Machida also has a KO over Stephen Bonner, who also fought Rashad into a split decision. With the terrible scoring system of the UFC a split decision might as well be a coin toss. As for Machida's decisions in the UFC, they're all unanimous. That means even under the eye of the piss-poor judges he's definitely superior to all of the opponents that he's faced so far. And by the way, Sokoudjou came to UFC from PRIDE because of his impressive record - he has KO wins over Rogerio Nogueira (UFC interim HW champ Rodrigo's twin brother), Ricardo Arona, and Nakamura. The fact that Lyoto was able to finish him is worth noting. Machida's style is based on intelligent evasion, he doesn't just barrel head-first and swing for the fences: he initiates exchanges only when he wants to, and he's really good at it. He reminds me a lot of Bruce Lee, actually.
You do realize that by citing Silva v Chonon you're saying that Rashad essentially has a better chance of being hit by lightning than beating Liddell. Rashad's skills are limited to basic striking and All-American wrestling: Liddell is one of the top three most dangerous strikers in MMA and he has the best take-down defense in the sport. You can bring up a dozen one-in-a-million scenarios, but there's a reason that fighters are divided into pedigrees: some are champions and the rest just aren't and never will be. Check the list of UFC title holders. There are no lucky punchers on that list.
Heavyweight title holder: Randy Couture, aka The Natural, aka Captain America, who is one of the best fighters in the history of MMA and who has only lost to other champions in the past ten years. There's a reason he's the gold standard for MMA fighters today. Chuck Liddell is the only person to beat him twice.
LHW title holder: Forrest Griffin, Couture's prize student. Besides being young, he's got skills that are only slightly less impressive than his mentor, and other than the fight with Jardine (whose claim to fame is a handful of freak wins that depend on poor performances from his opponents) the rest of his losses are owned by top-level and highly experienced competitors Dan Severn, Jeremy Horn, and Tito Ortiz. He was Liddell's first pick for s1 of TUF
Middleweight title holder: Anderson Siva, aka The Spider. His first fight in the UFC was a TKO with a 100% striking accuracy against Chris Leben who himself was known for a hard head that protected him from being knocked out. Of his 26 pro MMA fights, the four loses include a disqualification, that bizarre Chonan match where he was knocking the little asian guy silly for the entire fight, another submission, and a split decision which also happened to be his first pro MMA match. The five victories of his that went to decision are all unanimous against the likes of Sakurai and Jeremy Horn, with the rest being decisive knock outs and submissions with the latest being against Henderson, Nate the Great, Franklin, and Travis Lutter.
Welterweight title holder: GSP, aka RUSH. His nickname comes from the fact that he goes ballistic with mechanically reliable performance. This kid's win record is a who's who list of welterweights, with only two losses: one to Hughes which he redeemed himself for twice, and another to Serra which he doubly redeemed himself for in a single rematch.
Lightweight title holder: BJ Penn, aka The Prodigy. Like all the other UFC title holders, he is one of the best fighters in the world, and is likely the best fighter in his weight class bar none. This guy has confidence in himself that can move mountains, and besides that poor loss to Pulver (six years ago) his loses are to GSP, Machida, and Hughes. Yeah, that's right, he fought Lyoto Machida.
Now, my point is that Chuck Liddell is one of them and Rashad is not. They can win decisively in streaks against top-level competition, while the toughtest opponent that Rashad has faced is Tito during his last months in the UFC and even then he would have lost had the ref not stolen a point from Ortiz - which is a man that Liddell has handily mauled on two separate occasions. Not only that, but the champions only lose once or twice here and there, afterward they came a stellar comeback - which is what Liddell is in the middle of doing right now. Really, the only way that Rashad can win is if lightning strikes or if he's suddenly become three times stronger than he's shown in previous matches, but I wouldn't bet on either coming true.
You do realize that by citing Silva v Chonon you're saying that Rashad essentially has a better chance of being hit by lightning than beating Liddell. Rashad's skills are limited to basic striking and All-American wrestling: Liddell is one of the top three most dangerous strikers in MMA and he has the best take-down defense in the sport. You can bring up a dozen one-in-a-million scenarios, but there's a reason that fighters are divided into pedigrees: some are champions and the rest just aren't and never will be. Check the list of UFC title holders. There are no lucky punchers on that list.
Heavyweight title holder: Randy Couture, aka The Natural, aka Captain America, who is one of the best fighters in the history of MMA and who has only lost to other champions in the past ten years. There's a reason he's the gold standard for MMA fighters today. Chuck Liddell is the only person to beat him twice.
LHW title holder: Forrest Griffin, Couture's prize student. Besides being young, he's got skills that are only slightly less impressive than his mentor, and other than the fight with Jardine (whose claim to fame is a handful of freak wins that depend on poor performances from his opponents) the rest of his losses are owned by top-level and highly experienced competitors Dan Severn, Jeremy Horn, and Tito Ortiz. He was Liddell's first pick for s1 of TUF
Middleweight title holder: Anderson Siva, aka The Spider. His first fight in the UFC was a TKO with a 100% striking accuracy against Chris Leben who himself was known for a hard head that protected him from being knocked out. Of his 26 pro MMA fights, the four loses include a disqualification, that bizarre Chonan match where he was knocking the little asian guy silly for the entire fight, another submission, and a split decision which also happened to be his first pro MMA match. The five victories of his that went to decision are all unanimous against the likes of Sakurai and Jeremy Horn, with the rest being decisive knock outs and submissions with the latest being against Henderson, Nate the Great, Franklin, and Travis Lutter.
Welterweight title holder: GSP, aka RUSH. His nickname comes from the fact that he goes ballistic with mechanically reliable performance. This kid's win record is a who's who list of welterweights, with only two losses: one to Hughes which he redeemed himself for twice, and another to Serra which he doubly redeemed himself for in a single rematch.
Lightweight title holder: BJ Penn, aka The Prodigy. Like all the other UFC title holders, he is one of the best fighters in the world, and is likely the best fighter in his weight class bar none. This guy has confidence in himself that can move mountains, and besides that poor loss to Pulver (six years ago) his loses are to GSP, Machida, and Hughes. Yeah, that's right, he fought Lyoto Machida.
Now, my point is that Chuck Liddell is one of them and Rashad is not. They can win decisively in streaks against top-level competition, while the toughtest opponent that Rashad has faced is Tito during his last months in the UFC and even then he would have lost had the ref not stolen a point from Ortiz - which is a man that Liddell has handily mauled on two separate occasions. Not only that, but the champions only lose once or twice here and there, afterward they came a stellar comeback - which is what Liddell is in the middle of doing right now. Really, the only way that Rashad can win is if lightning strikes or if he's suddenly become three times stronger than he's shown in previous matches, but I wouldn't bet on either coming true.
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