UFC 104: The Dragon’s Soft Underbelly

Machida retains light-heavyweight title in controversial decision over Rua

Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida keeps his light-heavyweight belt against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua but barely. In five rounds that can either be seen as too close to call so the decision goes to the defending champion, or Dana White has set his mind to make Machida the next rock star of the UFC after Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, so unless Rua knocks Machida out – let the slick Japanese-Brazilian keep his belt.

Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida according to hype (parts of which are true) is “very elusive” and virtually “invincible” that for many MMA observers, it has to take a heavyweight like Brock Lesnar or an RPG to beat him.

As it turned out, all it took was Shogun. And even that was not enough.

“Everybody was expecting him to destroy Shogun like he destroyed Rashad Evans, and he didn’t destroy him,” said Cecil Peoples, one of the three who judged the Machida-Rua fight last Sunday. “It was a close fight. So people think: (Rua) did good. If he did that good, he must have won the fight.”

Machida retained his title with a highly-controversial unanimous decision win over Rua. MMA writers and the Internet fan sites are still smoking over arguments as to whether Rua should have been declared the winner. Those who think so are armed with a plethora of arguments and a colored photo of Machida with split upper lip, cuts on the bridge of his nose, blood sprinkled on his mouth and cheeks, and redness on his left torso.

MMA forensic experts are eager to show video and photographic evidence of Machida’s supposed defeat. There’s only one problem: the cageside judges don’t agree. It’s their opinion that really matters. Fans can howl until Christmas that Rua got robbed and may even drop their contributions in the kitty to help keep Rua solvent until he gets a rematch. The rematch is justified. It was a close match, there were no knockdowns (a knockout of either fighter would have saved us of all this strife) and UFC president Dana White is of the opinion that Rua rightfully should have been declared the winner and more importantly he announced an immediate rematch.

Rua’s loss is not a complete waste. He has made a minor note in MMA history. He is the first losing fighter to move up in the rankings of a pound-for-pound-best list, tying for No.7 in Yahoo! Sports with Miguel Angel Torres, the former WEC Bantamweight champion, himself the loser in his last fight – and he got coldcocked by Brian Bowles, a notch higher above him in the same rankings.

Machida-Rua II should be a doozy. Rua has already found the antidote to the poison of Machida’s MMA-flavored karate. Likewise, Machida has realized that he is not untouchable in the cage. Rua could stick to his fruitful if unsuccessful formula, and Machida will surely tweak his strategy.

Rua did very well attacking Machida’s legs and staying away from Machida’s vaunted left straight punch and Thai-plum-knee combo. Rua was less successful in defending against Machida’s high kicks and multiple punches to the head, but Shogun more than made up for it with his aggression throughout the fight and accurate striking.

It is said that to judge a fight fairly on TV, one must turn off the audio to avoid being prejudiced by the commentators’ commentary. Joe Rogan’s shouts of “oh!” every time Shogun landed a blow on Machida, albeit not that damaging, helped sway TV viewers that Rua was really doing well. Even Mike Goldberg’s “You can just see Shogun looks in better condition, Joe,” helped make the case that Rua performed better than he really did.

Judges Peoples and Marcos Rosales gave rounds one, two and three to Machida, while Nelson “Doc” Hamilton had given rounds two, three and four to Machida. The disparity makes naysayers insist that the judges got it wrong for being unable to agree. Albeit they all gave the fight to Machida on similar scores of 48-47.

Those who disagree with the UFC 104 judges’ decision are not judges themselves. The judges were specifically chosen for their expertise, for their thorough knowledge of the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC is big and rich enough to afford professional judges to go along with professional fighters. They all do this for a living. The fighters hurt each other, while the judges see who gets the edge hurt-wise in the exchanges. The judges don’t get hurt that much unless most everybody disagree with them and accuse them of being in the hip pocket of UFC demi-god Dana White. This is not the first time that UFC judges or judges from other organizations have been accused of being manipulated by executives in rigging matches. As long as there will be fights like Machida-Rua I, the voices will not be stilled. Even then, there is no guarantee that a rematch will settle this issue once and for all, even if a knockout will show who the best light-heavyweight MMA fighter in the world is.