The Ultimate eXperience 06.02.08: Shogun/Sokoudjou?, Machida/Rampage? and More

Posted by Ryan Seymour on 06.02.2008

Tune into the latest edition of The Ultimate eXperience. This week I break down the big factors of Rampage vs. Machida if it ended up happening in the near future. Also Sokoudjou has been wanting to fight Shogun, how would Sokoudjou do in that fight? - All that and more INSIDE.



Welcome to yet another edition of The Ultimate eXperience. This week's edition is action packed; wasting no time here it is…

Shogun vs. Sokoudjou?

At UFC 84 after Sokoudjou's first victory in the UFC over Kazuhiro Nakamura, Sokoudjou hinted a possible fight against Mauricio ‘Shogun' Rua. Then days after UFC 84, Sokoudjou had this to say…

I would love to fight that guy. I've tried to fight him ever since I fought in PRIDE and he's been ducking me. Shogun has been ducking me since the PRIDE days. Shogun's camp told me that to fight him, I had to fight Cyborg first. I told them I want to fight Shogun, not Cyborg, and then Pride went away and now he's in the UFC and he hasn't fought for a minute. I know he got injured for his last fight, but I think by the time I'm ready to fight again, hopefully he should be ready and will take the fight…. Good luck to him trying to get me to the ground. I got my ass kicked once on the ground so you think I just went home and didn't do anything on the ground? I spent hours and hours fighting off of my back."

The odds of this fight happening soon are very low but down the track, anything could happen. Shogun's next fight has been slated to be against6 Chuck Liddell after that fight was cancelled due to injuries. If Sokoudjou and Shogun did end up fighting, I would have to take Shogun. Although Shogun was outclassed in his UFC debut against Forrest Griffin, there is no doubt that Shogun will bounce back from that fight and a fight between the Brazilian Shogun and the Cameroon fighter Sokoudjou could be quite entertaining. Soccer kicks being taken out of Shogun's game has hurt him a bit but he is still a very versatile fighter and is good at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing and also wrestling. Sokoudjou on the other hand has showed his heavy hands in his last three victories over Ricardo Arona, Rogerio Nogueira and Nakamura. Sokoudjou is great kick boxer and is also good at Judo but has yet to show of that skill in his MMA career. I am sure that Shogun will be right up there in the light heavyweight division but on the other hand I am not sure about the Cameron Fighter Sokoudjou.


Saving The Golden Boy

If you didn't catch the main event of Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson at Elite XC: "Primetime" you missed a very controversial finish. During the first two rounds of the fight Thompson was able to take down Kimbo and control him on the ground. As a matter of fact, Thompson was very close to finishing Kimbo when he was raining elbows to Kimbo Slice's head. During the third round Kimbo was able to make Thompson bleed from the ear and make him stagger on his feet. The referee stopped the fight and Thompson and also the crowd was outraged, Thompson even threw a shot at the referee. I believe that Thompson was still able to fight as early in the second round, he looked the same and was able to recover and even win the round. Elite XC would have had big troubles if Kimbo Slice lost against James Thompson as many fans would lose interest if Kimbo was beaten. I'm not saying that the ref or Gary Shaw did anything wrong, I'm just saying it looks very suspect as without a doubt Thompson would of won if it went to the judges. Brett Rogers a fellow Elite XC heavyweight who defeated Jon Murphy on the same show, had this to say about Kimbo

"A man is man. And what I saw in this man today, it was just garbage. I'm going to speak it real, it was garbage. You did tap. You did tap out, I saw it, I was right there."

Brett Rogers said that Kimbo tapped out when James Thompson was raining elbows on him, it was hard to tell when watching it as the camera view wasn't great because it was right in the corner of the cage. When Rogers said this at the post-event press conference it nearly causes an all-out melee between himself and Kimbo Slice. After what happened there you would think that Elite XC have to book a fight between Rogers and Kimbo. This isn't so great for Elite XC as Rogers is 7-0 and is a very big heavyweight and Kimbo had trouble with the big size of Thompson.



Who Would Win – Machida or Rampage?

Ever since Lyoto Machida defeated Tito Ortiz at UFC 84, people have been wondering when/if Lyoto Machida will get a title shot against the current light heavyweight champion, Quinton ‘Rampage' Jackson. Here is a break down of where I think the fighters would have an advantage in.

Striking
Both of these fighters have good striking ability, but at the same time there striking ability is very different. Most times when Rampage fights he has an aggressive fighting style but he can also be the counter striker as seen at UFC 71 against Chuck Liddell. Machida's striking style is counter punching most of the time, if he catches an opening or weakness in the opponent he will go in for the kill. Even though Machida does have KO victories over Stephan Bonnar and Rich Franklin, I would still say that Rampage has the higher power in his striking. Rampage has knocked out fighters like Chuck Liddell, Kevin Randleman, Marvin Eastmen etc. If Rampage was able to catch Machida with a hook to the head, I believe he would have a higher percentage of knocking him out compared to Machida hitting Rampage.

Ground Game
Rampage showed in his last fight against Dan Henderson that he does have some great defenses from being on his back, to getting back onto his feet. Rampage was also able to take down Dan Henderson which is great as Henderson is a former Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling. After saying that, if this fight was on the ground Machida would have a much better chance of finishing the fight of, as Machida is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and learned the skill at the age of 15. Rampage on the other hand has only recently had Jiu-Jitsu coaches in his camp and the experience in that department would be huge. But as everybody should know anything can happen inside the octagon and if Tito Ortiz could nearly submit Machida, Rampage could a chance of doing it as well.

Experience
In this department the nod needs to go with Rampage as he has been in a variety of important fights in his career, winning some and losing some. Rampage's first massive fight was when he was in the PRIDE 2003 GP and fought of against two of the greatest light heavyweights in the same night. First of he faced of against former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, Rampage defeated him via TKO. Then he faced of against (at the time) PRIDE Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva in the final of the tournament. Rampage lost that fight but would have another huge fight against Wanderlei Silva for the title. Rampage ended up losing the rematch as well. Then his second fight in the UFC was against Chuck Liddell for the UFC light heavyweight title, Rampage defeated Liddell in the first round. Rampage's last fight was against Dan Henderson and unified the UFC and PRIDE 205 pound championship; it doesn't get any bigger then that. I'm not saying Machida hasn't had some good victories, Machida has beaten the likes of former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz, former UFC Middleweight champion Rich Franklin, current UFC Lightweight champion B.J. Penn and The Ultimate Fighter 1 Runner up, Stephan Bonnar. 34 fights for Rampage and 13 to Machida; experience has to go with Rampage.

I think a possible fight between Quinton ‘Rampage' Jackson and Lyoto ‘The Dragon' Machida would be a very intriguing match up. If they did fight, I would have to go with Rampage but I wouldn't be overly surprised if Machida won. Machida is going to be a real contender for the light heavyweight title and although his style is classified as boring to some, he is able to get the job done.