he got (Machida) to the ground, (Rockhold’s) control was perhaps his most impressive aspect of the fight. And then got (Machida) completely flattened out here. Look Lyoto is not using that left hand to defend. His is just thinking about tapping with it. Look how (Rockhold) has got it sunk in here. Machida is not grabbing (Luke’s) hands with his left or right hand. You know what that means. That means (Machida) was broken. He wasn’t just beaten, he was broken because he is not trying to defend with the left or the right. He basically just got strangled and was waiting for the moment it was appropriate to tap” (Joe Rogan, UFC Fight Night, Machida vs Rockhold II 02:31″)
It’s not as simple or easy a task by any stretch of the imagination, but some things stand out like a sore thumb, starting with:
“Draco Machida, Quo Vadis?” The beginning of the end for Lyoto after loss to Luke Rockhold at UFC on Fox 15 on April 18, 2015.
Filed under: Uncategorized, Draco Machida, extreme fighting, Joe Rogan, Luke Rockhold, Lyoto The Dragon Machida, MMA, UFC, UFC on Fox 15
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