The biggest style mismatches at LHW.

Some fights can go either way, like Forrest and Jardine, Tito and Rashad, those are the types of fights where whoever performs the best would come away with the victory. There isn't a huge stylistic advantage for one or the other.

However, there are also fights between top guys that 10 out of 10, one fighter would likely take 9 of 10. One would be Keith Jardine vs Vitor Belfort. This fight matches two guys who like to stand and bang, but one has slower hands and has the tendency to leave his left hand in his pocket, and get knocked out under four minutes if he's getting KO'd at all, and the other has much faster hands, technique, and scores most of his KOs early on. Jardine would lose every time.

I don't think Machida is unbeatable. I think he could be in theory beaten by guys in the top ten, but one fight I see almost no way they'll win is Rampage. I think his style of striking will forever put him at a disadvantage against guys like Machida, who would pick him apart brutally for however long it takes the ref to stop it.

Tito vs Liddell is the classic one. Tito is decent enough to strike with most LHWs and great on the ground, which gives him a chance against Evans, Forrest, Vitor and other top guys, but a guy like Liddell who he can never take down beat him every time as long as they're prime and he doesn't learn how to strike. (I say that because a 41 Liddell against an Ortiz with a year or so of hand training with Freddie Roach isn't the same fight as the first two)

If Rampage remained a boxer Machida would probably outpoint him with ease. However if he fought more like he used to, using his wrestling and gnp he could win. There's no way Rampage would get stopped by Machida.

Machida tossed Tito around....I don't see Rampage taking Machida down.

I think Hendo would be the best match up stylistically to beat Machida.

Hendo would be a good fight with Machida but I also think Shogun will be a great fight with machida also. The question about biggest style mismatch at light heavy is a tough 1 to answer cause the top 10 is so stacked but I might have to agree with u Wolf Rampage would have a tough go against machida although I give him a much better shot than u do.

If shogun is in pride condition I think he can put on a hell of a fight against machida.

Shoguns pressing action while using low kicks in combos could keep machida on the defense in my opinion. Shogun can close the distance and stimy machidas' footwork. Shogun needs to put machida against the cage or at minimum keep him on edges of the octagon. Ofcoarse i could also see machida negating the angles and outpointing or finishing shogun if he keeps center of ring

great wrestling is not the way to beat machida, although i think it is the way to beat spider. machida's superior understanding of balance and grappling makes him virtually impossible to take down, conversely he hardly expend any energy taking people down...most of his takedowns are from getting people off balance and tripping and sweeping them. this means he dictates where the fight goes, on the ground or on the feet.

thedarkwingduck2k50 wrote:

great wrestling is not the way to beat machida, although i think it is the way to beat spider. machida's superior understanding of balance and grappling makes him virtually impossible to take down, conversely he hardly expend any energy taking people down...most of his takedowns are from getting people off balance and tripping and sweeping them. this means he dictates where the fight goes, on the ground or on the feet.

Why not let him face a master of greco roman to try take away Machida dictating the fight.?

karate makes machida immune to takedowns remember?

Wolfgangsta wrote:

karate makes machida immune to takedowns remember?

not just karate, he learned sumo, which requires a big amount of understanding in positioning and balance.

thedarkwingduck2k50 wrote:

great wrestling is not the way to beat machida, although i think it is the way to beat spider. machida's superior understanding of balance and grappling makes him virtually impossible to take down, conversely he hardly expend any energy taking people down...most of his takedowns are from getting people off balance and tripping and sweeping them. this means he dictates where the fight goes, on the ground or on the feet.

It sounds like you are saying that because Machida has very good wrestling, you can't beat him with wrestling, which doesnt seem to make much sense.