Rampage out, Dragon in….

As we mentioned showed you in an earlier post, not soon after Quinton “Rampage” Jackson beat Keith Jardine at UFC 96, champion “Sugar” Rashad Evans entered the ring and lipped Rampage.  I actually didn’t really buy the trash talk and maybe there was a reason?  Rampage has unfortunately had to pull out of the fight with “Sugar” due to an injury that will require minor surgery.  Personally, I think its the fact that Rampage would be fighting his third fight in less than 6 months but what do I know, right?  So enter the Dragon (BAAAMMM)  for those of you who don’t know this odd looking fellow is, you soon will! 

He is Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and he is NO joke.  Sporting a 14-0 record and beating some of the BEST fighters at the 205lb limit, this guy is legit.  Known for his evasive style and now ultimately for his mind numbing knock out of the feared Thiago Silva, the Dragon looks to continue his winning ways against Rashad.  To me this is the fight that SHOULD have taken place the whole time but you can’t argue with the crowd that Rampage brings with him and the all important pay-per-view buys but Lyoto deserved this shot first.  The guy is unbeaten and to tell the truth he has pretty much gone unhit (new word #113) as well.   Make no mistake  Rashad is more than game for this challenge having this to say about Lyoto on sherdog.com

 ” “The kid’s been phenomenal. He’s been better than phenomenal. He’s been looking better every fight. But that’s the fight business. That’s the fun part about a fight is the fact that you go in there with an opponent that sometimes seems insurmountable. But then you figure it out and that makes the victory that much sweeter. With that said, there may be some kinks in his armor that I have yet to see that I can exploit when I look at the tapes more closely. Nobody’s unbeatable. Machida’s been looking slicker than I don’t know what, but everybody has a weakness even if you do look slick as oil. Everyone has a weakness.”

Who does GoatDiesel think is going to win?  I truly don’t know right now?  The short turn around for this fight (May 23rd, UFC 98) gives a slight advantage to Lyoto, as he seems to take a more similar approach to each of his fights.  While Sugar is a part of Team Jackson and they are of a more thorough, dissecting thought process in my mind and with only 2 months to dissect fight tapes and such might be a bit much but that is just a thought.  Regardless, I believe this fight will live up to the billing of a championship fight and truly excites me more than a Rampage and Evans fight.

Peace!