I’m naming this my post-opinion review after I spent Sunday and Monday randomly dropping by some blogs and discussing UFC 84 with friends and other fans for most of the day. I must say… I was surprised by some of the opinion surrounding the event, and it somewhat made me see the divide that there is within the MMA fanbase.

Most notably, the style matchup between Lyoto Machida and Tito Ortiz was the most argued about fight of the evening. Many fans absolutely hate the fact that Machida eludes his opponents and rarely strikes while hardcore fans appreciate his style. I fall in the latter category of being a huge fan of Machida because he understands one basic principle to the fight game. To hit and never be hit, that’s the ultimate goal. Of course, fighters get hit, but the key to the fight is to avoid as much damage as you can in while dishing out your own. There are exceptions to that generalization though. Some fighters slug it out, take the hits, but ultimately knock their opponents out first. Those are the fights that casual fans want to see, not Lyoto Machida masterfully countering.

It wasn’t a huge surprise when various blogs around the Internet blasted Machida for being ‘boring’ and eluding Tito’s standup game while countering with kicks that scored points. Fightlinker stated that Machida was basically winning two to three exchanges and then being elusive for the rest of the fight, and other writers stated that his style needs to change in order to end fights. Specifically, he landed a heavy knee that crumpled Ortiz to the floor. Some fans believe Lyoto was slow to finish the fight after the knee.

While I don’t agree with those opinions, I can see where their roots are coming from. Lyoto isn’t a Wanderlei Silva. He isn’t an explosive striker, but he’s a smart tactician that uses his unusual style to demoralize opponents. It’s almost a masterpiece to see in the cage. Other fans would say its complete garbage, and someone needs to stop him. He wins fights decisively without a doubt, and he has had some drive to finish fights. It’s amazing to me that people still cling to the concept of two guys simply going toe-to-toe for the knockout is the ultimate ‘awesome’ fight.

Sherk vs. Penn

One of the other amazing opinions I heard from some casual fans and friends was that Sherk had better striking that Penn during the event. I can probably attribute this to see Sherk’s massive arms quick throw jabs at Penn. None of them actually landed, and it really didn’t take a keen eye to see Penn’s jabs landing at will all over Sherk’s face. There’s a reason why it has been said that Penn possesses K-1 striking skills.

I didn’t hear any of the same opinions once the fight finished, but Sherk had a horrible gameplan. I’m not too sure why he wasn’t trying to topple onto Penn for top control, but maybe all that hype and smack that Sherk had said before just wasn’t in his mind come fight time. It’s possible that he was scared of Penn’s jiu-jitsu.

Gouveia vs. Reljic

The only fight of the night I didn’t pick was Gouveia vs. Reljic. I mistakenly thought Reljic wasn’t as big as he looked during the fight, and it cost me. While he wasn’t unbelievably impressive, he did have some great power that caught Gouveia off guard a few times. Why did I pick Gouveia?

Oddly enough, I bought into some of the hype, and I’ll never do that again. While I didn’t believe Gouveia was going to be in contention if he won like Yahoo! Sports did, I did think he could beat Reljic. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Reljic wasn’t that impressive though, and I doubt he’ll make waves in the division like people are claiming all of the sudden. Having Roger Gracie as your jiu-jitsu coach helps, but it doesn’t make you an insta-legend.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine

The fight went exactly as I expected, and it was made evident that Jardine isn’t a great matchup against aggressive strikers with big power. Alexander and Silva both used their aggression to get inside on Jardine quickly, and it paid off big time for Silva in this fight.

A lot of fans were confused after this one. How could Silva absolutely crush Jardine, but Chuck had huge problems? Chuck’s gameplan during his fight with Jardine had one flaw that hampered what he could do against Keith. Jardine’s leg kicks were effective for most of that fight, but Chuck managed to reset his stance after nearly every kick. This caused Chuck to lose rhythm in nearly every single round, and he never really got going the way he did against Silva.

Newcomers dominate

I found it very hard to believe anyone picked Koppenhaver over Yoshida, but it happened. I bet large on Yoshida with the peace of mind in knowing he would crush Koppenhaver. A lot of fans picking “War Machine” had doubts that Yoshida would do well in the cage since he was from Japan. The problem is that Yoshida is a nightmare in Cage Force in Japan.

Palhares was another great bet for me as he was underdog’d by nearly all the betting sites. Big mistake. Palhares has a great submission game, and he showed it with an impressive armbar from the back transition. He’ll likely break out some leglocks later down the line as well. He should be a man to watch out for… definitely a smaller Paulo Filho.

Shane Carwin looked good as well, although I must say that his striking wasn’t unbelievably impressive. He has some great power though, and will be a good addition to the Heavyweight division for the future of the UFC.

Overall opinion

I thought the event was absolutely fantastic. I loved the Machida-Ortiz battle for the mere fact that all the hype surrounding Ortiz’s tiff with Dana White concluded with Ortiz being unable to catch Machida. The highlight of the fight for me came from the knee, but hilarity ensued when Tito dropped his hands in disapproval of Machida’s tactics only to get one-two’d directly in the kisser.

Silva is back for right now, but he may approach tougher opponents with a different gameplan. I love to see the aggressive Axe Murderer in the cage, and hopefully that style of fighting will continue to be his foundation.

Watch out for Yoshida and Palhares. They are the real deal, and Carwin may actually be a formidable opponent as well, but I’d like to see more. His ground game is apparently one of his stronger points.