Props: NBCSports.com
Quoteworthy:
“I pretty much choked in the cage [against Lyoto Machida]. Every time you lose you want to fix what doesn’t work…. I was a little bit surprised on the ground. He was mainly a karate guy…. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. Pretty much things didn’t go my way…. The key part is to go in and fight your fight. Mentally as a fighter I have to be ready…. I know [Kazuhiro Nakamura] an experienced fighter, well-rounded and a judo player…. Of course, every time you lose you want to fix what doesn’t work.”
“The African Assassin” is out for redemption after “choking” (figuratively and literally) in his Octagon debut against Lyoto Machida at UFC 79: “Nemesis” back in December 2007. Prior to the loss the Camaroonian was on fire, bursting on to the scene overseas in Japan with two sensational knockouts of top 205-pound fighters, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. He takes on Kazuhiro Nakamura on the under card this weekend at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, at UFC 84: “Ill Will.”
19 Comments »
Machida mainly a karate guy? I thought he was BJJ. Now I’m confused and in need of coffee.
Chef,
I recommend and espresso, but that is just my taste. An espresso with a nice twist of lemon. And yes, Machida is mainly a karate guy. According to his bio on the run up to UFC 84, he has participated in karate since age 5. However, from my understanding and from his display in December, he is no slouch in the BJJ dept.
i thought i heard he was a black belt.
In AFFLICTION related news: Affliction has put the down payment (Bond) down with the California Athletic Comission and the tickets to the show went on sale tuesday. In the 1st day the sold $250,000 worth of tickets.
Also they stated that Affliction will hold a 2nd show later on in the summer…Rogerio Nogueira is scheduled to take part in that show!
So far so good! Everything is falling into place for Affliction… Hopefully Arlovski signs with them and that Fans support this event by purchasing it on Pay per view!
Cant wait to see Aleks vs. Buentello! that fight has been made official (so much for the work visa issues)…That fight will end in a brutal KO!!! Russian style!
Machida IS mainly a karate guy, getting his black belt at 13. He started taking BJJ at the age of 15.
I expect Soko to bounce back and win this fight butI doubt that it will be easy. They are both traditionally Judoka’s so those skills will probably be nuetralized. Kaz has fought against the best in the world and has shown that he is a very hard guy to finish. If Soko is to finish Kaz, his brutal power will be the difference. However I am thinking about betting a $54 parlay on Soko/Overs
Hopefully this fight gets aired. The UFC means the world to Soko, who is very young talented and comes from a great camp. I expect him to get back on track by defeating Nakamura
John, I agree. However, I worry about Soko’s power being nuetralized. Which Lyoto was able to accomplish.
Jeff: Thats why I am betting on Soko and the Overs. Because I think his power and Judo will be nuetralized, I dont see him finishing Kaz in under a round and a half.
he really fucced up against Machida but soko WILL bounce back! He wasn’t his normal self that night and he knows it. I cannot imagine him losing to average judo, decision grinding Nakamura seeing that we’ve seen his potential against good ground guys. john, i got a small wager on this guy too but why bet soko/overs? he KO’d little Nog and Arona in the 1st.
off topic: poll to see who will win from sh-rdog
Tito 46%
Machida 54%
never mind. you already answered it above…. in addition, he needs to get rid of the mask. cuz if he’s trying to be scary, we all seen him jumping around like a little girl after the little nog win.
Kama Kaze: U r right, no reason to mess with the over/unders of that fight especially since I feel strongly that Soko will win…. I will just have to make it a $50 straight bet on Soko!
didn’t mean to sway your decison. don’t blame me if he wins a decision though. lol
Soko is a young marketable fighter and the UFC needs to Realize that. Putting him on the undercard that may not be televized was kind of stupid on their part because this guy is really an exciting fighter and the casual UFC fan will not get to see what this guy is made of. Maybe putting him up against a guy that is as technichal as Machida in his UFC debut was probably not such a good idea as was putting Lesnar against a jiu jitsu guy like Mir. When you learn to swim you can’t just dive right into the deep end and expect to have success. Soko has the tools to be a superstar but the UFC has to realize you’ve got to crawl before you walk and I hope they are patient with him.
i dont understand why he’s on the undercard either… there’s not shame in losing to machida… bonnaer, franklin, penn, etc have also gone that way… but soko is a really exciting fighter… he has those awesome Judo throws and raw power in his hands… his knockouts of arona and lil nog were brutal… this should def have been televised!
if soku wins big, they’ll air it somehow, someway.
Camp Miletich in HOuston needs to appologize to Anderson Silva!!!!
They ran there dumb mouth, bitching that he didnt show up to the seminar, but Anderson had a good excuse. Check it out:
Fightline:
Silva lost his Aunt, the woman who raised him from youth and who he considered his Mother. She apparently passed away on Monday.
Silva learned of his Mother’s illness on Friday and tried to catch a flight back to Brazil on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, all flights to Brazil were booked until later that evening, so Silva decided to go back to his gym for a couple of hours before finally being able to fly out to Curitiba later that evening to be with his ailing Mother.
Prayers go out to Anderson and his Family….
Typical Karate-Kid-Cobrai-Kai-dojo Miletich camp statement…Idiots!
Nice find John. And a very public apology is necessary by Miletich.
Assuming a fighter knows only one style is a mistake in MMA today. Machida is one of the most well rounded fighters in MMA today. He has solid jits, wrestling and striking.
Soko thinks that Nakamura is a Judo player (which he is) but Nakamura has decent striking as well. I think the one with good stand-up ins this fight.
“He was mainly a karate guy”… wow! That shows how much Soko and his team knows about his opponents. Yeah, Lyoto has a Shotokan background. He also has a black belt in BJJ though and Soko… as an experienced judo player should have known what this means.
Looking at the amount of time invested in training, I would say 1dan BJJ = 4dan Judo. I’m not trying to compare these in any stupid way, I’m only looking at the average time spent training. It was dumb for Soko to walk in that cage expecting “mainly a karate guy”.