As part of my series about burying Anderson Silva, I think it is important to realize that Silva didn't fight many of the best middleweights in the world, because arrogance kept them up at light heavyweight.
Fighters who SHOULD have been fighting at middleweight but can't resist the allure of being one of the big guys include: Shogun Rua, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans. All of these guys are about normal sized for middleweights. Much of Silva's best competition never fought him because of, well, ego and an unwillingness to cut weight.
It's hard to emphasize enough how bad Anderson Silva's competition has been. Even guys like Sonnen, who had the skillset to beat him, suffered this bizarre contempt for BJJ and a kind of mental weakness - watch the second fight, after Sonnen misses with the spinning backfist, he falls down and sits there. Like you can take a break in a championship fight! And even guys like Dan Henderson - I mean, I love you, Hendo, but I'm going to be frank, here - well, he's 6-4 in the UFC . . . and if you discount his UFC 17 wins, back in 1998, he's 4-4; that's not the profile of a great UFC fighter, Dan's best years were in Pride). And so many of Silva's fights have been against downright bad fighters, because so many of the best middleweights weren't fighting middleweight. Not just Shogun, Machida and Evans, but guys like Michael Bisping and Tim Boetsch were wasting their time at light heavyweight for far too long. But when Yushin Okami or Thales Leites seems a convincing championship title fight choice, let's face it, your division sucks.
(Even Vitor Belfort, who has been looking like a beast in his last two fights, well, we should remember his pretty . . . mediocre UFC record. If you look at his fights after his first run in the UFC (when the sport was almost nothing like what it is, now), he's 7-5 and has never had more than a two fight winning streak in the UFC. Sure, he's a good fighter, but thinking of him as a great fighter requires a lot of slight of hand.)
Compare to, say, GSP's opponents. Jon Fitch was 15-4-1 in the UFC. Josh Koscheck is 15-7. Matt Hughes is 16-6. GSP's next opponent, Johny Hendricks, is 10-1 in the UFC. But even when you compare the best fighters in Silva's fightography you find that . . . their records are pretty mediocre.
Compare THAT to the UFC records of Lyoto Machida (11-3 in the UFC) and Rashad Evans (13-3-1) - bearing in mind both fighters are fighting above their weight class!
Silva is a very good fighter. But when you look at the relative level of his competition, it really stinks and, specifically, key fighters who should have been fighting at middleweight were fighting at light heavyweight. This tendency for fighters who should fight at middleweight to fight at light heavyweight has made LHW a very interesting division, but drained MW of most of it's best talent. In many ways, MW is where fighters who can't win at LHW go, since so many LHWs are small for the weight class.
Showing posts with label lyoto machida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lyoto machida. Show all posts
Monday, July 8, 2013
Friday, December 3, 2010
"Effective" Aggression in Jackson v. Machida and MMA
After UFC 123, there was some controversy over the outcome of the Jackson v. Machida fight -- it was a difficult split decision. Oh, sure, the fight was close enough that no one was going to be happy about it no matter who won, something I blame mostly on Machida's style. He stays way on the outside and waits for the other guy to make a mistake that he can capitalize on. Which is a very legitimate and intelligent fighting style, and if you're looking for real self-defense it's about as good as you can get, but boring in the cage. Regardless of my feelings on Machida's style's legitimacy in MMA, when Machida is in a close fight there's going to be a lot of controversy because he spends most of the fight avoiding the other guy in the cage . . . which means judges are left scrambling for the lesser used criteria for judging fights.
One of them is effective aggression. What does that mean? Uh . . . well, I wish I could give a simple answer to that question.
Effective aggression and cage control are the two "lesser" criteria for scoring fights. The biggest two are effective striking -- which is easy to define, being clean, powerful blows that hurt the target -- and effective takedowns and grappling, which are also reasonably easy to score (though weighing the two against each other is also a source of constant MMA controversy).
Cage control is also pretty easy to see. Mainly, if one fight occupies the center of the cage, the "key", he is thought to have ring control because that fighter doesn't have their back to the cage, so they can't get cut off and put up against the cage. Jackson had ring control for the first two rounds, that's plain to see.
However, the effective aggression thing is harder to get a handle on. Aggression is easy to see. Who's going forward. Who's pressing the action of the fight. But sometimes, going forward is a pretty terrible idea, especially against defensive fighters. This is where Machida's style bolloxes the works. Machida is probably the most defensive successful MMA fighter in the history of the sport. Even the worst Brazilian jiu jitsu fighters will at least want to make contact with their opponent, even to the point of leaping onto them. Even compared to other defensive fighters, like Anderson Silva, Machida is avoidant. However, Machida is really good at take advantage of a fighter when that fighter tries to press the action.
To me, this is a species of rules lawyering on Machida's point. He knows that most MMA fighters are aggressive. The promotions and fans like aggressive fighters, as a rule. You look at the fight night bonuses that are given -- best fight, best submission, best knockout. All of them favor aggressive fighters, encourage fights to be aggressive. We do want to see blood. So he knows he can basically sit back and let his opponents come to him and whiz around the ring until they make a mistake and he can clobber them. But if Machida fought someone with his exact same style, it's hard to imagine there being any contact. Both guys would only throw blows from the outside and skitter away when the other person attacked.
If Jackson hadn't gone forward, there would not have been a fight, even though he got clobbered pretty hard because of it. So, a lot of people are asking themselves, "Did Jackson use effective aggression?"
I think in a perfect world, the answer would be, "No, he did not." Walking into a guy's punches and kicks is hard to define as "effective". But, on the other hand, there is a rule about timidity. Timidity is a foul. In a perfect world, I think Machida would have lost two points for timidity -- however, in the hundreds of UFC fights I've watched, no fighter has ever been fouled for timidity. (On the same card, I think Macquiel Falcao should have also been fouled for timidity in the third round. Knowing he'd won the first two rounds, he just danced around and refused to engage his opponent. The crowd was booing him. Was he fouled for timidity? No.) This is something they did in Pride FC all the time. If the fighters weren't aggressive enough, the ref could yellow card them . . . which took away 10% of their purse. They could keep doing this. Pride fighters fought.
In a perfect world, this is how things would have went down:
* Round one: 10 Machida, 9 Jackson, Machida fouled for timidity -- 9 Machida, 9 Jackson.
* Round two: 10 Jackson, 9 Machida, Machida fouled for timidity -- 10 Jackson, 8 Machida.
* Round three: 10 Machida, 9 Jackson.
In round 2, I might have fouled Machida multiple times for timidity, but just the one foul in two rounds is illustrative of my point. At the end, Jackson would have 28 points and Machida 27.
But the referees in the UFC never foul for timidity. No matter how much a guy dances around the ring, avoiding his opponent, even if it means there is almost no contact, I've never seen a UFC judge foul for timidity . . . despite it being in the rules and despite other promotions using the technique successfully.
So, what I think happened on the judges scorecards is an attempt to do what they can to balance out the fight within the construct of the rules. I think that they knew that if Jackson hadn't gone forward, there just would not have been a fight, even though he ate it several times because he went forward. Jackson's aggression turned it into a watchable, if not deeply exciting, fight.
So, in the context of the rules . . . I think that "effective aggression" can only be cleanly scored if the referees enforce timidity rules. I think the lack of enforcement of timidity justifies judges sorta playing around with the concept of aggression and cage control (which are related -- Jackson definitely controlled the cage because of his aggression, which is usually the case) in order to penalize fighters for the fouls that refs aren't giving them.
One of them is effective aggression. What does that mean? Uh . . . well, I wish I could give a simple answer to that question.
Effective aggression and cage control are the two "lesser" criteria for scoring fights. The biggest two are effective striking -- which is easy to define, being clean, powerful blows that hurt the target -- and effective takedowns and grappling, which are also reasonably easy to score (though weighing the two against each other is also a source of constant MMA controversy).
Cage control is also pretty easy to see. Mainly, if one fight occupies the center of the cage, the "key", he is thought to have ring control because that fighter doesn't have their back to the cage, so they can't get cut off and put up against the cage. Jackson had ring control for the first two rounds, that's plain to see.
However, the effective aggression thing is harder to get a handle on. Aggression is easy to see. Who's going forward. Who's pressing the action of the fight. But sometimes, going forward is a pretty terrible idea, especially against defensive fighters. This is where Machida's style bolloxes the works. Machida is probably the most defensive successful MMA fighter in the history of the sport. Even the worst Brazilian jiu jitsu fighters will at least want to make contact with their opponent, even to the point of leaping onto them. Even compared to other defensive fighters, like Anderson Silva, Machida is avoidant. However, Machida is really good at take advantage of a fighter when that fighter tries to press the action.
To me, this is a species of rules lawyering on Machida's point. He knows that most MMA fighters are aggressive. The promotions and fans like aggressive fighters, as a rule. You look at the fight night bonuses that are given -- best fight, best submission, best knockout. All of them favor aggressive fighters, encourage fights to be aggressive. We do want to see blood. So he knows he can basically sit back and let his opponents come to him and whiz around the ring until they make a mistake and he can clobber them. But if Machida fought someone with his exact same style, it's hard to imagine there being any contact. Both guys would only throw blows from the outside and skitter away when the other person attacked.
If Jackson hadn't gone forward, there would not have been a fight, even though he got clobbered pretty hard because of it. So, a lot of people are asking themselves, "Did Jackson use effective aggression?"
I think in a perfect world, the answer would be, "No, he did not." Walking into a guy's punches and kicks is hard to define as "effective". But, on the other hand, there is a rule about timidity. Timidity is a foul. In a perfect world, I think Machida would have lost two points for timidity -- however, in the hundreds of UFC fights I've watched, no fighter has ever been fouled for timidity. (On the same card, I think Macquiel Falcao should have also been fouled for timidity in the third round. Knowing he'd won the first two rounds, he just danced around and refused to engage his opponent. The crowd was booing him. Was he fouled for timidity? No.) This is something they did in Pride FC all the time. If the fighters weren't aggressive enough, the ref could yellow card them . . . which took away 10% of their purse. They could keep doing this. Pride fighters fought.
In a perfect world, this is how things would have went down:
* Round one: 10 Machida, 9 Jackson, Machida fouled for timidity -- 9 Machida, 9 Jackson.
* Round two: 10 Jackson, 9 Machida, Machida fouled for timidity -- 10 Jackson, 8 Machida.
* Round three: 10 Machida, 9 Jackson.
In round 2, I might have fouled Machida multiple times for timidity, but just the one foul in two rounds is illustrative of my point. At the end, Jackson would have 28 points and Machida 27.
But the referees in the UFC never foul for timidity. No matter how much a guy dances around the ring, avoiding his opponent, even if it means there is almost no contact, I've never seen a UFC judge foul for timidity . . . despite it being in the rules and despite other promotions using the technique successfully.
So, what I think happened on the judges scorecards is an attempt to do what they can to balance out the fight within the construct of the rules. I think that they knew that if Jackson hadn't gone forward, there just would not have been a fight, even though he ate it several times because he went forward. Jackson's aggression turned it into a watchable, if not deeply exciting, fight.
So, in the context of the rules . . . I think that "effective aggression" can only be cleanly scored if the referees enforce timidity rules. I think the lack of enforcement of timidity justifies judges sorta playing around with the concept of aggression and cage control (which are related -- Jackson definitely controlled the cage because of his aggression, which is usually the case) in order to penalize fighters for the fouls that refs aren't giving them.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Rampage Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida UFC 123 Recap -- and I know how to beat Machida's style
Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen the fight and want to, skip this post.
I'm not particularly thrilled at the way Machida fights. It's way too defensive for my tastes. I like a good, canny defensive fighter, such as Anderson Silva or Mirko Cro Cop in his PRIDE FC days, but Machida is a level of defensive beyond even Anderson Silva. For the first two rounds of the fight, all he did was dodge Jackson's blows. Jackson clearly wanted to mix it up, but Machida was having none of it. It's his style. He zips around the the other fighters, waiting for them to throw the punch or kick that allows him to launch a decisive counterattack. This is opposed to someone like Cro Cop or Anderson Silva (when he's not goldbricking, such as happened with the Demian Maia fight), who will stalk the other fighter across the ring, pressing them, putting themselves in a position to be attacked so they can do the devastating counter. Machida is content to more or less run around the ring, forcing his opponent to do all the work, to both press the fight and launch the attack so Machida can counter.
No one can say that Machida can't make it work. He's 16-2. Almost all of the time, it wins him fights. However, now that he's at the highest level of competition, I am less certain it's even a winning strategy because he lost the fight with Quinton Jackson. The first two rounds, Machida avoided almost everything Jackson threw at him. Oh, a few blows landed, and some of them -- including an uppercut in the second -- could have been fight stoppers. But since none of them were fight stoppers, the fight continued on with Jackson winning the first two rounds on points. And not even very many points at that. Machida was able to frustrate most of Jackson's attacks.
In the third round, Machida was able to stun Rampage. He followed it up with a takedown that lead to a full mount. Instead of going for the ground and pound, Machida spun to an armbar attempt . . . which was a mistake. Jackson is way too strong and nearly Rampage slammed Machida, who at least had the brains to stand up out of it. Machida won the third with a lot of contact and action. He punched Jackson down and dominated him on the ground.
If I was to judge the fight holistically, I would have given the fight to Machida (with some trepidation). But the UFC has rules and part of those rules are judging on the 10-point must system. At the end of a round, the judges decide which fighter won that round and, not going into the details of the 10-point must system, the basic fact is Jackson won two round and Machida won one round. So, with some trepidation, Jackson won the fight because two of the three judges agreed that Jackson won two rounds (and, honestly, I don't know which fight the third judge was watching). By those rules, Machida's fighting style will become, I think, less tenable when he's fighting very skillful opponents. Well, he's now at the point in his career where he's going to be fighting the best guys and the light heavyweight division has a lot of great guys.
Worse for Machida, his system can be gamed. What Machida's fighting style entirely relies upon is the other fighter's innate desire to go forward. If Machida fought his mirror image nothing would happen. (In some ways, this mirrors the situation in the early 00s with Brazilian jiu jitsu. In the second Shamrock vs. Gracie fight, Gracie was unable to do anything because he kept Shamrock in the closed guard, and Shamrock refused to do anything because he didn't want to play Gracie's game.) To win against Machida, all it requires is some initial aggression in the beginning of a given round and then, well, mockery. This can be combined with before fight interviews to sway the judges. It is against the UFC rules not to fight. It's technically called "timidity" which does include avoiding contact with the opponent. You don't point out that Machida is being defensive, you point out his style is inherently timid. Just like being on your back with your legs open hoping someone leaps into the closed guard so you can submit them with a triangle armbar.
I don't say this with particular hostility towards Machida or, really, his style. As a self-defense style, it's great. On the street, the "winner" is the survivor and an art that teaches a person how to avoid damage is a splendid idea. But UFC fighting isn't self-defense fighting, it's a sport fight, and that requires contact. I think a fighter that presses Machida in the beginning of the round and then fights like Machida at the end of the round would hammer the point home. Machida's style would become a massive liability, because of it's inherent timidity.
I'm not particularly thrilled at the way Machida fights. It's way too defensive for my tastes. I like a good, canny defensive fighter, such as Anderson Silva or Mirko Cro Cop in his PRIDE FC days, but Machida is a level of defensive beyond even Anderson Silva. For the first two rounds of the fight, all he did was dodge Jackson's blows. Jackson clearly wanted to mix it up, but Machida was having none of it. It's his style. He zips around the the other fighters, waiting for them to throw the punch or kick that allows him to launch a decisive counterattack. This is opposed to someone like Cro Cop or Anderson Silva (when he's not goldbricking, such as happened with the Demian Maia fight), who will stalk the other fighter across the ring, pressing them, putting themselves in a position to be attacked so they can do the devastating counter. Machida is content to more or less run around the ring, forcing his opponent to do all the work, to both press the fight and launch the attack so Machida can counter.
No one can say that Machida can't make it work. He's 16-2. Almost all of the time, it wins him fights. However, now that he's at the highest level of competition, I am less certain it's even a winning strategy because he lost the fight with Quinton Jackson. The first two rounds, Machida avoided almost everything Jackson threw at him. Oh, a few blows landed, and some of them -- including an uppercut in the second -- could have been fight stoppers. But since none of them were fight stoppers, the fight continued on with Jackson winning the first two rounds on points. And not even very many points at that. Machida was able to frustrate most of Jackson's attacks.
In the third round, Machida was able to stun Rampage. He followed it up with a takedown that lead to a full mount. Instead of going for the ground and pound, Machida spun to an armbar attempt . . . which was a mistake. Jackson is way too strong and nearly Rampage slammed Machida, who at least had the brains to stand up out of it. Machida won the third with a lot of contact and action. He punched Jackson down and dominated him on the ground.
If I was to judge the fight holistically, I would have given the fight to Machida (with some trepidation). But the UFC has rules and part of those rules are judging on the 10-point must system. At the end of a round, the judges decide which fighter won that round and, not going into the details of the 10-point must system, the basic fact is Jackson won two round and Machida won one round. So, with some trepidation, Jackson won the fight because two of the three judges agreed that Jackson won two rounds (and, honestly, I don't know which fight the third judge was watching). By those rules, Machida's fighting style will become, I think, less tenable when he's fighting very skillful opponents. Well, he's now at the point in his career where he's going to be fighting the best guys and the light heavyweight division has a lot of great guys.
Worse for Machida, his system can be gamed. What Machida's fighting style entirely relies upon is the other fighter's innate desire to go forward. If Machida fought his mirror image nothing would happen. (In some ways, this mirrors the situation in the early 00s with Brazilian jiu jitsu. In the second Shamrock vs. Gracie fight, Gracie was unable to do anything because he kept Shamrock in the closed guard, and Shamrock refused to do anything because he didn't want to play Gracie's game.) To win against Machida, all it requires is some initial aggression in the beginning of a given round and then, well, mockery. This can be combined with before fight interviews to sway the judges. It is against the UFC rules not to fight. It's technically called "timidity" which does include avoiding contact with the opponent. You don't point out that Machida is being defensive, you point out his style is inherently timid. Just like being on your back with your legs open hoping someone leaps into the closed guard so you can submit them with a triangle armbar.
I don't say this with particular hostility towards Machida or, really, his style. As a self-defense style, it's great. On the street, the "winner" is the survivor and an art that teaches a person how to avoid damage is a splendid idea. But UFC fighting isn't self-defense fighting, it's a sport fight, and that requires contact. I think a fighter that presses Machida in the beginning of the round and then fights like Machida at the end of the round would hammer the point home. Machida's style would become a massive liability, because of it's inherent timidity.
Karate fighters in MMA
Watching the prelims to UFC 123, with the main event being Rampage Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida, there was a bit where I believe it was Greg Jackson who said, "We learned a long time ago that karate sucks." Which is interesting because Machida is a karate fighter and ranked #2 as a light heavyweight.
It goes back, I think, to this "a long time ago". That being seventeen years ago, around about UFC 1. I haven't seen every UFC. I saw the first and was sorta "meh" about it at the time. In particular, I had trouble believing the fighters they got were, with the exception of Royce Gracie, actually top representatives of their styles. So, as the representative of karate and/or savate they had Gordon Gordeau . . . who kind of famously made up a bunch of fight credentials, indeed, perhaps all of his pre-UFC fight credentials. I'm not precisely saying that Gordeau isn't a good fighter -- I am sure he would destroy me quite completely were we to meet -- but without doubt Royce Gracie was one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu fighters in the world at the time. Heck, he still is. In UFC 1, the only other fighter that was for real, in the sense of being fit to represent his style, was Ken Shamrock.
In the early UFCs, there were some other karate guys but . . . they weren't really the best. A lot of styles of karate reject that kind of competition and, really, why would a really skillful karate fighter want to fight in the UFC? Additionally because, in Japan, MMA had unpleasant associations with pro wrestling -- puroresu -- because the first Japanese MMA-esque fight promotions originated in pro wrestlers wondering, amongst themselves, who would really win in a fight. While Shooto and Pancrase would become pretty popular, in the eyes of "serious martial artists", of which Japan has many, it was seen as a kind of prostitution of the skills. (Indeed, Machida labors under this very problem. Many of the big shots in Shotokan karate want to see him give up MMA and return to the art.)
So, what I am alleging that Machida might be the first really skillful karate fighter to try to fight in a karate-based style in MMA. Most Japanese karate masters are against the kind of fighting that happens in the UFC (mostly for bad reasons -- such as the class-based unwillingness to be associated with low-brow prize fighters and pro wrestlers). So, unsurprisingly, the top karate fighters -- who make pretty good livings off of the traditional styles of karate that they teach and who are heavily invested in the existing karate establishment -- avoid MMA.
I say this because Machida (whose style of fighting I don't particularly like, I should note) does things that I have long wondered why other MMA guys don't. Like . . . long front kicks. The most common MMA stance is mostly facing your opponent because you've got to have a good base in case someone shoots for a takedown. Fighters generally hold their hands in a boxer's raised position. Which means there's this line straight in that's . . . kind of vulnerable to straight attacks to the midsection. A hole, if you will, and one of the ways to exploit that hole is a straight forward kick from long range . . . which also minimizes the chances of a counterattack. From a fairly long range you snap a straight kick in. It attacks a weakness in your opponent's stance. If they fade back, there's almost no chance of them catching your foot. If you don't do any damage or they block or dodge, you're far enough away that they can't launch too many counterattacks. It's a good, solid move. It's not a kickboxing move because kickboxers have a far more sideways stance, presenting profile, and the lead arm blocks a lot of the effective target area. But it's definitely a karate move and Machida uses it. He'll snap in with long forward kicks. Then he'll move away from any possible counterattack, looking for another long strike that minimizes his risk.
In an MMA fight is this particularly exciting? No. But neither is Brazilian jiu jitsu. BJJ is extremely defensive and it's fairly easy to neutralize the guard by doing nothing. Still, it would be wrong to say that BJJ teaches no useful MMA skills. It absolutely does. I feel the same thing about karate.
Which is to say, I think Greg Jackson is wrong when he says that "karate sucks" and it's been "proven". I think what's been proven is that karate masters are a bunch of class obsessed jerks who think their style is "too good" for the rednecks and street fighters of the UFC. I think the only reason why BJJ is so well represented in MMA is the Brazilian in Brazilian jiu jitsu -- the Gracies were prepared by their long association with vale tudo events. A lot of Asian martial arts feel they're "above" MMA. Which doesn't mean it's been prove their art sucks. It just proves that they don't feel any particular urge to compete in MMA events.
It goes back, I think, to this "a long time ago". That being seventeen years ago, around about UFC 1. I haven't seen every UFC. I saw the first and was sorta "meh" about it at the time. In particular, I had trouble believing the fighters they got were, with the exception of Royce Gracie, actually top representatives of their styles. So, as the representative of karate and/or savate they had Gordon Gordeau . . . who kind of famously made up a bunch of fight credentials, indeed, perhaps all of his pre-UFC fight credentials. I'm not precisely saying that Gordeau isn't a good fighter -- I am sure he would destroy me quite completely were we to meet -- but without doubt Royce Gracie was one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu fighters in the world at the time. Heck, he still is. In UFC 1, the only other fighter that was for real, in the sense of being fit to represent his style, was Ken Shamrock.
In the early UFCs, there were some other karate guys but . . . they weren't really the best. A lot of styles of karate reject that kind of competition and, really, why would a really skillful karate fighter want to fight in the UFC? Additionally because, in Japan, MMA had unpleasant associations with pro wrestling -- puroresu -- because the first Japanese MMA-esque fight promotions originated in pro wrestlers wondering, amongst themselves, who would really win in a fight. While Shooto and Pancrase would become pretty popular, in the eyes of "serious martial artists", of which Japan has many, it was seen as a kind of prostitution of the skills. (Indeed, Machida labors under this very problem. Many of the big shots in Shotokan karate want to see him give up MMA and return to the art.)
So, what I am alleging that Machida might be the first really skillful karate fighter to try to fight in a karate-based style in MMA. Most Japanese karate masters are against the kind of fighting that happens in the UFC (mostly for bad reasons -- such as the class-based unwillingness to be associated with low-brow prize fighters and pro wrestlers). So, unsurprisingly, the top karate fighters -- who make pretty good livings off of the traditional styles of karate that they teach and who are heavily invested in the existing karate establishment -- avoid MMA.
I say this because Machida (whose style of fighting I don't particularly like, I should note) does things that I have long wondered why other MMA guys don't. Like . . . long front kicks. The most common MMA stance is mostly facing your opponent because you've got to have a good base in case someone shoots for a takedown. Fighters generally hold their hands in a boxer's raised position. Which means there's this line straight in that's . . . kind of vulnerable to straight attacks to the midsection. A hole, if you will, and one of the ways to exploit that hole is a straight forward kick from long range . . . which also minimizes the chances of a counterattack. From a fairly long range you snap a straight kick in. It attacks a weakness in your opponent's stance. If they fade back, there's almost no chance of them catching your foot. If you don't do any damage or they block or dodge, you're far enough away that they can't launch too many counterattacks. It's a good, solid move. It's not a kickboxing move because kickboxers have a far more sideways stance, presenting profile, and the lead arm blocks a lot of the effective target area. But it's definitely a karate move and Machida uses it. He'll snap in with long forward kicks. Then he'll move away from any possible counterattack, looking for another long strike that minimizes his risk.
In an MMA fight is this particularly exciting? No. But neither is Brazilian jiu jitsu. BJJ is extremely defensive and it's fairly easy to neutralize the guard by doing nothing. Still, it would be wrong to say that BJJ teaches no useful MMA skills. It absolutely does. I feel the same thing about karate.
Which is to say, I think Greg Jackson is wrong when he says that "karate sucks" and it's been "proven". I think what's been proven is that karate masters are a bunch of class obsessed jerks who think their style is "too good" for the rednecks and street fighters of the UFC. I think the only reason why BJJ is so well represented in MMA is the Brazilian in Brazilian jiu jitsu -- the Gracies were prepared by their long association with vale tudo events. A lot of Asian martial arts feel they're "above" MMA. Which doesn't mean it's been prove their art sucks. It just proves that they don't feel any particular urge to compete in MMA events.
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