Tim Kennedy: ‘Karate Is Dead, Rockhold Destroyed Machida Effortlessly’
It looks like Tim Kennedy is still itching for a fight with Lyoto Machida
Number eight ranked UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy has been out of action since a crushing UFC 178 loss to Yoel Romero. The controversial ending dubbed ‘stoolgate’ saw the US Ranger finished by “Soldier Of God” after an extended break between rounds.
Now seemingly looking to get back in the cage and fight, Kennedy has been taking some verbal shots at former light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. A loser-leaves-town match could prove interesting, but it’s unlikely the promotion would seriously consider that stipulation.
Talking with Submission Radio, Kennedy continued to talk about “The Dragon”:
“Man I have so many advantages over (Machida) that I’m not sure I can even list them. First and foremost, I don’t ingest urine. You know I think my ability to consume other fluids is first and foremost paramount in the match up. So the toxins that are going to be leaving my penis, I’m not going to put back down my throat. So that’s major. And second is, I think Karate’s dead. So he may be good at a whole bunch of things and Karate is also one of them, but karate is not what made him successful.
He’s a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, he has fantastic wrestling, he has great kickboxing, but he can still walk out with his Karate gi, he can try to front kick me – that’d be cool – what else? I’m trying to think of other things. I have better hair”
Talk about kicking a guy when he’s down! That being said, the normal humorous tone of Tim Kennedy’s character should be considered. He continued:
“Luke effortlessly dismantled Lyoto. And everything that everybody said, like ‘his hips, his footwork, you know he’s so tricky, so offensive, so unpredictable, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah’. Luke walked him down and beat the crap out of him. Effortlessly.”
Kennedy’s baiting of Machida is obvious, but does the pairing make sense? Well they are both coming off losses, and no-one really considers the rankings nowadays anyway. TK was then asked about his feelings towards Vitor Belfort and Anderson Silva:
“Yeah man, my excitement for this fight is dropping like Vitor Belfort’s testosterone levels. Just, like plummeting every single day; and having nothing to do with Chris Weidman. It’s just, failed drug test here, hidden drug test there, a fake injury here. It’s just like come on man, you’ve been cheating the system for too long, you kind of got caught, even though you’ve been caught a couple of times in the past. It’s like, I don’t even think he deserves to be fighting for a title.”
“How many Brazilian athletes are there that haven’t tested positive? Jose Aldo. He hasn’t, right? Jacare hasn’t. But it seems like every single time one of them is randomly tested, they fail. I don’t know, maybe there’s a pattern here. It was disappointing (Whe Silva failed the drug tests). Like I think Fedor and Anderson and Sakuraba are the three greatest ever, and seeing a guy like that, that’s been the best ever go out like that, you know it’s just…..it’s disappointing. It’s heart breaking. It’s pathetic but unsurprising.”
So it looks as though Tim Kennedy will be back sooner rather than later, especially if Machida bites, and he is just as charismatic as ever. Do you think a fight with “The Dragon” would be a good watch, or even a winnable fight for Kennedy?
