"Karate is back" - Lyoto Machida

"Karate is back", said an ecstatic Lyoto Machida tonight after his UFC 98 victory over Light Heavy Weight Champion Rashad Evans.

At 3 minutes and 57 seconds into the second round, Evans collapsed like a rag doll with his legs buckled underneath as a result of a punching onslaught by Machida.

It was an exhibition of superior karate tactics, strategy and application. Machida dominated the fight, barely taking a blow from Evans all the while employing textbook karate tactics and combinations.

What makes Machida such a great fighter is his awesome understanding of fighting dynamics, and his ability to apply it against any opponent. His perfect MMA record now stands at 15-0-0.

This makes such a great victory for us who practice and teach karate because Lyoto didn't just "get lucky". Rashad is no slouch with a record of 18-1-1. Simply put Rashad Evans is the last in line of the Machida path of destruction. Others include Rich Franklin, Tito Ortiz, Thiago Silva and B.J Penn - all very successful fighters.

And as usual when it comes to talking about karate, Joe Rogan again had a severe case of verbal diarrhea. To paraphrase, he made a rash generalization about karate kicks not being as powerful as muay thai, and also some reference to the "one punch one kill" karate philosophy not applying when fighting a grappler.

Hmmm, don't know about you but it seems to me that you can't grapple too successfully when you've been knocked out - what do you think, Joe?

This is a good day for karate teachers.

You can now give a stunning example of a traditional karate fighter in the public eye, who now rules a sport where BJJ and muay thai have dominated. As Joe Rogan said after the fight (the one thing I think I can actually agree with him on) is that the UFC has entered a new era.

The funny thing is that those of us who teach karate see exactly what Machida does and we understand his strategies, but so many UFC fans, fighters and coaches are completely bamboozled.

Use this opportunity to promote your school. Reference it in your classes and get people excited and talking about karate again...

Karate is back!

UFC 94 - Georges St. Pierre v BJ Penn (2) Review

As someone who appreciates a great display of karate technique, strategy,and application, I'm sure you'll agree that this past Saturday's UFC fight between Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva was exactly that...

In case you missed it, here's a quick summary...

(For GSP/BJ Penn fans... hold your horses - I'm getting to that!)

Machida took down Silva 4 times in the first round - twice as a result of clean striking combinations. One was a left hook; the other a lovely straight reverse punch that landed right on the chin.

He took him down 2 other times with leg sweeps, with the final one being the one that finished the match at 4:59 of the very first round.

As Silva fell Machida followed with another straight right, k-o-ing Silvain the process.

Joe Rogan has been getting on my nerveswith his BS about "karate has been proven not to work...", etc comments, and this display by Machida was exactly what Joe and plenty of others who sayMuay Thai and BJJ are the only waysto win UFC, needed to see.

Machida's elusive footwork (what I'vebeen saying all along), his understandingof timing and distance, counter punching, forestalling, and "closing the door" when he exits are all fantastic attributes that make him such a great fighter.

When Machida found himself in a neutral position on the ground where he didn't have an advantage he simply got up to his feet and refused to play the BJJ game with Silva.

That's smart!

As I say in my Fighting Secrets Revealed course - know your opponent, and play your aces!

Machida's MMA record now stands at 14-0. Not too bad for a "karate guy", hey Joe?

--

Of course the other great fight was between GSP and BJ Penn in which BJ Penn learned the hard way that he shouldn't be trying to fight above his weight class.

GSP was too strong, controlling the match the entire time and giving BJ Penn abrutal beating on the ground.

Every time BJ tried to get up, GSP just gained side control and pounded the heck out of him, to the point where the doctor stopped the fight at the end of the 4th round.

While there was only a few instances in this fight where GSP displayed his kyokushin basics with a couple of nice strikes here and there, plus the odd kick, his strategy WAS interesting...

In case you missed it, GSP's strategy was to wrestle BJ to tire him out so his formidable front jab would be slow and ineffective.

I guess it worked pretty well, since BJ barely touched GSP during the 4 rounds.

All in all it was a pretty good night for those "karate guys" who proved again that they are both awesome fighters, while maintaining their respect for their opponents - something that is less and less common today.

Check out my channel on YouTube - I've flagged a couple of Machida's other fights where again you'll see his dynamic footworkand timing.

http://www.youtube.com/karatetips

Enjoy.

Jason

P.S. Of course if you want to cut to the chase and start learning step by step Machida's stand up fighting strategies look no further than my Fighting SecretsRevealed Home Study course - it's all there.

http://www.karatetips.com/fsr

I'm just stoked someone in the public eye is doing it so well, even though manygreat fighters in WKF have been doing itfor years...

http://www.karatetips.com/fsr