Machida’s most under-appreciated tactic is his use of the clinch. If guys ever manage to corner him, he clinches up before they can get off, pushes himself off, and establishes distance again. It frustrates the hell out of guys to spend minutes chasing Machida, finally find him, and then find themselves in a position where they have to start over again once he clinches and resets. He also likes to come in from the outside, land a punch or knee, and then immediately clinch up to avoid any wreckless exchanges. In other words, if you’re going to get him on a counter, you have to get him on the first strike, because you don’t get a chance to exchange with him.
Dirty boxing deep into a fight appears to be Machida’s greatest weakness. He was hit by Tito from that position a few times in the third, and Nakamura had some success late in this fight. He landed one great elbow in the clinch that shook Machida up. At the same time, he was dominant in the clinch early on, so maybe it’s a cardio issue for Machida? People blame his exhaustion in the Tito fight on the flu, but he didn’t really get stronger as the fight went on in this one. Perhaps cardio for Lyoto is more of a question than we think.
All this being said, Machida still easily won the fight against a game opponent. He had great body kicks and left straights, and was very good at delivering damage from the top. Machida says the hardest punch he’s taken in the UFC was in this fight, and if it’s the one I saw, it simply speaks to his amazing defense because it frankly wasn’t much.
I did a post a week or two ago on what Rashad needed to do to win, and after watching this fight and others it’s clear to me that he needs to spend a significant amount of time training the clinch. If Machida controls the clinch, he controls the fight, and Rashad has to be able to punish Machida with knees or dirty boxing whenever he initiates it.