The exit of the dragon?
After two years of inaction, karate poster boy and UFC ex-champ Lyoto Machida stepped into the Octagon again Saturday at UFC Fight Night 119. It feels like decades ago that the Dragon failed that drug test, the same one that landed him in the soup and interrupted his disruptive innovation.
Do you remember when The Dragon Machida was going to rule the world with his weird karate stance and unbeatable counter-punching, while we all sang “You’re the Best Around” and marveled at his demographic-less good looks? I sure as heck do.
But that was then, and this is now. Saturday, he had Derek Brunson the wrestle-striker in front of him.
Before the event, Brunson hadn’t beaten a true contender in the middleweight division. He had won six of eight but lost two of his past three. Brunson has all the talent, but his ability to leverage it against an elite opponent is, charitably, uncertain.
Machida, at age 39 and two years out of the sport, was officially an unknown quantity.
Something had to give, then. Either Machida still has it or Brunson is a contender.
The card may not have brought any higher stakes than the main event, but there was one contest that was louder, if you will. That’s the co-main event.
Demian Maia and his amazing-if-boring jiu-jitsu faced Colby Covington. The latter took a page from the Chael Sonnen Book of Trash Talk in the run-up to this. He talked some garbage. Did anyone care? Sure. It’s good copy. At some point, though, cliched behavior has to answer to itself. If Covington wants legitimacy, he’ll need to earn it.
Finally, this event took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. There were many Brazilian fighters on this card. Every Brazilian fighter deserves respect in this MMA game. How did they all do on Saturday?
As always, the stat lines don’t reveal everything. These are the real winners and losers from UFC Fight Night 119.
For the literal-minded among us, full results appear at the end.