UFC 104: MACHIDA SURVIVES SHOGUN

Lyoto Machida appeared to be on his way to losing his UFC light heavyweight championship to former PRIDE standout Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in the main event of UFC 104 in Los Angeles.  ‘Shogun’ had punished Machida throughout the fight with leg and body kicks that had measurably slowed the Shotokan karate master.  The postfight reaction of everyone from the fighters themselves  to announcers Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg—suggested that a title change was in the offing.  The judges at ringside, however, saw things differently and awarded Machida a unanimous decision victory by identical 48-47 scores.

From the outset, it was clear that Rua’s strategy was to slow Machida with kicks to the body and legs and it was very effective.  He attempted several takedowns, but the bulk of his offense came from his punishing kicks.  Machida landed some counterpunches off of these kicks, but for the most part did little offensively.  Machida did get the best of a punching exchange near the end of the fourth round, but in a fight with no knockdowns, takedowns or submission attempts ‘Shogun’s’ kicking attack stood out as the only ‘effective aggression’ shown by either fighter.  With the exception of round four, when Machida’s punching likely earned him the edge, there was little doubt in most observers’ minds that Rua’s kicks had earned him the 10 points in at least three of the five rounds.

The only people who saw it otherwise were the ringside judges, and their scores and the Machida unanimous decision verdict were met with loud boos from the Staples Center crowd. Machida himself was booed after the fight, though he handled it with his characteristic composure and stressed that he welcomed a rematch.  ‘Shogun’ was clearly befuddled by the decision, but praised Machida and displayed a lot of class despite the turn of events.  The Savage Science scored it four rounds to one for ‘Shogun’ Rua for a 49-46 final score.

In the co-main event, heavyweight phenom Cain Velasquez looked impressive in stopping Ben Rothwell by second round TKO.  Rothwell was never able to get any striking distance, while Velasquez used his takedowns and ‘ground and pound’ to good effect.  Rothwell was lucky to survive the first round, but that only delayed the inevitable as the fight was stopped early in the second frame.

Earlier in the card, Gleison Tibeau took Josh Neer down repeatedly and almost at will en route to a lopsided unanimous decision victory (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).  Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson stopped Spencer Fisher by second round TKO.  In the opening match, Anthony Johnson brutalized Yoshiyuki Yoshida before ending the fight with a devastating knockout at just : 41 seconds of the first round.