Lyoto Machida vs. Gegard Mousasi Fight Metric Report Shows ‘The Dragon’ Was Outstruck

Lyoto Machida continued his title efforts at middleweight with a decision win over Gegard Mousasi at last night’s UFN 36. The main event bout was a technical striking class from ‘The Dragon’ and he took home the unanimous decision win for his troubles.

‘The Dreamcatcher’ put in a game effort, but was evidently unprepared for the tricky karate master Machida. There has been chatter about how close the fight was, although I didn’t see it that way, and some fans believe Mousasi did enough to win. The fight metric report for the bout has been released, so check out the numbers:

LM GM striking largeLM GM grappling large

It would appear that Machida taking Mousasi down and transitioning to half guard and back control has made a big difference in the judge’s eyes. The striking was clearly close, but it was shut out for Machida in the grappling domain.

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You could argue that the bout could have gone gone either way, but so could most MMA fights these days. I’ll say it as I saw it; Machida was just the better fighter. Striking numbers are all well and good, but statistics don’t show the situations from which the striking was applied. How do you feel the judges did?