In a night where discrepancy won out, there was one thing UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, and UFC president Dana White could all agree upon: a rematch between the two Brazilians, who came to blows at UFC 104 Saturday in Los Angeles, is in order.
Machida earned a unanimous decision over Rua in a cerebral tug-of-war that saw both give and take damage in controlled bursts through five rounds.
Judges Cecil Peoples and Marcos Rosales both awarded Machida the first three rounds and gave Rua the final two. Judge Nelson “Doc” Hamilton scored rounds one and five for Rua, but gave Machida the middle rounds. Scores were united at 48-47 in Machida’s favor.
Gauging by reaction, it seemed a majority of the crowd inside the Staples Center, as well as fans watching the live pay-per-view, disagreed with the final tallies. Internet boards swelled with reaction for Rua minutes after the decision was read.
Rua did better than anyone has ever fared against the karate-bred Machida, who’d never dropped a round in the UFC until Saturday. An aggressive, impulsive striker in the past, the one-time Pride grand prix champion reigned in his arsenal and was especially effective with a right body kick, which marked up Machida’s side and seemed to stifle his explosive counter-attacks.
“I thought ‘Shogun’ won the fight,” said White at the post-fight press conference.
White said he’d scored rounds one, four, and five for Rua and that the promotion already planned to schedule an “immediate rematch.” White added that he’d already gotten verbal commitments from both fighters.
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Flame Not, Lest Ye Be Flamed Yourself.
The rematch can not happen soon enough for me. I'll be counting the days.
Yeah, if there is any silver lining it is that the rematch should generate a lot more interest than the first fight.
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Flame Not, Lest Ye Be Flamed Yourself.
It still annoys me that there's a possibility Shogun will lose the rematch. He should be the champ already. A would hate to see a rematch where Shogun gets beaten convincingly e.g. KO'd.
i jus cant believe what the judges were thinkin,i strongley believe they robbed a man of his dream,i listen for month how everybody didnt even give shogun a shot and he came out and beat machida how u have to beat him and i guess theres no way but a rematch,im jus very heart broken over what went down
Screw the judges.
Shogun won that fight!
Got to be a rematch just a shame its not shogun defending it.He was robed plan and simple a just hope he wins the rematch.WAR SHOGUN
Shogun won that fight hands down. I have no idea how the judges scored it differently. I can't wait for the rematch.
This is what pisses me off about the UFC!
Shogun is the champ......................He beat Machida in 4 rounds in my eyes...i was so mad...is was a great fight but how in the **** could u say machida won that fight..............
WAR SHOGUN
it would be perfect there are no legit contenders out there so a rematch could happen then again dana could be dana saying all this promises to fighters and not keeping his word
I think its funny how much peoples opinions of this fight have changed. Just a few days ago most people were convinced that Machida would run through Shogun. I kept saying this would be a close fight and that Machida would get hit.
Hopefully in the rematch we will see as many people picking Shogun as there should have been the first time around.
What i hate the most about that fight is when they announced the winner Machida had the "i know i lost" look and when they announced his name he was so surprised.
Maybe the melodrama can end now...at least I hope it can. And I'm not so sure Dana should give his thoughts on a decision in a press conference, seems somewhat disrespectful to Machida.
Regardless it was an enjoyable fight, and I think the rematch will be even more entertaining. It looked toward the middle-end of the fight that Machida was able to time those body kicks better, and he will expect it.
And as posted above there are no legitimate contenders (Mousasi is still in Strikeforce), so a rematch shouldn't be criticized.
If Shogun beats him in another good fight, there will likely be a third fight, meaning Shogun is going to end up beating the "unbeatable" champion 3 times.
Glad to see Machida didn't pull the "We already fought. I'm not fighting him again. I won." card.