In my prediction for the Machida vs Jones fight at UFC 140 I stated that I felt Lyoto had a chance of winning a decision if he were able to keep the fight standing up. From what we saw in the first round and early in the second round, this seemed to be true. Despite two judges giving the first round to Jones (no one that I am aware of apart from them scored in favor of Jones) it seemed to most impartial onlookers at least that Machida had the better of the exchanges and in fact he landed a solid punch on Jones that may have had a more decisive effect on someone smaller than Bones Jones.
Judging from the build up not too many people were giving Machida a chance, in neither the striking or grappling areas. So why was Lyoto Machida's stand up so effective against Jon Jones at UFC 140?
To understand this you have to understand Machida's core style of Shotokan karate. Shotokan is the original Japanese karate after its transplantation from Okinawa to the mainland. It was founded by Funakoshi Gichin and takes its name from his pen name - Shoto, meaning pine waves - with kan meaning hall. Shotokan therefore simple means Funakoshi's hall, or, to use a more accurate interpretation, Funakoshi's training center. The ethos of the style was heavily influenced by the modern sword art of kendo which emphasizes the execution of decisive 'cuts' to the head, torso, and wrists and thrusts to the throat. Shotokan therefore developed as a linear style used against a single, strong attack.
You can see an expert example of this concept and demonstrative techniques here as Kanazawa sensei, the premier Shotokan practitioner in the world today, demonstrates a two person drill known as kihon ippon kumite. This isn't quite as basic as it gets with Shotokan, but this kind of training drill is introduced fairly early in the syllabus of most organizations and it would be feasible that if you turned up for your first lesson, you may get a taste of the first couple of techniques.
Those reading this coming from a pure MMA background / interest may not be impressed. The attacker isn't really trying that hard and he freezes in place after he delivers his attack. These are fair criticisms. However, from a conceptual point of view, the training exercises are actually very advanced and are key to understanding why Machida was so effective against Jones.
The exercise can be broken down at a simple level as teaching the following concepts (it is important to note that the concepts are more important than the actual techniques themselves).
1) Step back or to the side of an attack and take your center line away from the incoming attack.
2) Allow the attack to become fully extended.
3) When the attack is fully extended counter to the open target(s).
Consider that Machida would have been studying this concept of combat for his entire training career and you can begin to understand why his style looks the way it does. So why did it match up so well against Bones?
Jon Jones, as I stated in my prediction for the fight, is like many MMA fighters. He finds it difficult to execute combinations in the center of the Octagon against an evasive opponent with room to move (which is very different from fighting against someone jammed up against the cage). I am not saying here that Jones is unable to perform combinations. Again, like most fighters, against the Thai pads he is more than able to string together a series of techniques. Its just that in the Octagon these combinations are easy to avoid and are therefore energy inefficient (I will write a separate blog post on this subject in the near future). Jones therefore tends to attack with single, direct attacks...which, at a conceptual level, are exactly what Shotokan karate is best suited to dealing with.
Fair enough, Jones was not attacking in such a stylized manner as you can see in the video with Kanazawa sensei, so the actual technique was different; but the underlying concept remained the same: how to defend and counter a single, mostly-linear attack. This is why Machida was so effective against Jones and why, in my opinion, if the two fighters had been of a more equal size, Lyoto could have won the fight. At a conceptual level Jones, during the first round, was doing Shotokan. It may not have looked like Shotokan technique wise, but conceptually it was exactly what Machida had spent his whole life training against.
If we examine the submission or, more precisely, the build up to the submission, we can see that Machida was no longer fighting at the conceptual level he is trained for. Referring to the list above we see that the second concept being practiced in kihon ippon kumite is to allow the attack to become fully extended then counter (point three). Before being submitted Jones and Machida exchanged punches with Bones coming off best. Lyoto was stunned and this prevented him from defending against Jones pinning him against the cage, moving into the clinch and securing the choke that ended the fight.
Given this analysis we can also better understand why Machida lost against Shogun Rua at UFC 113 (Machida also lost a decision against Rampage Jackson). Against Rua Lyoto had tremendous difficulty in dealing with Shogun's rapid punching combinations. He was tagged early in the first round in this manner and was dazed. Once faced with a combination rather than a single technique his core training began to lose its relevance. The actual knock out was similar to what happened in the Jones fight. Machida exchanged techniques (rather than waiting to counter an extended technique) and got caught which put him on the floor where Rua got the KO.
Despite his loss, I continue to think that Machida's style was a good match up for him against Jon Jones. With a larger frame and more weight I believe he could have won the fight in the first round or, if he hadn't been tagged in the exchange of punches in the second round and had continually remained out of the clinch, he could have taken a points victory.
