The art of MMA judging is subjective. We all know that. But just how subjective is it? During tonight’s UFC 104 Light Heavyweight Championship fight, challenger Mauricio “Shogun” Rua thoroughly dominated champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida. Despite his dominance, all three judges scored the fight 48-47 in favor of Machida. I guess MMA judging is more subjective than we thought.
I think just about everyone with a pair of eyes and any MMA knowledge had Shogun winning four of five rounds hands down. I agree that you have to beat the champion to become the champion, but Shogun obviously accomplished that feat. Machida legs and ribs were beaten to a pulp so bad that by round five he just seemed content to cross his fingers and hope for a bailout form the judges. Luckily, the Dragon got his wish.
This fight was such an obvious win for Shogun that announcers Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg were already pumping up Machida’s best buddy Anderson Silva exacting revenge on Shogun in an upcoming superfight. It was like Rocky IV all over again, and Shogun was definitely Ivan Drago. Machida was Apollo Creed, and his title reign was dead — or at least should have been.
This fight was such an obvious win for Shogun that ESPN had a headline published for a Shogun win before the official announcement was even made. Here’s the screenshot (click for full-sized image).
Meanwhile, I’m not a professional lip reader, but it looks like UFC head honcho Dana White says “you won that fight” to Shogun after the announcement. Check it out and judge for yourselves.
It’s also very clear how the fans felt about the decision, as a chorus of boos erupted after Machida was announced the victor. There has to be a rematch here. This has gotta be one of the biggest highway-robbery decisions the sport has ever seen. Lyoto Machida is a great fighter, but tonight he got his first real test and was outclassed throughout the battle by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. You got screwed, Mauricio — and not by your wife.
I respect Machida, but even he knows he DIDN’T WIN THAT FIGHT. SHOGUN WAS ROBBED!
Seriously, there are no words for this!
Machida suffers his first loss and becomes a false champion all in one night.
This has me sick to my stomach, pore Shogun got screwed beyond belief.
Im so glad i recorded the fight, this is UFC history folks, never has there been such an outcry over a horrible decision, and their has been some INSANE calls in the UFC
judging in mma is bullshit.
im brazilian and i see this fight in hd, thanks brazilian combate tv.
dana white you need to do something or ufc going to down..
and fuck only 5 rounds… dana white ufc in this kind of fight needs 12 rounds and fuck all judging..
I’m still trying to figure out how every judge gave Machida 3 rounds in the fight… only think I can think of is that they figured 2 were close enough for a draw and gave it to the champ because of it. Either way, Shogun won that fight.
Whats really upsetting is this happended to Shogun, a fighter of his calibur was screwed. I thought Lyoto would run through him and shogun would surely lose, but Shogun proved me dead wrong. The whole 5th round I was just thinking in my head, “this is the machida era” and he loses his 1st title defense after all the “hype.” I mean the whole 5th round Machida wasnt even using his Karate stance, he was standing with his legs straight. well i guess it proves the hype of Lyoto being “unbeatable” is real, EVEN WHEN YOU DO BEAT HIM. Gotta feel for Shogun in this one.
i cant belive machida won. BS
J-Rod, you are an MMA noob. That is why you thought Machida would just run through Shogun. UFC noobs don’t give Shogun enough respect. Shogun was the most dominant LHW before his loss to Forrest and rise of Machida.
If you watch Liddell fight and compare that with Shogun’s Forrest fight, you should see the difference in Shogun. If you can’t, then you are a noob.
My predictions were Lyoto via decision. I thought Lyoto had 60% chance of beating Rua. The UFC noobs thought 6 to 1. <–LOL!
My UFC noob friends all thought 6 to 1. "oh Machida is gonna kill him. Machida can even beat Fedor. Machida will beat Shogun in round 1." I was like..um…Shogun is no joke…this fight will go to decision.
Well you just have everything figured, out don’t you Nostradamus? Hey tell you what maybe you should write a book, something along the lines of “MMA: it’s Inner Workings and Me”.. just remember i gave you the idea, so I think that would be enough to warrant a cut in the sales.. you know after it storms the New York Times Top 10 Bestsellers list. your an idiot, nice pick seeing as how your pick was still Machida too.. not to mention how many MMA fighters, commentators and most of the professional picks were for Machida.. guess they are all just MMA Noobs too? man you got everything figured out, if the book deal doesnt work out maybe you can fight crime.. you know with words because violence is bad.
i was for machida all the way, but i have to agree with shogun’s comments. my friends didn’t want to watch the ppv because they underestimated shogun rua. i knew this fight will be a shock. but for shogun to be robbed, that wasn’t the shock i was expecting. man as much as lyoto is one of my top favorites, that match was bullshit results honestly. but you know what, what can lyoto do right? let’s hope he gives shogun a rematch soon. if mauricio ’shogun’ rua can’t have the title around his waist, he definitely deserves to be the first one to get a rematch for it.
I agree 5 rounds isn’t enough especially on a title fight…. And when Shogun got robbed and they asked about a rematch it shoulda been said how does right now sound, not anytime or whatever. Shogun could have gone another 5 rounds the way he was lookin and Machida would’ve been pounded into minced meat, if his ribs took too much more he wouldn’t have been able to stand, let alone fight. Anyhow yeah, I think it’s agreed by everyone but the idiot judges that this decision was boo honkey. And you could see in Machida’s eyes he KNEW he shouldn’t be able to keep that belt. As for Shogun, one hell of a fighter, one hell of a humble man, if it were me in that predicament I would have flipped out and kicked every judge strait in their testicles and called Machida a total B**** for taking the belt when he knew he lost. Yeah… Anyhow just had to rant on this because I didn’t have enough time to curse the screen last night.