Randy Couture Had It 4-1 Shogun

By Michael David Smith - Lead Blogger

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Lyoto Machida's unanimous decision victory over Shogun Rua at UFC 104 has been the talk of the MMA world this week, because hardly anyone who watched the fight agreed with the three judges that Machida won it. Count Randy Couture among those who think Shogun deserved to win.

"I thought Shogun came out with an interesting game plan, stuck to it, and it proved to be pretty effective," Couture said Wednesday in an interview with FanHouse. "I thought his leg kicks controlled the tempo and did the most damage. I was surprised by the judges' decision -- I thought it went the other way -- but it was a great fight."

Couture said he'd stop short of the cries of "robbery" or "outrage" that some fans have expressed, but he said he scored it 49-46 for Shogun, and he had a hard time seeing the fight as 48-47 for Machida, which is how all three judges scored it.

"It was pretty close," Couture said. "Who knows what the judges are seeing? Robbed? I don't know about robbed. I thought it was four rounds to one for Shogun, but it was a very close fight and you just never know what the judges are looking at. Unfortunately, that's the fight game sometimes when it's that close."

Couture said he doesn't think the criteria of judging need to be overhauled, and he doesn't think MMA needs to get rid of the 10-point must scoring system. He just thinks MMA needs more judges who have more of an understanding of the sport.

"The scoring system is fine," Couture said. "Finding judges who know exactly what they're scoring, what they're looking at and what they're judging on is what we need. MMA is still so new that a lot of the judges are crossing over from other combative sports and don't have a lot of competitive background themselves, and it's hard to say what they're focused on and what they're looking at."

A full interview with Randy Couture, previewing his November 14 UFC 105 fight with Brandon Vera on Spike TV, will be coming in a couple weeks here at FanHouse.

Read More: lyotomachida, randycouture, shogun rua, shogunrua, ufc 104, ufc104, mma fighting exclusive, Lyoto Machida (MMA), Randy Couture (MMA)

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