Traditional Shotokan Striking in UFC

[juey palancu]

for all those shotokan doubters out there...

got Lyoto Machida's performance in UFC 67? He dominated a good opponent using (and please accept this, its so obvious) largely traditional (not McDojo) shotokan stances, fluidity, techniques, combinations, etc. for striking (plus some pretty good grappling). His striking was very similar to what he used to do in karate tournaments (I personally saw him in a few back in the day, especially the 2001 ITKF PanAm's) and he took apart, owned his poor UFC opponent Sam Hoger. Hoger gave the excellent contender Rashad Evans hell in his previous fight, just to put in perspective.

As more and more serious traditional karateka (who cross-train of course) go into MMA, we'll se similar stories, you all can quote me.

[obiwansbane]

is there a video of this fight? id very much like to see it

[juey palancu]

yes, i got the video at UFC.com video on demand

it was a good fight!

[stejitsu]

I look foreword to this fight making on to 'you Tube'

When it does i will watch it with enthusiasm . If already available could someone post the address on here for us all to see plz?

cheers

[Arys]

Im not much of a karate guys myself, but I think hes great:

check out some of his other fights. This is a highlight reel.

[stejitsu]

I did not see much of the 'Master Funakoshi'' traditional shotokan going on in there! I seen the heart of the tiger though.

Not taking anything away from the guy he is a tough cookie. He trains hard and it shows in his MMA fights. Probably started in 'Shotokan' and likes to acknowledge this as a sign of respect for karate which got him into martial arts.

Good vid

[juey palancu]

I see A LOT of advanced shotokan kumite in Machida's standing game. Actually, that is what he does. You are probably judgind based on seeing a few white belt classes (or McDojo advanced belt classes or torunaments).

How Machida does it is how its supposed to look when it's good...

look for itkf kumite videos and you'll see...

[cross]

More power to him. Seems he is an exception to the muay thai/boxing in mma rule. But thats all it is, an exception.

[ps1]

Yeah...there's certainly some karate influence in what he does. I agree with cross though...guys like him are few and far between. He's an exceptional athlete who has good timing and would likely have exceded with whatever standing system he picked/ picks up.

[juey palancu]

All athletes good enough to be pros are precisely that...exceptions...no matter if you do MT, boxing, whatever....