The final horn sounded and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua raised his hands towards the roof of the Staples Center, sure he'd just won the UFC light-heavyweight championship. The building's 16,000 fans cheered him, ready to shower him with glory to match his new gold.The judges' decision, they decided, was a formality, but still they'd wait for it. And then it was read. Rua and the fans, it seemed were wrong. At least in the eyes of the three judges who mattered. Lyoto Machida was declared the winner, with 48-47 scores across the board.
The reaction was instantaneous. It was a "robbery," a "farce," and "ridiculous." The audience hurled venom at Machida, the same man they'd adored a few minutes earlier, as the belt was re-strapped around his waist.
UFC 104:
Interviews: Stevenson on 'Slippery' Fisher | Cain Ready for Title Shot | More
Machida Decision Brings Boos | Results | Full Coverage
Interviews: Stevenson on 'Slippery' Fisher | Cain Ready for Title Shot | More
Machida Decision Brings Boos | Results | Full Coverage
The MMA game, we have found out over and over, has issues. The refs sometimes make mistakes, the judges sometimes score rounds incorrectly. This does not make our sport any different than any other. Has anyone been watching the baseball playoffs? The umpires have missed a slew of calls. What about college football? The nation's glamour division -- the SEC -- recently suspended officials for a pair of controversial penalties.
That, of course, does not excuse the mistakes that happen, or even rationalize them. It's simply more evidence that once humans under pressure are involved with subjective judgments, errors are going to happen.Here's the thing about Machida-Rua: once you put aside personal biases, you should realize there was no overwhelming winner. Rua did not beat Machida down for five rounds and get robbed. Did he deserve to win the fight? Probably. I did the play-by-play for FanHouse and scored the fight three rounds to two for Rua, giving him the first, fourth and fifth. According to FightMetric.com, Rua outlanded Machida in total strikes 82-42, though 49 strikes were kicks to Machida's legs.
The ringside judges (Nelson Hamilton, Marcos Rosales and Cecil Peoples), however, gave the fight to Machida, three rounds to two. I can not blame them. Round one was razor close. Round two was competitive. Round three was probably Machida's, but not by much. Round four was tight. Round five was Shogun's. After 25 minutes, there was not much separating the champion and challenger. This wasn't a robbery; it was a difference of opinion.
In sports, we sometimes watch with our hearts, and so when something goes wrong, we overstate the transgression. But this was not one to steam over. Both men had their moments, but neither took control of the fight. Neither dominated. Again, I had Shogun winning the fight, but not by much.
Not even Shogun could bring himself to outrage. He didn't slam the judges or complain. There was no look of anger or pain on his face. Rather, he simply said, "I am very happy with my performance, but disheartened with the results."
In the postfight press conference, UFC President Dana White guaranteed a rematch.
"You never want to hear people boo the main event," he said. "It's unfortunate. But that's why I believe this will be a good rematch. They won't make the same mistakes next time. Each one will try to win decisively."
You can claim Rua was wronged, but you could try this in court, with a jury and might leave with it hung. The fight was that close. For 25 minutes, they fought evenly, Shogun becoming the first man in the UFC to find Machida's chin, and Machida picking his spots.
Neither man was overly aggressive, afraid to overcommit and get caught by a perfectly timed strike that could lead to the finish. Neither tried to finish rounds with a flurry to steal an otherwise close round. Neither dropped the other, or even staggered them. Every five-minute stretch ended with some doubt.
Rua's corner told him he was winning. Machida's corner did the same. In the crowd, the fans -- many of whom started the fight rooting for Machida -- began moving into Rua's camp. That made sense, since Machida was a 4 1/2 to 1 favorite and fans often gravitate towards the underdog. The argument continued online. On Twitter, UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin thought the judges got it wrong, but Strikeforce lightweight Josh Thomson thought they were right on point. Not even a computer had a decisive stance; FightMetric.com gave Machida a higher performance rating, but Rua the win under the 10-point must system.
Rua may not have the belt, but he won in the court of public opinion. The fans see him as the winner. And if White follows through on his promise, Rua will get another crack at the gold.
If you thought Shogun won, you have every right to believe it. But this was a fight so close, the judges have every right to believe they made the right decision, too. I saw enough to call Rua the winner; but not enough to call him a victim.
Comments (Page 1 of 3)
i agree completly! i also had it 3-2 for shogun but felt it was close enough to be 3-2 for machida. like goldberg said, you have to beat the champ decisivly. the only time i can recall a challenger getting a razor thin decision was forrest over rampage. that being said i think an immediate rematch is in order due to the outcome and the fact that there is no one else really in line without rashad and rampage fighting.
dont hate me for what i think but ,,i hear rematch ,,,,i watched it 5 or 6 times and all i hear is joe rogen trying to sway the fans to shogun,,,if you rewatch it turn the volume off joe was blowing him the whole time,,shogun did some damage to the body and legs of machida but machida had more knees which is more effective in hurting the mid section and scoring points, he also had more punches that conected and some kicks that were doing some damage not to mention he blocked every take down every time which took away the ground game,,,machida is all about stand up so if you cant take him down your game is shot no ground game no win ,,he was the champion already which always get a little leeway in the judges eyes,,, they say you should never put it in the hands of the judges ,,,and are they ever right,,, with that being said shogun did a great job and it was machidas hardest fight ,, he should have a rematch after they both heal,,,,i saw shoguns brother pick him up at the end of the fight and it looked like he was ready to cry cause his mid section was so broken ,,im sure machida was not used to being hit ,and im sure his mid section was broken up also ,,so next time he will have a differnt aproach to shogun and have differnt answers for the body and leg kick,,,to beat any champion you have to do more than leg and body kick him you ,your going to have to beat him and take him down ,,, ,how about more punching ,or some knees but that didnt happen ,,,,i saw dana white lip sync to shogun that he won the fight ,,,,,but all the judges scored it the same was so thats the end of the story,,,,just my opinion,,,,, i was going for machida and he squeked it out
shogun got robbed i was at a bar full of people shooting for machida and by the time the fith round ended it was dead silince except for me and another gun yelling cuz shogun won, even after the announced that machida won the bar remained silent...... i hate machida nothing agains him but thats how it is i would never want a fighter i picked to win to win in such a stupidly scored fight Shogun won the first round because he was the agressor and landed more, second round shogun came out and did more of the same except for machidas little run at him that did nothing shogun came back harder after that and won that round, round three i would give to machida for his stricking and defence and overall seeming like he wanted to fight that round... and shogun was tired this round, round four was shogun pushing the pase being the agressor and driving that round that was probly the closes round to score, round 5 was a round shogun came out to finish him he knew all he had to do was not get knocked out or submited and was cought be mechida twice but shogun came back and countered evertime and machida knew this... on close decision fights fighters know raise your hands after the bell rings in that final match to show the judges that you are the winner, where where machidas hands on his side with shogun hands held high both fighters knowing who realy won that fight its not hard to judge a stand up fight you look for stricking takedown defence take down attempts and octagon control..... now who do you think won... and if this was reversed and machida lost to this stupid score card i would still be upset for for machida even though i like shogun....
SHOGUN WON thats it the end he didnt win on paper but in everyones hearts he won and he was jiped out of whats rightfully his
What a joke !!!! "Shogun" Rua won 4 rounds with better kicks, a controlled agressiveness and always was in controlled. When the fight was over, believe me, Lyotto Machida knew he had lost his title & "Shogun" knew he had won. The 16,000 in attendance & the millions watching knew that "Shogun" was the winner & the decision was only a formality. Unfortunatley, the three judges must have been blind and did not agree. "Shogun", you are the true champion at 205 pounds. What a disgrace.
I re-watced the fight several times and slow motioned parts. I think the fight was close and should not have been a unanimous decision but I thought Machida won 1 and 3 and 2 was the controversal round. Shogan won 4 and 5 hands down. I thought Shogan won hands down when I watched it the first time but after reveiewing the fight I think it was closer than everyone is saying. Joe swayed the audience with his commentary and I think it could have gone either way making it a draw. Try watching it with the mute on several times and you may see a closer fight.
bro learn how to spell or type, you made no sence
You're making me look bad ...
Eric, your take of the fight is about as flawed as your spelling. You said yourself you hate Machida, so why does your opinion even matter, you are obviously blinded but what you want the outcome to be and you listen to the announcers calling the fight more than trust your eyes to the facts of the fight. Could Shogun have won this fight.... sure, could Machida have won this fight.... sure. My problem with your comments and most other out of touch bloggers is that you all make it seem and sound like Shogun got robbed, which isn't the case. You say you gave him (Shogun) round one which was arguable the closest round of the fight all three judges gave it to Machida, even Dana White said round one could have gone either way, history shows us that a judge in a round that is too close to call it is almost always going to go to the champion reason being is that if a challenger didn't do enough to take the round in the eyes of a jugde this shows that he or she doesn't want to be champion bad enough. It was round one that determined the whole fight, as everyonbe else states in the opionon that Machida won round 2 and 3 clearly and Rua won rounds 4 and 5 clearly. Knowing that round one went to Machida and based even on the opinions of those who say Shogun was "robbed" your boy Shogun wasn't going to win this by a decision no matter what he did in the last two rounds. No matter how dominate those last two rounds were for Shogun the bottom line is he lost the first 3 rounds even though they were close rounds Machida still won them and a 3 rounds to 2 rounds score makes him the winner this is simple math. Don't blame the judges, don't blame Machida blame Rua and his corner men who blew it he could have won this fight had he pressed the fight more in the early rounds, but he didn't do enough to get a decision victory over a champion, nor did he give the kind of dominate performance that would or should lead to a championship reign. I am a fan of Shogun, and I am a fan of the sport, that said the bottom line is no one was robbed except the fans like me who dropped $45 to see it unfold live on PPV. Dana White should reimburse all of us or give us a voucher for the rematch after that crap.
eric, you may or may not be right. it's hard to decipher all of your points because of spelling and sentence structure, but i get the jist of your comment from the emotion you show due to your hatred of machida!
BTW - That's some new guy ... not me.
yeah it was close...to being 5 rounds to none for Rua. seriously.
he lands almost double the strikes and there is no call for outrage? machida's own fans think he lost. on top of that, shogun completely controlled the pace of the fight. a power strike to the leg is still a power strike. machida was staggered at least once in the fight. a punch threw him against the cage and those leg kicks were crushing. shogun had him pinned against the cage a few times as well. it did not result in a takedown but it was control nonetheless. name one scoring aspect of the fight that machida won. striking, grappling, aggression, control? no no no no. not even close. robbery.
shogun caused visible damage to multiple places on the head, torso, and legs. how anyone can say machida was even close to winning that fight just baffles me. i also watched with a group of machida fans and even they were literally laughing at the decision.
i really don't think you watched this fight. shogun was completely shocked when they announced the decision. just because he acted professional after the fight doesn't mean he wasn't outraged by the decision.
I would also like to say that some words are lost in translation. My friend speaks portagease (can't spell) and said that it was filtered from shogun thru trainer. He said that his performance was good enough to win the title.
I didn't think the fight was close at all. Personally I thought that Shogun won every round except for round 3. I don't even see the line of thinking that says this was a razor thin fight that could of gone either way. Shogun did more than enough to win the fight and he got robbed in a terrible decision. It's so unreal that Machida won a unanimous decision in the judges eyes. I even watched the fight for a second time last night and came to the same conclusion. Basically, Machida landed only one or two meaningful strikes and did no real damage. Shogun on the other hand punished the body and legs and by the end of the fight had Machida in a defensive posture and limping around aimlessly. Machida even looked like a broken man that was expecting to lose. Machida knows he lost, Rua knows Machida lost, the fans know Machida lost and anyone with an unbiased opinion knows that Lyoto Machida got his it handed to him by the judges. Disgraceful.
This was by the far the worst decision in the history of the UFC. Worse than Rutten vs Randleman, Bisping vs Hammill, Griffin vs Rampage and Ortiz vs Evans. The sport loses credibility and moves closer to professional boxing with that type of terrible and possibly fixed fight decision.
Those judges should never be allowed to judge another MMA fight again (for any state athletic commission) and there should be an investigation to see if there was any impropriety.
I even jokingly said here on Fanhouse (with about 1 min left in rd 5) that if Machida got the decision I'd be done with the UFC. I wasn't expecting it to actually happen! It's a huge black eye for the sport and the organization.
hey johnny,
i can't believe that you all think this was any type of fight.
here is the dana conspiracy.....that because of a so-called controversial decision on a completely crappy, boring, non-decisive fight, that everyone would just overlook how bad of a fight it actually was......and then say rematch.
i believe more so than not, that most people booed and were silent, because it was a horrible dance with each other, fight.
maybe stylistically, the way each of them fights can only bring out this type of fight. so why should i want to clamour to see this go again?
hey, i bet on shogun and lost money and for the record if i had to score the fight i would have given it slightly to shogun, slightly. only because to me it looked like machida danced the whole fight, but on the other hand, shogun never took him down never forcefully engaged him for more than 2 punches or 2 kicks.
here are the total numbers:
machida threw 116 strikes and landed 42
so on average----23 thrown and 8 landed
so 8 strikes landed per round for a 5 minute 5 round fight.
shogun threw 149 strikes and landed 82
so on average----29 thrown and landed 16
half of which were leg kicks.
total average thrown between the both of them - 53 per round - thrown with 17 being leg strikes
24 per round - landed with 10 being leg strikes
this is a joke for a 5 round championship fight.
that has 5 minute rounds.
the numbers don't lie.
this fight completely sucked, period.
neither deserved to win.
now, for the most part i like dana, however, when he says, "that's why I believe this will be a good rematch. They won't make the same mistakes next time. Each one will try to win decisively.",
that is the seedy promoter just trying to find a sucker for the next time.
most of you know i'm a ufc fan, but, no way no how am i going to pay to see a rematch.
fool me once, fine.
it ain't going to happen with these two again.
there is definate challengers for both that would pan both of them out, before there should be a rematch.
its basically a fact to beat machida you're going to have to take him down. otherwise, he is going to dance and cherry pick his shots which for him is a very successful tactic.
my point, let's see how he will do against a world class wrestler. maybe couture if he wins.
i just wish randy wasn't quite so old.
or another of that type.
after watching this, i wouldn't be surprised to hear that page wants to come back.
anderson/rua seemingly would be interesting.
please ufc no rematch for awhile with these two.
have people fight that want to fight.
oh and johnny, i liked your macheetah reference.
however, this decision was no where close to as bad as the ones you mentioned.
and i see you threw in the bas/randleman fight after we talked about it.
those decisions were all travesties, this fight by itself was a travesty at how bad it was.
one last thing, i realize if you were just watching tactically this fight, then you saw shogun tactically attacking the legs, it just wasn't decisive, that's all. neither was really ever hurt.
my critizism is, to be the man you've got to beat the man.
however, machida that was an embarrasement showing of being the man.
his first title defense and that was his showing.
i'm not getting hung up on the seemingly poor decision, i'm hung up on the crappy fight.
I've long thought that Randleman got jobbed in that fight against Rutten. I kept waiting for Bas to do something and it never happened. That was a terrible decision but it pales in comparison to last nights fight in my opinion. After we talked about it that did remind of what a terrible decision it actually turned out to be in the end.
The Macheetah aura of invincibility is gone and over with forever. The thing you have to realize about Machettah and Anderson Silva is that both of them are counter fighters. They feed off their opponents agression and capitalize on their mistakes. Because they have such precision striking and power they overwhelm and knock their opponents out cold.
I have to disagree in that I thought the fight itself was very entertaining and was really on the edge of my seat watching it. Shogun Rua beat Macheetah at his own game. Shogun basically picked his shots and picked Macheetah completely apart to the point that Macheetah didn't have an answer. It's such a travesty that Machettah won a unanimous decision for doing nothing but dancing around the whole time. You can't blame Shogun because he was being agressive and was always walking forward and stalking Macheetah. Whats he supposed to do run in like a mad man and get countered? He did what was necessary to decisively win that fight.
I can't see how you can sit here and say that it wasn't definitive or decisive. Shogun PWNED Macheetah to the point that Lyoto wanted to quit. His spirit was broken and he could barely stand after the fight was over. I don't think Shogun could have done anymore to win that fight.
Styles make fights but it was Shogun who had a superior executed game plan. Thats why the same fans who cheered Macheetah (chanting his name) were booing him after the fight. Even Rogan and Goldberg thought that Shogun Rua was the champion. I thought it was a DOMINANT performance by Shogun Rua. I thought it was a really good and entertaining fight mostly because I expected Rua to get knocked out before it started ... then I saw the total opposite. I saw him picking Macheetah apart in the standup which is supposed to be Lyoto's game.
I don't know if the judges were paid off by the mob, bookies, Dana or someone else but even a blind man could see that Shogun won that fight. So I disagree with you that it was a bad main event or a boring fight. I agree that the event itself was terrible and not worth the money (been a bad year for UFC events) especially compared to the upcoming Strikeforce event.
If that wasn't a decisive win by Shogun I don't know what it was. It looks like the only way that the UFC will allow Macheetah to lose is if he gets knocked out or submitted ... even then they'll probably still come up with some BS to say that he won.
For Dana White to criticize Shogun after the fight and act as if he didn't do enough to win the fight is completely out of line. Macheetah should have his title stripped from him if thats how he is going to fight. Shogun just wrote the book on how to beat Macheetah and now guys are going to be licking their chops to fight him. Punish the legs and the body and in the championship rounds Macheetah won't have anything left in his gas tank.
Johhny - AKA B.J. Lover! My answer is on the next page; don't have time to spar with you. The NFL is calling LOL...
Johnny I couldn't agree more with you. I think this was a landslide victory as Rua followed a very good gameplan to perfection.
Machida's body language was as telling as anything, he could barely dress himself after that fight and could barely walk. Rua looked like he could go another five rounds, putting the Rua cardio question to rest at least.
Machida did nothing in my opinion that could warrant retaining his title, even as champ you have to do something to win a fight other than show up.
It's a real shame when an athlete prepares for such a big moment in their lives and it's stolen by some nobody's behind a desk that have no idea what they're watching.
For all of those watching on mute, what is wrong with you? You don't know what you're watching? I watched this fight a few times now and I went one better, when Machida appeared to counter a Rua attack and the commentators were pro Rua they were right. Machida had most of his counters miss or blocked, Rua dismantled him.
The commentary was bang on for a change, they called it as it was, so I don't really know what everyone's talking about here.
Machida won, a single round at best in this fight, this is the worst decision I've seen in the UFC to date.
See this is where I disagree with the author.. Machida even believed he lost. That right their tells you that shogun won. Another thing is damage done, clearly shogun. Strikes landed, shogun. The only round that was could have gone to machida was the second round because he ended the round with a good flurry. it's one thing to say it's controversial. But if every person in the world that watched this knows shogun won obviously something went wrong. This is called fixing a game.
There is a biased with a champion vs challenger. A win is a win. It shouldn't matter if he is the champion or not. The champ should do as much as the challenger to win the fight.
Corection* round 3 to machida.
Rua's camp can attempt to appeal to the commission to have the decision reviewed and possibly reversed right? If so it seems like a good idea.