| 25 October 2009
Considering this post is a recap of Lyoto Machida-Shogun Rua's UFC 104 tilt, if you haven't seen it yet here is a link to the fight. Go and watch it and I'll wait here to discuss it with you. But you better come back, or I swear I will track you down and bring you back.
You back yet? Good - let's continue.
The expression is said so often that it has almost become a cliche - "don't leave the fight in the judge's hands". Well, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua was taught that lesson firsthand last night at the Staples Center in L.A. as he lost a controversial decision to defending (and undefeated) light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. To most onlookers (including Shogun's corner and the always informative Fightmetric) Rua had won the fight. But the judges, whose opinion is the only one that counts, gave Machida an unanimous decision. When the decision was announced my stomach dropped - I was shocked and felt that Rua got jobbed. But, after thinking more about it and seeing other writers' views on it, I'm not quite so outraged. I still think Rua won the fight, but it was so close that I can understand why the judges went the way they did.
This repercussions of last night are many. First of all, it reminds me of how I hate how MMA is judged in the UFC. Judging fights by rounds and a 10-point must system just doesn't seem right to me. To make a comparison to basketball, judging a fight round-by-round would be similar to judging a NBA game quarter-by-quarter. Say Toronto outscores Miami by one point in each of the first three quarters of a game, but Dwyane Wade explodes in the last quarter and Miami outscores Toronto by four points. By NBA scoring the Heat would have squeaked out a one point win over Toronto. But if we were scoring this via MMA style, Toronto would have won an unanimous decision, three quarters to one. This scoring style allows fighters to steal rounds that they have no business winning by a late takedown or a flurry of action. Not that this would have necessarily changed the outcome from last night, but judging fights round-by-round rather than the fight as a whole just doesn't make sense.
But by far the most interesting aspect from last night is the humanization of Lyoto Machida. He is no longer the untouchable, unbeatable champion most everyone (including myself) had hailed him as. Shogun destroyed his midsection and legs with devastating leg kicks, a shocking turn of events considering Lyoto is so good at avoiding contact. And Shogun Rua circa Pride is most definitely back. Now the light heavyweight division no longer has a glass ceiling on it. And a Shogun-Dragon rematch is far more compelling and marketable than the first matchup was. But this time Shogun or Lyoto, finish the fight.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
