UFC 98 Thoughts and Reactions

UFC 98 is in the books, and we have a new light heavyweight champion in Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida.  Several other fighters turned in impressive performances as well, and a long-standing grudge match was finally settled in the cage.  With the fights over with, here are some of my thoughts and reactions from the latest offering from the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Machida is amazing: That pretty much says it all.  Yet again, Lyoto Machida has fought another very good fighter and not only come out on top, but he has come out virtually unscathed as well.  Machida took a dangerous, athletic opponent with a very good wrestling pedigree and knockout power, and made him look as if he didn’t belong in the same cage with him.  At this point, it has almost become funny.  Who in the world can win a round from this guy?  Just one round!

Meanwhile, we can start handicapping the Machida- Quinton “Rampage” Jackson title fight, as that has been officially announced.  Of course, if the rumors of Rampage coaching “The Ultimate Fighter” again are true, we will have plenty of time to imagine what will happen, as snow will be on the ground and holiday cards in the mail before the fight would even take place.  Even with that much time to work out a game plan, it’s hard to imagine what Rampage will do to overcome the challenges that so many others have failed to best.  He has the power to put anyone away with one solid punch, but we have already seen that landing a solid punch on Machida is much easier said than done.

Hughes wins, will continue fighting: The late news that Hughes would retire after the Matt Serra fight turned out to be far from the truth, as Hughes plans to continue fighting after the decision victory over his rival.  It’s hard to say that Hughes looked awesome in the fight, but then again, Serra is a very talented and game opponent who came to win.  Hughes’ recovery after being rocked in the first round (with what turned out to be an accidental headbutt) was very impressive, however.  It remains to be seen whether Hughes skill set will be enough to propel him back into title contention, especially as others in the division are continuing to round out their games.

Early Stoppages Continue:  It was unfortunate that the pay-per-view audience didn’t get to see the Phillipe Nover- Kyle Bradley bout, which apparently contained the most recent of many early stoppages that have plagued the sport, and the UFC in particular.  Referee Yves Lavigne was the culprit, and he again went to stop the fight, then backed off before stopping it yet again.  Early stoppage aside, a referee simply can’t step in and then back off, as if to say, “my bad”.  Once you’ve interrupted the fight, that should be it.  It’s not easy to be an MMA referee, but you simply can’t jump in until you know it’s over. 

The Drew McFedries- Xavier Foupa-Pokam fight may have been another early stoppage, though the outcome itself was clear when the stoppage was made.  I can live with a stoppage like that, where one fighter may still be conscious, but the fight is clearly headed in a particular direction anyway.  If the fight had been allowed to continue, McFedries just would have pounded Foupa-Pokam out.  Still, it would be nice to have the fight ended by the fighters themselves, rather than an overactive referee.  Even Foupa-Pokam would rather have had his lights turned out than have to wonder whether or not he could have recovered.

Where does Sherk go from here?: Sean Sherk looked a bit slow and also a little puzzled against rising lightweight fighter Frankie Edgar on Saturday night.  As Joe Rogan noted, it was the second straight Sherk fight that turned into a boxing match, and once again the strategy did not serve him well.  That is not to say that Sherk could have taken down Edgar and kept him down; still, it would be nice to see Sherk at least attempt to take the fight to where he has the best chance of winning.  When Edgar is clearly faster and beating you with each exchange and you have not displayed knockout power standing up in your previous fights, what hope do you have to win in a boxing match?  You have to shoot for the takedown, even if you don’t get it.

Sherk now will be at least a few wins from a title shot in a very tight division that is ruled by a fighter who only tends to defend his title once or twice per year, anyway.  I still think Sherk has what it takes to be one of the top two or three guys in the division, but it’s important to see some willingness to change his game plan during fights if it is not working out well, as it wasn’t against Penn or against Edgar the other night.

 by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Frankie Edgar, Lyoto Machida, Matt Serra, Sean Sherk, UFC