Shogun Rua claimed the light heavyweight title on Saturday night with a stirring first round knockout of Lyoto Machida. Although many people believed that Rua clearly won the first fight, Rua remained respectful and rather then dwelling on the past, used his long layoff to devise a ingenious gameplan meant to exploit tiny wrinkle in Machida's game. Shogun and his coaches noted that when Machida attempted to block Rua's kicks he lowered his guard slightly. In order to exploit Machida's incorrect hand positioning, Rua practiced countering with overhand rights, " In my first fight against Machida, I tried to exploit kicks a lot ", Rua exclaimed. "I noticed that every time he would try to attack by timing my kicks, he was attacking without his guard in the proper place. He attacked with his face exposed...this time I worked a lot not only on kicks, but also on a high overhand right punch to surprise him as he was trying to move in from my kicks...". Rua dropped Lyoto with a perfectly timed overhand right behind the ear and finished the dazed champion with vicious strikes from the mount. Referee Yves Lavigne was forced to end the fight at 3:35 of the first round.
With his stunning knockout victory, Rua has done what no man before him was able to accomplish. He found a weakness in Machida's game and exploited it. As predicted, Rua was much more aggressive then in the first fight. He knew that in order to beat a smart elusive foe like Machida calculated risks had to be taken. Machida prepared himself for a five round war, he was most likely training to endure sustained punishment rather then defend against explosive attacks. Shogun wasn't content to let the judges decide his fate. He proved that with the proper gamplan, patience, resilience, and hard work any dream can be accomplished no matter how long the odds. Congratulations to Shogun for a superb performance. He is once again the top 205lb fighter on the planet.
No comments:
Post a Comment