UFC Fight Night 36 recap- Machida topples Mousasi in a technical battle

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If you can’t appreciate the chess match that was Mousasi vs. Machida, I can’t appreciate you, whatever that means. The main event of UFC Fight Night 36 lived up to it’s projected goodness, with Machida and Mousasi putting on a technical display of striking and cage control that was a beauty for the eyes to behold.

Going into the fight, I though Mousasi had as good of a chance as anybody to defeat Machida, even at 185, where Machida has looked as good as ever, but it wasn’t meant to be. Somehow, at 35-year-old, Machida has been reborn into a 185 pound dragon that is quicker and meaner than anything we’ve seen before. Mousasi at 185 pounds is no one to sniff at, and he should still shine in that division, but right now, Machida is knocking on the door of Weidman or Belfort. Probably Weidman.

So Machida took the fight against Mousasi, moving out of Mousasi’s lengthy punches and constant pressure, looking brilliant doing it. In other middleweight news, Jacare’ Souza took down Francis Carmont and held him there for a good fifteen minutes, so now we have a pretty good idea about the middleweight division for the forseeable future.

The rest of the fight card had a single finish, which was Erick Silva’s knockout over Soto. That’s right, back to back 10 decision cards. Weird.

The highlight of the night was likely Machida getting his hat stolen by someone in the crowd, then having it returned after he asked politely:

Props to Zprophet for the .gif.