Step Off! Anderson Silva & Lyoto Machida Have The Perfect Strategy

Why? Because the man himself, Royce Gracie, says so. Both these UFC Champions have come under fire for "elusive" fights that end without them getting hit and are perceived as boring, but Gracie says their winning iwthout taking damage is the perfect strategy for winning fights.

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Royce needs to get his eyes check before comment on fights. Rashad landed many punchs. LOL at not landed a punch. Thales landed punches too.

Machida fought a good smart fight. Anderson vs Thales purposely dragged the fight out for spite. What his exact reason is i dont know. Propley a dispute with the UFC about the RJJ fight not happening. But the fact is Silva didnt fight smart. He fought like a smart ass. When you showboat and punch the opponent in the knee just to show everyone you can do it. That isnt playing it safe like Royce says. Thats showing everyone you can do anything to this guy you want but you just dont want to. It was disrespectful to Thales and to the fans.

Any fighter knows when you can drop you hands and punch a guy in the knee and he still cant hit you. You pretty much dont have nothing to worry about. So i dont buy the playing it "smart" excuse.

There strategy might work but it sometimes lack excitement and starts to get boring. The worst part is we all know both of these men are capable of destroying another man!!!!

I agree with gracie on this one. Both Silva and Machida are some of the most dominant fighters around right now because of their strategy. I think rashad only hit machida MAYBE 3 times and they where glancing shots. I dont see how people say he isnt exciting, while he is handing rashad his first k.o. loss. Silva has put on exciting fights too. Have we all forgotten about the Chris leben fight? not the one but TWO destructions of Rich Franklin.

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Posted by ufcman55

I agree with gracie on this one. Both Silva and Machida are some of the most dominant fighters around right now because of their strategy. I think rashad only hit machida MAYBE 3 times and they where glancing shots. I dont see how people say he isnt exciting, while he is handing rashad his first k.o. loss. Silva has put on exciting fights too. Have we all forgotten about the Chris leben fight? not the one but TWO destructions of Rich Franklin.

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Yeah I hate when people give Anderson crap and no one should give Lyoto crap he dominated his last two fights and has beat some of the biggest names in the game.

In the case of Leites The challenger should challenge, a one-sided fighter should not be able to come in and demand the champion to fight his game and especially with the butt scoot. The champion should not have to do go WAY out of his way to stop the boos, even if he could ground and pound him into oblivion. I was pissed with Leites in that fight and lost all respect for him as a fighter. Challengers have to beat the champion to become the champion and if that means taking a risk then show some balls and do it. If you lose a bad decision you may never end up fighting a big fight in the UFC again but the champion is still the champion.

If new challengers are scared to face Anderson then maybe he should just give rematches to Marquardt and Henderson, those guys have a chance to win and they will not fall to their backs and butt scoot.

I was still impressed with those kicks to Leites's knees those things were nasty.

If Thales was giving it all he had. How can you expect him to do more? He clearly wasnt good enough. Noone can honestly say that was the best Anderson Silva can fight. He showed he could do anything he wanted and CHOOSE to not finish the fight. He is the champ and should fight like the champ. He did not make 1 single attempt to finish the fight.

Imagine if Matt Hughes come out and wrestled him opponent down and layed on him and REFUSED to throw a single punch? He can claim he didnt need to take the risk and lose position. Bla bla bla like Silva is doing. Noone on here would like it one it. I dont mind fighters who are not great finishers. As long as they put an effort in to finish thats all that matter. A lot of fighters go to decsions. Sherk, Hendo, Hughes, Couture, etc. But they try their best with the skills they have. Anderson Silva did not. He is one of the best finishers in the game and in his last 2 fights disrespected his opponents and went out of his way to not end the fight. I have seen a better attempt to end a fight during a shadow boxing session. Then in his last fight all but told the fans to **** off.

I have never been bored with any of there fights there both so tactical and thats what i love about it. it's like a well planned chess match. Yeah silva has been clowning in the cage as of late but who cares its the other fighters fault not being able to shut em up. their just that far ahead of the game they can take the fight where they want it to or make you fight a fight you don't wanna be in. not saying they can't lose cause freak accidents can occur i just dont see it happening anytime soon hopefully they remain the champs for the rest of the decade

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Posted by Brain_Smasher

If Thales was giving it all he had. How can you expect him to do more? He clearly wasnt good enough. Noone can honestly say that was the best Anderson Silva can fight. He showed he could do anything he wanted and CHOOSE to not finish the fight. He is the champ and should fight like the champ. He did not make 1 single attempt to finish the fight.

Imagine if Matt Hughes come out and wrestled him opponent down and layed on him and REFUSED to throw a single punch? He can claim he didnt need to take the risk and lose position. Bla bla bla like Silva is doing. Noone on here would like it one it. I dont mind fighters who are not great finishers. As long as they put an effort in to finish thats all that matter. A lot of fighters go to decsions. Sherk, Hendo, Hughes, Couture, etc. But they try their best with the skills they have. Anderson Silva did not. He is one of the best finishers in the game and in his last 2 fights disrespected his opponents and went out of his way to not end the fight. I have seen a better attempt to end a fight during a shadow boxing session. Then in his last fight all but told the fans to **** off.

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But if Hughes took the guy down he would be fighting his game, Anderson still punched him everytime he was standing. He just refused to fall into Leites guard. Anderson stuffed every takedown attempt Theites tried. Leites's only option was to setup something with strikes and he refused to do it, he would rather lay on his back then engage. Anderson saw that and I bet you he was thinking, "Why the hell am I in the cage with this guy!? After I have exposed his BJJ only game that I should just jump into his guard and see if he can make it competitive!?" He is the champion, do not get into the cage with him if you need him to fight your game but you cannot impose it on him. I disliked the crap Sylvia pulled in the octogon to keep his belt, but Silva's action make sense.

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Posted by Brain_Smasher

If Thales was giving it all he had. How can you expect him to do more? He clearly wasnt good enough. Noone can honestly say that was the best Anderson Silva can fight. He showed he could do anything he wanted and CHOOSE to not finish the fight. He is the champ and should fight like the champ. He did not make 1 single attempt to finish the fight.

Imagine if Matt Hughes come out and wrestled him opponent down and layed on him and REFUSED to throw a single punch? He can claim he didnt need to take the risk and lose position. Bla bla bla like Silva is doing. Noone on here would like it one it. I dont mind fighters who are not great finishers. As long as they put an effort in to finish thats all that matter. A lot of fighters go to decsions. Sherk, Hendo, Hughes, Couture, etc. But they try their best with the skills they have. Anderson Silva did not. He is one of the best finishers in the game and in his last 2 fights disrespected his opponents and went out of his way to not end the fight. I have seen a better attempt to end a fight during a shadow boxing session. Then in his last fight all but told the fans to **** off.

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Thales was NOT giving it all he had. Like McBee said, he didn't try setting anything up with strikes. Instead, he made poor attempts at takedowns (which were CLEARLY not working) and continued to just back up and drop down to his back, expecting for Silva to just waltz on in to his guard. A challenger needs to challenge and there was absolutely no challenge from Thales.

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Posted by DCRage

Why? Because the man himself, , says so. Both these UFC Champions have come under fire for "elusive" fights that end without them getting hit and are perceived as boring, but Gracie says their winning iwthout taking damage is the perfect strategy for winning fights.

Article

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It's not like the strategy is mind boggling, its basic. Ive never really gave Royce Gracie any clout when it comes to todays MMA, its nothing like what he practiced back in the day and his opinion on this matters very little to me, although I still think he's right like I said to me its just common sense fighting.

i think in the end it all comes down to the fans. no one is going to pay to go watch silva fight unagressively like he did against thales so if u wanna make money u better start whoopin some a$$ again

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Posted by mshalosky

i think in the end it all comes down to the fans. no one is going to pay to go watch silva fight unagressively like he did against thales so if u wanna make money u better start whoopin some a$$ again

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well he is fighting Forrest so it is impossible that it will be a boring Fight, more to do with who he is fighting than him

Great quotes from Royce.

Always glad to hear from the man himself.

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Posted by McBee

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Posted by ufcman55

I agree with gracie on this one. Both Silva and Machida are some of the most dominant fighters around right now because of their strategy. I think rashad only hit machida MAYBE 3 times and they where glancing shots. I dont see how people say he isnt exciting, while he is handing rashad his first k.o. loss. Silva has put on exciting fights too. Have we all forgotten about the Chris leben fight? not the one but TWO destructions of Rich Franklin.

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Yeah I hate when people give Anderson crap and no one should give Lyoto crap he dominated his last two fights and has beat some of the biggest names in the game.

In the case of Leites The challenger should challenge, a one-sided fighter should not be able to come in and demand the champion to fight his game and especially with the butt scoot. The champion should not have to do go WAY out of his way to stop the boos, even if he could ground and pound him into oblivion. I was pissed with Leites in that fight and lost all respect for him as a fighter. Challengers have to beat the champion to become the champion and if that means taking a risk then show some balls and do it. If you lose a bad decision you may never end up fighting a big fight in the UFC again but the champion is still the champion.

If new challengers are scared to face Anderson then maybe he should just give rematches to Marquardt and Henderson, those guys have a chance to win and they will not fall to their backs and butt scoot.

I was still impressed with those kicks to Leites's knees those things were nasty.

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first of all who has been bad mouthing machida lately, from what i read lately everyone is having a hard time taking machidas nuts out of there mouth just to say a sentence

Second, anderson has demolished the likes of franklin, henderson, marquardt, and your telling me he fought a smart fight against thales, ( i think your forgetting how bored anderson looked in the cage, throwing leg punches and backwards leg kicks) to me he was capable of finshing that fight when ever he wanted. ( it was leites fault mostly for what we saw in that fight)

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Posted by CwB

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Posted by McBee

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Posted by ufcman55

I agree with gracie on this one. Both Silva and Machida are some of the most dominant fighters around right now because of their strategy. I think rashad only hit machida MAYBE 3 times and they where glancing shots. I dont see how people say he isnt exciting, while he is handing rashad his first k.o. loss. Silva has put on exciting fights too. Have we all forgotten about the Chris leben fight? not the one but TWO destructions of Rich Franklin.

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Yeah I hate when people give Anderson crap and no one should give Lyoto crap he dominated his last two fights and has beat some of the biggest names in the game.

In the case of Leites The challenger should challenge, a one-sided fighter should not be able to come in and demand the champion to fight his game and especially with the butt scoot. The champion should not have to do go WAY out of his way to stop the boos, even if he could ground and pound him into oblivion. I was pissed with Leites in that fight and lost all respect for him as a fighter. Challengers have to beat the champion to become the champion and if that means taking a risk then show some balls and do it. If you lose a bad decision you may never end up fighting a big fight in the UFC again but the champion is still the champion.

If new challengers are scared to face Anderson then maybe he should just give rematches to Marquardt and Henderson, those guys have a chance to win and they will not fall to their backs and butt scoot.

I was still impressed with those kicks to Leites's knees those things were nasty.

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first of all who has been bad mouthing machida lately, from what i read lately everyone is having a hard time taking machidas nuts out of there mouth just to say a sentence

Second, anderson has demolished the likes of franklin, henderson, marquardt, and your telling me he fought a smart fight against thales, ( i think your forgetting how bored anderson looked in the cage, throwing leg punches and backwards leg kicks) to me he was capable of finshing that fight when ever he wanted. ( it was leites fault mostly for what we saw in that fight)

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no I am saying he should not have to jump in Leites's guard to get the fans to stop booing or chase Leites around the ring for 5 rounds, close but not as bad as the Starnes vs Quarry, did you attribute that boring fight to Quarry?

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Posted by McBee

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Posted by CwB

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Posted by McBee

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Posted by ufcman55

I agree with gracie on this one. Both Silva and Machida are some of the most dominant fighters around right now because of their strategy. I think rashad only hit machida MAYBE 3 times and they where glancing shots. I dont see how people say he isnt exciting, while he is handing rashad his first k.o. loss. Silva has put on exciting fights too. Have we all forgotten about the Chris leben fight? not the one but TWO destructions of Rich Franklin.

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Yeah I hate when people give Anderson crap and no one should give Lyoto crap he dominated his last two fights and has beat some of the biggest names in the game.

In the case of Leites The challenger should challenge, a one-sided fighter should not be able to come in and demand the champion to fight his game and especially with the butt scoot. The champion should not have to do go WAY out of his way to stop the boos, even if he could ground and pound him into oblivion. I was pissed with Leites in that fight and lost all respect for him as a fighter. Challengers have to beat the champion to become the champion and if that means taking a risk then show some balls and do it. If you lose a bad decision you may never end up fighting a big fight in the UFC again but the champion is still the champion.

If new challengers are scared to face Anderson then maybe he should just give rematches to Marquardt and Henderson, those guys have a chance to win and they will not fall to their backs and butt scoot.

I was still impressed with those kicks to Leites's knees those things were nasty.

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first of all who has been bad mouthing machida lately, from what i read lately everyone is having a hard time taking machidas nuts out of there mouth just to say a sentence

Second, anderson has demolished the likes of franklin, henderson, marquardt, and your telling me he fought a smart fight against thales, ( i think your forgetting how bored anderson looked in the cage, throwing leg punches and backwards leg kicks) to me he was capable of finshing that fight when ever he wanted. ( it was leites fault mostly for what we saw in that fight)

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no I am saying he should not have to jump in Leites's guard to get the fans to stop booing or chase Leites around the ring for 5 rounds, close but not as bad as the Starnes vs Quarry, did you attribute that boring fight to Quarry?

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Anderson Silva is in the top 3 spots of everyones P4P rankings i expect a little more from him then quarry.

Also at the end of my post i acknowledged the fact that leites was mostly at fault but, if thats your excuse how do you explain andersons performance against cote who was contstantly attacking.

all that i am saying is a guy who can ko franklin twice, rock and submit henderson, and embarrass all other competitors, should be able to put on a better performance against cote and leites

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Posted by CwB

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Posted by McBee

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Posted by CwB

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Posted by McBee

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Posted by ufcman55

I agree with gracie on this one. Both Silva and Machida are some of the most dominant fighters around right now because of their strategy. I think rashad only hit machida MAYBE 3 times and they where glancing shots. I dont see how people say he isnt exciting, while he is handing rashad his first k.o. loss. Silva has put on exciting fights too. Have we all forgotten about the Chris leben fight? not the one but TWO destructions of Rich Franklin.

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Yeah I hate when people give Anderson crap and no one should give Lyoto crap he dominated his last two fights and has beat some of the biggest names in the game.

In the case of Leites The challenger should challenge, a one-sided fighter should not be able to come in and demand the champion to fight his game and especially with the butt scoot. The champion should not have to do go WAY out of his way to stop the boos, even if he could ground and pound him into oblivion. I was pissed with Leites in that fight and lost all respect for him as a fighter. Challengers have to beat the champion to become the champion and if that means taking a risk then show some balls and do it. If you lose a bad decision you may never end up fighting a big fight in the UFC again but the champion is still the champion.

If new challengers are scared to face Anderson then maybe he should just give rematches to Marquardt and Henderson, those guys have a chance to win and they will not fall to their backs and butt scoot.

I was still impressed with those kicks to Leites's knees those things were nasty.

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first of all who has been bad mouthing machida lately, from what i read lately everyone is having a hard time taking machidas nuts out of there mouth just to say a sentence

Second, anderson has demolished the likes of franklin, henderson, marquardt, and your telling me he fought a smart fight against thales, ( i think your forgetting how bored anderson looked in the cage, throwing leg punches and backwards leg kicks) to me he was capable of finshing that fight when ever he wanted. ( it was leites fault mostly for what we saw in that fight)

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no I am saying he should not have to jump in Leites's guard to get the fans to stop booing or chase Leites around the ring for 5 rounds, close but not as bad as the Starnes vs Quarry, did you attribute that boring fight to Quarry?

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Anderson Silva is in the top 3 spots of everyones P4P rankings i expect a little more from him then quarry.

Also at the end of my post i acknowledged the fact that leites was mostly at fault but, if thats your excuse how do you explain andersons performance against cote who was contstantly attacking.

all that i am saying is a guy who can ko franklin twice, rock and submit henderson, and embarrass all other competitors, should be able to put on a better performance against cote and leites

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I can see the point with Cote but the fight was not over either and Delegrotte had a very unorthodox striking scheme for Cote going into that. I was really disappointed in that fight because I really wanted to see Cote get demolished.

royce is just happy cause brazilians are in the limelight again

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Posted by MMA_Alex

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Posted by Brain_Smasher

If Thales was giving it all he had. How can you expect him to do more? He clearly wasnt good enough. Noone can honestly say that was the best Anderson Silva can fight. He showed he could do anything he wanted and CHOOSE to not finish the fight. He is the champ and should fight like the champ. He did not make 1 single attempt to finish the fight.

Imagine if Matt Hughes come out and wrestled him opponent down and layed on him and REFUSED to throw a single punch? He can claim he didnt need to take the risk and lose position. Bla bla bla like Silva is doing. Noone on here would like it one it. I dont mind fighters who are not great finishers. As long as they put an effort in to finish thats all that matter. A lot of fighters go to decsions. Sherk, Hendo, Hughes, Couture, etc. But they try their best with the skills they have. Anderson Silva did not. He is one of the best finishers in the game and in his last 2 fights disrespected his opponents and went out of his way to not end the fight. I have seen a better attempt to end a fight during a shadow boxing session. Then in his last fight all but told the fans to **** off.

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Thales was NOT giving it all he had. Like McBee said, he didn't try setting anything up with strikes. Instead, he made poor attempts at takedowns (which were CLEARLY not working) and continued to just back up and drop down to his back, expecting for Silva to just waltz on in to his guard. A challenger needs to challenge and there was absolutely no challenge from Thales.

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Noone expects Silva to go to the ground with Thales. But like you said Thales was not trying to strike. The reason is his strikes are not very good and he isnt used to getting beat up. With that said. Why couldnt Silva finish him? Why did Silva quit hitting him after he clearly hurt him with a punch on the ground? The reason he he was purposely dragging the fight out. refusing to finish the fight.

Everyone on here is making excuses for him. Even he claims he was just not taking risks. But he showboated the entire fight. That by definition is being careless.

You people can believe what you want. The fact is Silva is a great talent. The UFC has done everything in their power to push him and market him into a star. But in the last 2 fights he has tried to be someone he isnt. Taunting fighters. Where did this come from? Even as talented as he is. He is still the worst drawing headliner the UFC has. Even Franklin still is a bigger draw after 2 bad loss' to Silva. With his last 2 fights he ruined any chance he ever had of being a star. You guys can call it smart all you want. But he struggled in his last to fights whe both opponents were 2 of the least skilled fighters he has faced in the UFC.

I don think it was because of his skill. I think he either believe people want to see him taunt and "clown" people. So he did it to try and become more popular. If so, he failed big time. Or he refused to fight like he can to put on a boring fight to punish Dana White for not letting him box RJJ. At the time Diaz was calling out RJJ and Silva might have felt he would lose his chance and Diaz would get it.

What ever the reason is. Silva was carrying Thales. He could have finished him within 3 rounds without taking any risk at all.