The fabled "fire-breathing dragon" is a legend of folklore, a mysterious and dangerous creature.
Lyoto Machida, the elusive mixed martial arts "Dragon," however, is very real, yet also a mystery.
The Dragon certainly presents a danger to his countless past opponents who have had the misfortune of finding themselves caged with him in the UFC's octagonal lair.
To the untrained eye, Machida may seem awkward. He bends backward at the waist like a boxer, yet, somehow, the Dragon manages to stay mere inches away from the deadly punching range of his oncoming foe.
Machida also at times appears to be running and gunning, yet at other moments he might appear to be lethargic. We can easily chalk that up to his years of karate self-defense training.
The Dragon is the son of a first-generation Japanese-Brazilian shotokan karate master. The younger Dragon—an artist in the truest sense of the word—will proceed to paint a masterpiece when placed in his fire-breathing element.
Just like the man in my previous article, Anderson Silva, the UFC has also tried its damnedest to end the undefeated Dragon's reign of terror on the MMA world by matching him with opponents who were supposed to rip him apart.
One-by-one, like heroic soldiers on a deserted battlefield, they came, and, one-by-one, they were outgunned.
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Tito Ortiz, B.J. Penn, Rich Franklyn, Stephan Bonnar, and the 205-pound champion Rashad Evans each found himself under siege in a stand-up battle with little chance of winning.
As was the case after the "fight or get out" test of Anderson Silva against Forrest Griffin proved frivolous, another win-win situation was created here by the UFC.
It was born out of a need to test the great Machida, or perhaps get rid of him if he wasn't up to par.
It worked out great. Instead of having two elite divisional champions proving their dominance, the greatest MMA organization in the world now has acquired three, possibly four, with Penn's domination in the 155 weight class.
As in the teachings of the great Bruce Lee, brains will usually trump brawn, and skill can overcome force—if used correctly.
The greatest heavyweight boxer ever, Muhammad Ali, not unlike Machida, was also an extremely intelligent fighter, a genius at beating bigger, stronger opponent's such as Sonny Liston and George Foreman.
Foreman was a fighter who—thought by many experts, and sports commentator Howard Cosell—would murder Ali in the ring.
During his famous "Rumble in the Jungle" match against Foreman, Ali developed a style called "rope-a-dope."
Big George threw bone-crushing hay-makers at the crafty Ali for seven straight rounds, while "The Greatest" did little more than lay back, covering and protecting his vital areas.
After weathering the typhoon-sized seven-round storm, Ali then proceeded to knock Foreman out cold in the eighth with a perfect one-two combination.
Next up for the great Machida, "Shogun" Mauricio Rua in October.
No doubt the Dragon—with his superior defensive skill and knockout striking power—will once again prevail.
Machida will concentrate, I'm sure, on the small details of his masterpiece, instead of the entire painting as a whole.
And what shall we call his next work of art?
Death by Dragon.
68 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete