As Machida waited for the fight to begin I did not sense his mind to be 100% right and the initial exchanges increased my sense of this. In my analysis the determining factor in the first fight, which I think (and Lyoto's ribs think too I suspect) Rua won, was that Rua shut off LM's ability to move right (i.e. to the outside angle for the mirror lead structure presented by lefty vs. righty). Perhaps this was due to the threat of Rua's hook (see e.g. the Zirconia like hook with which he knocked out Chuck Lidell)?
I saw L try circling right one time (I've only watched the fight once and will watch it again before deleting it) but then he got manuevered into circling left again. I'll have to check, but I suspect SR's left foot was outside LM's right foot at the moment of his right hand coming over L's left hand.
I continue to root for Kimbo and was glad he had some nice takedowns, but you would think that by now he would have the basics of defending his legs from kicks in place , , ,
I forget whether it was Stout or Stevens (IIRC?) but someone in that fight used linear Zirconias 2x very nicely.
