May 27, 2009 - 6:39:28 PM By Wade Keller, Torch editor
-During the Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra fight on Saturday night, right before Serra tossed Hughes to the mat for the first time in the fight late in the third round, Goldberg declared that was the last place Serra wanted to be. He had to stand corrected, and credit to him for quickly acknowledging that. It did accentuate, though, how surprising the Serra takedown on Hughes was.
-One thing irritating about Mike Goldberg sometimes is he's so quick to throw out a cliche or exaggeration or broad generalization, sometimes with no basis in fact. Such as after Hughes's post-fight interview, Goldberg declared instantly: "Pure class, as always!" Uh, no. In that particular interview Hughes was gracious and classy. But "as always"? No. Unless "smug" and "arrogant" are part of being classy. You don't have to call Hughes an asshole, but don't just declare him pure class. He also referred to Evans as "pure class" after his gracious post-loss speech.
-Speaking of Goldberg, Rogan didn't humor Goldberg with this comment: "If somebody throws a punch, isn't everything the rest of the night a counter?" Rogan verbally rolled his eyes by saying, "That's one way to look at it," and then he quickly moved to more serious commentary.
-Worst production moment of UFC 98 for me was when the director went with a close-up of Hughes after the announcement that he won the judges' decision. They cut away from Serra at the exact moment he was about to react to the disappointing decision. The winner shot is interesting, but the loser shot is often more interesting. Why not stay with the wide shot for a few seconds and let us see both reactions? A director has to be thinking about the viewer in every decision they make, and that just seems so obviously not in the viewers' interest to take away the reaction shot of Serra. It's like in an NBA game when they cut to what's called the "glory shot" - a close-up of the player who just scored a basket - at the exact moment it's obvious the defense is trying for a steal on the inbound. Sometimes directors turn on auto-pilot and they're not engaged in what's actually happening and you end up missing a steal and a quick basket. In this case, the most compelling moment of the semi-main event post-fight announcement was the loser's reaction, and the director took that away from us.
-Joe Rogan did a great job setting up Lyoto Machida's background and explaining why karate hasn't been well represented in UFC before, but how Machida has utilized it effectively as part of his overall multi-discipline expertise. I didn't quite get what he meant by Machida being a "true martial artist" because his primary discipline is karate, as if karate is more of a true martial art than the many others more often utilized as primary disciplines in MMA. He nicely explained the difference between Thai and karate style kicking in the context of an MMA fight.
-I wish they'd have figured out if it's "Ma-chee-dah" or "Ma-shee-dah" before the show and stuck with one pronunciation. It's like back in the very early UFC events where they'd have completely different stats for fight records and even height and weight from one graphic to another and in ring announcements from one minute to the next.
-Rogan: "If Machida wins, man, karate schools all across the country are going to experience comeback in sales." I wonder if that's true?
-When Machida scored with the first left hook at 4:00 of the first round, it was a classic karate point fighting technique. He led with a back roundkick to the ribs. Evans blocked it with his arm, and that left his head open for the punch. It's about as basic as karate point fighting gets, except this punch floored Evans.
-Goldberg also said, "Machida draws first blood." In a circumstance where actual blood is part of the spectacle, don't use "draws first blood" as a figure of speech. Machida didn't literally draw first blood when Goldberg said that, he just landed the first punch.
-I liked that they went to the trouble to have an interpreter tell us what Machida's corner was telling him between rounds. There are many times you really want to know what a non-English corner is saying between rounds, and UFC delivered on that.
-What was as impressive as anything in Machida's closing minute of the fight was that as Evans was trying to use his wrestling background to take him down to avoid being pelted with more punches, Machida sprawled to avoid being taken down while also keeping in position to do more damage with more on-target punches, one after another until the undefeated Evans went down.
-Evans is lucky he didn't tear knee ligaments as he fell after taking that final knockout punch as his leg buckled briefly under him as he collapsed backwards. The quantity of punches Evans took was higher than it'll be for him later in his career when, after a career of concussions and head trauma, he'll have a chin closer to Chuck Liddell's today. He took a lot of Machida punches before going down and out. In other words, Machida will likely more easily knock out a lot of other contenders he'll face compared to Evans, although obviously Machida's style will be the most scouted and scrutinized among light-heavyweights going forward, so any holes that can be exploited will be. I'm not sure what they are, though. Rogan was very quick to declare this the "Era of Machida." He doesn't do that for every new champion, so at least he believes Machida is the class of the division and likely to be the GSP or Anderson Silva of his division.
-Quote of the Night from Machida: "Karate is back!" Great post-fight speech overall. He wasn't bashful about celebrating and showing his emotions, was he? Tim Hague gave Machida a run for his money as the most emotional celebration of the night. I thought I was watching "Extreme Home Makeover" for a second there.
-More props to Rogan for not overhyping the quality of Serra vs. Hughes. When Goldberg said it was a "good fight," Rogan wouldn't agree, instead going with "decent fight." I wonder how different the fight would have been had they not had so much time for their animosity to cool off.
-Great closing image of Machida smiling side and shaking hands with fans - and not just slapping them, but hanging out and shaking them and interacting with fans - as he slowly made his way to the back after his win.
***
Wade Keller is the MMATorch supervising editor and founder. He has covered UFC since UFC 1 for the Torch Newsletter. He is a double-black-stripe belt in karate and has trained in judo and jiu jitsu at the North Star Martial Arts Academy in Minnesota.
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I liked your insight Wade, but when Rogan said true martial artist, I think
he was speaking on Lyoto's attitude and behavior, and not his style. Lyoto
meditates, living like a samurai. I can't see him going to the nightclub
with GSP
