“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!