American Soft Power

I remember learning about the concept of "soft power" while in college.  It refers to the ways in which a country can manipulate or alter the actions of other countries through non-violent means.  In America's case, this soft power comes not only from our economic might, but also our culture's unique and unparalleled ability to pervade and invade other countries and their cultures.

 The successful projection of soft power leads to America's strategic interests being obtained.  These interests include sweetheart trade deals, allowing America to use other countries for military bases, allowing America to use these other countries as rendition spots, and apparently, allowing American fighters to win ABSOLUTELY APPALLING decisions.

Lyoto Machida put on a clinic last night; he won every minute of the entire fight save 45 seconds in the first round and 20 seconds in the second round, the two times (out of 10 attempts, per FightMetric) when Phil Davis was able to get Lyoto down and land some ground and pound.  For the other 14 minutes of the fight, Machida controlled the action, landing powerful, crisp strikes, thwarting takedowns, making Davis look amateurish on the feet, and owning the Octagon.  When the decision was announced, I was left mouth agape, in absolute shock.  Perhaps that shock was misplaced; after all, I have seen the decisions in Rampage vs Machida as well as every single Leonard Garcia fight and Edgar vs Ben Henderson 2 (and Edgar vs BJ Penn 1, a result so terrible that I literally almost came to fisticuffs with one of my closest friends, who insisted that the decision was sound--he must have been trolling).  

At this point, I don't even know why mma doesn't just get rid of striking on the feet entirely, if the only thing the judges score is takedowns and weak ground and pound.  On my life, I have no idea why a takedown that does not cause bodily harm in and of itself, is scored more than a stuffed takedown.  Both are examples of controlling where the fight takes place.  If one man controls where the fight takes place for the vast majority of the round and clearly does more damage during that part of the round, why does the other man get awarded the round for pulling him on the ground?  I don't understand why landing head kicks and standing punches are not as valuable as arm punches thrown from 6 inches away while on the ground.  Fights like the one last night make me wonder if my time watching mma has ended, or yearn for the days of Pride, in which the fight was scored as a whole, rather than in round by round stanzas in which retarded judges can always find a way to award takedowns over all else.

I often complain about UFC President Dana White's penchant for lying, but as it pertains to his analysis of the fight last night, he was dead on:

"Machida definitely won that fight, definitely," White told Yahoo! Sports. "But that's his fault. He knows MMA judging sucks. It's terrible, it's [expletive], but he went out there and let him do it. I can't remember whether it was the first or the second, but Machida had that combination where he threw all those punches and ran across the cage and ended with that knee. That's when he's really good. But he wants to stay back and be a counter puncher and wait and fight cautiously."

Of course, Dana wants every fighter to go for broke at all times and risk getting KTFO (and cut from his contract) to provide a more exciting fight for the fans.  So when Dana talks about Machida being cautious, and that somehow equating to his fault, take it with a grain of salt.  Dana the promoter wants all action, all the time, but Dana the knowledgeable fight fan knows that it was a horrid decision.  

I almost feel bad for Phil Davis in all this; what is on paper the most glorious moment of his career, is considered a joke by most people who saw it.  Phil is a wonderfully talented fighter; his striking was much improved last night, his wrestling is top-notch, and his submission game is dangerous.  I think he would have beaten any light heavyweight in the world last night not named Jon Jones or Lyoto Machida (and maybe Glover Teixeira), but that doesn't change the fact that he was the beneficiary of American soft power, to the detriment of the natives in Brazil (namely Machida and the thousands of people at the stadium who booed so much I thought there was going to be a riot).  This result puts Dana White in a bit of a pickle; after Jones massacres Gustaffson, will get Machida get the rematch he deserves, will Phil Davis, woefully unprepared, fight Jon Jones, or will it be Teixeira?