UFC 98 "Evans vs. Machida" Re-Cap

UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida
5/23/09
MGM Grand
Las Vegas, Nevada

This show is highlighted by Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans defending against Lyoto Machida. This will be the first time two unbeaten fighters have fought for the belt. Also, on this card in a feature fight is Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra in what is a grudge match due to their dislike of each other.

Lightweight Fight- Sean Sherk (37-3-1) vs. Frank Edgar (9-1)

Edgar has not fought since last July when he defeated Hermes Franca. Sherk was last seen at UFC 90 when he defeated Tyson Griffin by unanimous decision. If Sherk wins this then he should be right at the top of the list to fight the winner of BJ Penn/Kenny Florian. Edgar is a Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt who trains with Ricardo Almeida, he also has a strong wrestling base and has fast hands. Sherk is a former UFC Lightweight Champion and has only lost to Matt Hughes, BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre. Edgar has a big 5” reach advantage.

R1- Lots of stand-up early with Frankie with a slight advantage as he landed a couple of nice combinations. Edgar caught a Sherk leg kick and got a take down about three minutes into the fight and held him down for a minute but didn’t inflict any damage. Good, close first round that I give to Edgar 10-9. Edgar looks like the quicker fighter. Sherk looks like he’s going to need to take this to the ground and grind it out.

R2- Sherk is more aggressive to start off the round. Frankie got a knee to the body and briefly knocked Sherk off his feet. Sherk took the first half of this round but Frankie really started to land some nice shots in the second half of the round. I’ve got Edgar taking this round to go up 20-18. Rogan made a great point in saying that Sherk just keeps doing the same thing and Edgar is doing a much better job of mixing things up and keeping Sherk unbalanced and not knowing what is coming next.

R3- Sherk got a big take down about 45 seconds into the round but Edgar got back to his feet within 20 seconds. Sherk has a small cut over his left eyebrow. Sherk went for a another take down with about 2 minutes left but got stuffed. Sherk went for a shoot right at the end of the round and Edgar grabbed him in a guillotine and pulled guard as the round ended. I think Edgar may have stolen this round. Regardless I’ve got Edgar as the clear winner in this fight although it wasn’t a dominate performance. Frankie fought a really good fight and showed some great conditioning. Big win by Frankie as I had Sherk as a Top 5 Lightweight prior to this fight.

Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.

Winner: Frank Edgar by Decision (Unanimous)

They show BJ Penn in the crowd after the fight and hype his fight against Kenny Florian.

Middleweight Fight- Chael Sonnen (23-10-1) vs. Dan Miller (11-1)

Miller is 3-0 inside the Octagon and is coming off a February fight against Jake Rosholt that he won in a tad more than a minute by guillotine choke. Miller is a Jiu-Jitsu brown belt and a submission specialist. Sonnen is taking this fight on short notice as he’s filling in for the injured Yushin Okami. Sonnen trains with Team Quest. Sonnen has lost 3 times in the UFC, all by submission, and most recently by Demien Maia.

R1- Sonnen went for a take down early and got caught in a tight guillotine. Sonnen was able to survive the early submission attempt. Sonnen is landing some good Ground and Pound and landed some really hard shots towards the end of the round. Sonnen takes round one 10-9.

R2- Sonnen got a slam but Miller grabbed a guillotine again but this one was not as tight as the first round and Sonnen ends up in his guard. Miller goes for an arm bar but could not clamp it in as Sonnen continues to get some Ground and Pound but nothing at the level of what he got in the first round. Sonnen takes this round and is up 20-18. Miller is going to need to finish this fight if he wants to win.

R3- Miller landed a good combo to start the round but then got taken down. Not a real exciting fight but Sonnen just continues to grind this fight out and is going to take it by decision.

Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.

Winner: Chael Sonnen by Decision (Unanimous)

Middleweight Fight- Drew McFedries (7-5) vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam (20-10)

After two draws the odds are very strong that we will have a KO or TKO in this fight. Xavier lost to Denis Kang by Decision in his last fight. He is taking this fight on short notice filling in for James Irvin. Xavier is known as “Professor X”. He is explosive, with KO ability and good knees. Drew comes out to some Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre “Nothin’ But a G Thing”. Professor X has a 3” reach advantage.

R1- McFedries caught Xavier with a big punch early and just lays it in and the ref stops the fight. Drew hit him with some good punches and Xavier was trying to hold on but he got hit with several good punches. Great showing by McFedries.

Winner: Drew McFedries by TKO (Punches) R1 0:37

Light Heavyweight Fight- Krzystof Soszynski vs. Andre Gusmao

This is a pre-show fight.

R1- Gusmao caught him with a kick early that knocked Krzystof down but he recovered. Soszynski got him up against the cage and landed some nice shots and hit a big right hand that knocked Gusmao out. Another great showing for Soszynski. I thought early on that he was the favorite to win the TUF season he was on but he just didn’t deliver in the big fight on that show. He’s been delivering big time since getting a shot in the UFC as he is now 3-0 in the Octagon.

Winner: Krzystof Soszynski by KO R1 3:17

Mike Tyson is shown in the crowd.

Welterweight Fight- Matt Hughes (43-7) vs. Matt Serra (16-5)

This is a fight that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Both guys really want to get in there and beat each other up. The only problem for the fans is that neither guy is a likeable character so you kind of want to see both guys get their asses kicked.

“Matt Hughes. He is a dick. He’s a very talented dick. I’m looking forward to the fight. I feel like a winner already just knowing that I get to hit him in his face.”- Matt Serra

Matt Serra comes out to the theme to Rocky. Alright, so maybe Serra is a little bit likeable. Hughes is coming into this fight on a two fight losing streak (Thiago Alves and GSP). Serra’s last fight was a loss to GSP in defense of his Welterweight Championship. Hughes has a big size advantage in this fight as he is 3” taller and has a reach advantage of 5”.

R1- Serra landed an overhand right on Hughes about a minute into the fight and jumped on top of him. Hughes got back to his feet but his legs looked wobbly and Hughes tried to get a take down and looked like he recovered a bit. Hughes got a take down with a minute thirty left in the round. Hughes took his back but Serra slipped out and didn’t take much damage. Good first round. Serra is up 10-9. Hughes started to go to the wrong corner after the end of the round. It sounded like Matt Hughes asked his corner men if Serra knocked him down in the first round (it sounded like he might have asked if Serra knocked him out). They showed the re-play of Serra’s over hand right and at the same time that Serra hit him with the right his head also connected with Hughes’ chin.

R2- Hughes got a take down about a minute into the round. Serra rolled his eyes while he was in half guard and Hughes was hitting him with some side punches. Hughes basically just smothered Serra in this round but it didn’t look like he hurt him at all. They stood them up at the end of the round due to lack of action. Right now I’ve got this at 19-19.

R3- Hughes rushed him early and got a take down about a minute into the round but Serra landed in a good spot for a possible submission but he wasn’t able to grab anything. Serra went for a triangle but couldn’t grab it. The ref stands them up with one and a half minutes left in the fight. Serra reversed a take down with about 50 seconds left in the fight. Serra hit a good punch on the ground and finished the fight on top. The third round was close. They embraced after the fight and Hughes raised Serra’s arm before the decision came in. I’m thinking Serra 20-19 as Serra did more to try and finish the fight in the final round and neither guy did a significant amount of damage.

Judges score cards say: 29-28 on all score cards for Matt Hughes.

Winner: Matt Hughes by Decision (Unanimous)

Main Event: Light Heavyweight Title Fight: Rashad Evans © (18-0-1) vs. Lyoto Machida (14-0)

This should be an interesting fight as both guys tend to like to counter punch. Evans is coming off big wins against Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin and he has Yoda in his corner (Greg Jackson). Machida has an unorthodox style and is coming off of a decisive win against Thiago Silva. Rashad has never been knocked out, lands 58% of his take down attempts and has yet to attempt a submission in the UFC. Machida is the most elusive fighter in UFC history, he has never lost a round in the UFC, lands 65% of all strikes and has an 84% takedown defense. Machida is actually a favorite in this fight and the fans also texted him in as a 64% favorite. Machida is also a Karate Black Belt. Goldberg says that Machida has never been knocked down and Rogan says that he hasn’t taken a power punch since he fought BJ Penn. Rashad is a great wrestler and also has great power in his punches. Rashad is the third TUF fighter to try and defend a title successfully in the UFC (both Forrest and Serra were unsuccessful in their first title defenses).

The winner of this fight probably gets Rampage Jackson (since he was originally offered this title fight with Rashad but couldn’t go due to the short time needed to rebound from his fight with Jardine). Rashad/Rampage is a big time fight on paper that the UFC could really get behind due to all the trash talking that those guys would put on each other. I also like Rampage/Machida on paper as I think Rampage could be a difficult match-up for Machida since Rampage has solid boxing skills.

R1- No action in the first minute as Machida takes the center of the cage and Rashad dances around him. This is what I thought would happen since we have two counter punchers and Rashad didn’t really bring the action in the Liddell fight until Liddell brought it to him. Machida hits the first shot as he threw a leg kick that Rashad deflected but it sent him back into the cage. Machida landed another kick this one to the side and then Rashad answered with a kick. Machida threw a quick kick and then two quick punches all in a flurry of a second or two and Rashad went down. Machida jumped on top but Rashad recovered to his feet and they stood back up. Machida was lightning quick in that sequence. Machida takes round one 10-9 and looked good but didn’t do much damage.

R2- Machida takes the center of the cage again at the start of the round and the crowd chants “Machida…Machida…Machida”. So much for him being a boring fighter like some have said. Machida clinched Rashad but he got saved by the cage and Machida couldn’t get him down. Rashad threw a punch and missed and Machida came in with a flurry of punches but Rashad fought out of it by throwing some punches of his own. Rashad hit a side kick. Rashad came in for a looping punch but Machida beat him with a quick jab and then Machida caught him with a left hand knocking him down. Machida jumped on top but Rashad got to his feet and Machida chased him to the cage. Machida is now landing some big punches up against the cage. Machida hits Rashad with a wicked left and Rashad just crumbles to the ground as his leg falls underneath him. FANTASTIC showing by Lyoto Machida tonight. He just looked awesome. Rashad never looked comfortable tonight and Machida really just picked him apart in this fight. Machida hit him with 3 or 4 good punches on the cage and finally closed the door with the big left hand. Dana White straps the belt on Lyoto as he is announced as the NEW champion.

Winner and NEW Light Heavyweight Champion: Lyoto Machida by KO R2 3:57

“The Dragon is the champion”- Lyoto Machida

Bring on Lyoto versus Rampage.

Welterweight Fight- Brock Larson vs. Mike Pyle

This is a fight from the pre-show. I like Brock Larson a lot and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t come out on top in this fight. Pyle is taking this fight on short notice. This is Pyle’s UFC debut. Larson is a very explosive fighter.

R1- Larson took him down but Pyle countered with some submission attempts. Larson stays on top with some Ground and Pound and Larson goes for the arm triangle and gets the win. Good showing by Larson.

Winner: Brock Larson by Submission (Arm Triangle) R1 3:06

Heavyweight Fight- Pat Barry vs. Tim Hague

This is the UFC debut for Tim Hague. This is another pre-show fight.

R1- Barry hit a big right head kick and then hit another but Hague took him down at the one minute mark of the round. Hague got a guillotine and pulled out the upset. Rogan says Barry had this fight won but he just got sloppy.

Winner: Tim Hague by Submission (Guillotine Choke) R1 1:42