Saturday,
LyotoMachida may well wind up finishing what
MinokiIchihara started.
Ichihara, if not the pioneering karateka to step into a mixed-rulesring, was certainly the first to do it for the benefit of atelevision satellite truck. An elite daido juku fighter in Japan --a hybrid of judo and kyokushin karate -- Ichihara admitted himselfin the 16-man draw of the second Ultimate Fighting Championship inMarch 1994.
Stout, serious and possessed of Bluto-like forearms, he was eagerto meet
Royce Gracie,whom he had watched and admired during the first tournament. LikeGracie, Ichihara sported a gi. Unlike Gracie, he was unaware it didhim more harm than good: Gracie used it to choke him intosubmission after five minutes of protracted struggling.
Because UFC II’s success on VHS made it the viral video of itstime, karate’s combat impotence was not an easy thing to keep atarp over. As events wore on, the idea that someone who spent aportion of the day in kata or in stilted, mechanical fight posturewould be an effective antidote to the Gracies -- or later, thewrestlers, kickboxers and now wrestler-kickboxer hybrids -- becamelaughable. Traditional arts were relics, sneered at by fight fanswho knew better. Fights were won or lost based on the time spentgathering mat burn, not perfecting cinderblock parlor tricks.
But everything comes back in style eventually. (Possible exception:Zubaz.) Ichihara had fought blindfolded: His karate had no priorknowledge of what waited for him in the ring. Like all styles, itlearned. The wrestlers used to beat up the kickboxers until thekickboxers learned to defend themselves on the ground; thewrestlers started getting beat up by the kickboxers until theirstriking caught up. Now everyone can wrestle and kick, and thebetter athlete usually wins.
The advent of the athlete -- as opposed to the stylist -- in thepast 10 years created narrow opportunity for karate to make cameoappearances in fights, but only under the control of cross-trainedcompetitors.
ShonieCarter whipping a spinning back fist out of his pocket against
MattSerra in 2001 was a condition of his kickboxing and wrestlingproficiency. He was in control of the fight, so he could get cute.You have to know the rules before you can start breaking them.
No traditionalist has validated that to greater effect than
LyotoMachida, who is taking his 14-0 record into a Saturday titlebout with
RashadEvans, also undefeated at 9-0-1.
Machida is not a “karate fighter” in the sense Ichihara was; he’strained extensively in jiu-jitsu, muay Thai and other styles tohelp complete his library of martial arts. What makes Machida astory is his footwork and defensive posturing, which is classicallyold-fashioned. And that’s frustrating, because thesledgehammer-swinging combat hybrid fighter of 2009 doesn’t go intoa gym and practice mounting or defending attacks with hands low andchins up. For them, Machida’s style might as well be pluto-fu.
It’s a blend of technique that’s had answers for everyone from
RichFranklin (good striker with Western sensibilities) to
ThiagoSilva (jiu-jitsu, aggression) to
Tito Ortiz(power, power, power). The only question left is the one Evans ismore than capable of asking: What happens when an explosivewrestler decides he doesn’t want to keep swinging at air -- hewants to plant you on your ass and pummel until you sneeze bonefragments?
It’s a great question -- Evans/Machida holds more interest for methan any fight so far this year -- and the answer is going to havereal influence on how aspiring fighters choose to train. When
RoyceGracie proved his style’s efficacy in a real fight, schoolsbegan painting “and jiu-jitsu” in their front windows. Ichiharamight find considerable irony in MMA franchises forced to add “andkarate” to their yellow page ads.
Toiling in some putrid gym somewhere right now is a guy building abase of wrestling and kickboxing who’s going to start ending fightswith some bizarre krav maga or kung fu mysticism. And it’ll workonly because being eccentric in the ring comes with having acontemporary base.
When you can meet someone at his own game and not be disassembledby your own ignorance, you can begin to impart your own. Machidahas figured this out. Now it’s up for everyone else to figure himout.
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