"Most of the guys that fought Lyoto found a problem with patience, with finding the right moment to attack, or to counter-strike him," Mauricio "Shogun" Rua recently told MMAWeekly.com regarding his upcoming opponent Lyoto Machida at UFC 104. "Some guys try to rush it too much; some guys try to stay too patient, (and) they start to get nervous because of that.
I think the key is the timing of the fight, to get the feeling of when to engage and when to counter-strike him. This is likely the key, to find the pace and the rhythm, mostly the timing of the strikes to be able to connect and to make it a fight. For sure, I'm going to concentrate on that and develop a good strategy."
Sounds about right. Timing is important. That said, trying to be as good with his timing and patience throughout an entire fight as Machida, a superstar karate master that has been working on moving in and out of harm's way with hard strikes inbetween his whole life, is going to be quite difficult. Shogun simply is not going to be as good at the patience part of the game. Still, his game, as he noted, is going to have to be about knowing the right moment to attack with everything he has. In other words, when he does get his chance, Rua is going to need to utilize the ferocity and blazing combinations he's been known for; he needs to pick the right time to overwhelm Machida, even if he will probably be losing the fight when that time finally comes (or doesn't come), because to play the one-two strike in and out game with him won't work. Machida is just too good at that.
Interesting match up. If the old Shogun is truly back, this could be an exciting fight.
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