The Rear Naked Column 10.28.09: UFC 104 Review

Posted by Samer Kadi on 10.28.2009

In a night marred by controversy, Lyoto Machida retained his light heavyweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Elsewhere, Cain Velasquez’ dominating performance was somewhat tainted by a bad stoppage, and Anthony Johnson’s victory meant very little due to his weight issues. All this and more in this week’s edition of “The Rear Naked Column”, as 411’s Samer Kadi looks back at UFC 104.

Who could have anticipated all the controversy produced by UFC 104? The backlash has been rather overwhelming, with fans, judges, fighters, commentators and even the UFC president himself throwing out their two cents and their scoring of the show's main event, which pitted light heavyweight champion Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida defending his title against challenger Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

We're three days removed from the show and already people are sick of discussing it. Unfortunately, if you happen to be one of those people then you've come to the wrong place, as today "The Rear Naked Column" reviews UFC 104 where believe it or not, Machida Vs Shogun was not the only fight to take place.

Seeing as I missed the live prelims due to some stupid cable problems, we'll move directly to the PPV:

Anthony Johnson Vs Yushiyuki Yoshida

In a fight that should have never happened in my opinion, Anthony Johnson destroyed Japanese Judo expert Yushiyuki Yoshida in just over a minute, and no one outside of Johnson's surrounding cared. Now for starters, I know there was no realistic way for Yoshida not to pursue with the fight, as he has a family to feed. And let's face it, he's fighting on the main cards of a UFC PPV, there's too much at stake to drop out. But this further highlights Johnson's lack of professionalism.

Under normal circumstances, Johnson is already a terrible match up for Yoshida. "Rumble" is a naturally strong, explosive athlete with a wrestling background, who happens to be one of the biggest fighters in the division, not to mention a very good striker.

Yoshida is undersized for the division, and his only chance of winning the fight would have been to get on the inside and take Johnson down from the clinch. Getting passed Johnson's big reach, withstanding his power, and taking him down is already hard as it is, add to that Rumble's extra pounds, and Yoshida was always fighting a losing battle. Ultimately, I think Johnson would have won the fight anyway, but that doesn't make the situation any better. He weighed in at 220 pounds when he started camp, which is totally unacceptable.

I'm a big fan of Johnson. He seems like a talented fighter with a lot of upside. He's always humble and respectful and has the potential to become a major player in the division. But his days seem numbered at welterweight as I just don't see how he could make 170 with his body growing like that. Which is a shame as from a match up perspective, he might have what it takes to maybe, just maybe, challenge Georges St. Pierre down the line. With that said, Rumble still has to face a top contender at welterweight. Given that he's planning on staying in the division for the time being, and assuming he can make weight, fights with the likes of Paul Daley, Carlos Condit or even Josh Koscheck would be welcomed in the future.

His chances would lessen considerably at middleweight, as he would no longer enjoy a size advantage over his opponents.

For Yoshida, it's time to move to the lightweight division where fighters hit less hard and he could utilize his top notch grappling skills to win fights. Japanese fighters need to start mastering the art of cutting weight. The likes of Yoshida and Akiyama – who will suffer the same fate against the Axe Murderer – are simply too small for their respective divisions. One of the main reasons why Yushin Okami has enjoyed moderate success is due to the fact that he can cut weight and enjoy the extra pounds over his opponents.

Spencer Fisher Vs Joe Stevenson

Joe Stevenson looked rather impressive in his fight against Nate Diaz and he attributed his improvement to the move he made to Greg Jackson's camp in New Mexico. Last Saturday, he was in splendid form against the always game Spencer Fisher.

In his fights with BJ Penn, Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez, Stevenson abandoned his roots. The Sanchez fight in particular was frustrating to watch. While he's not an imposing wrestler, Stevenson's main strength lies in his ground game and submissions. His stand up is average at best and very one dimensional, and his very short reach makes it incredibly tough for him to strike (read: box) with the best strikers in the division.
Since moving to Jackson's camp, it looks like Stevenson is back playing to his strengths. The fight went according to plan for Stevenson, as he held his own in the stand up before shooting for the single. The same scenario would pan out in the second round only this time, Stevenson was able to pass the guard, hold Fisher in a crucifix and finish the fight with devastating elbows. It was exactly the kind of performance Stevenson needed.

He's still in an awkward spot in the division as he lost to the top three guys, but he's good enough to hang – if not beat – everyone else. To be honest, while BJ Penn is on another level, the rest of the lightweight division is marred with super talented fighters who could all beat each other on any given day. You could throw Stevenson next with Edgar, Sherk, Huerta, or pretty much any B+ (or A-) fighter in the division and be guaranteed a good fight.

For Fisher, perhaps he's better off fighting the likes of Josh Neer or Melvin Guillard.

Chael Sonnen Vs Yushin Okami

There's not much to say about this fight except I was plesantly surprised with Sonnen. I expected Okami to dominate him. Instead, Sonnen came out with a great gameplan. He looked to send a message to Okami early by overpowering him and outwrestling him which completely took away his confidence, and then dominated the stand up exchanges.

For the second fight in a row, Sonnen has shown some remarkable improvements. He showed decent submission defense as he survived an onslaught in his fight with Jim Miller at UFC 98 (and there's no shame in being submitted by Demian Maia), then he showed some improved striking skills in his latest fight. Granted he used the same combination pattern over and over but it was enough and it did the job, which is not bad especially for someone who's long been considered a one dimensional wrestler.

I don't believe he can compete with the likes of Nate Marquardt or Vitor Belfort but he does belong in the upper echelon of fighters in the division.

Gleison Tibau Vs Josh Neer

While the fight was not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, it was largely uneventful. The story of the fight was Tibau overpowering Neer for the takedown but finding himself unable to do anything significant, in large part due to Neer's fantastic defensive guard. Neer completely neutralized Tibau's offense with the butterfly guard and rendered him unable to pass, work some ground and pound or attempt submissions. The problem is, Neer couldn't conjure up anything offensively. He did a great job at regaining his feet but never had Tibau in trouble when they exchanged, despite the Brazilian gassing noticeably in the third round.

I don't see either guy going anywhere in the division as they're pretty much stuck at gatekeeper level.

Ben Rothwell Vs Cain Velasquez

Cain Velasquez can't catch a break. No, not because he's not doing well in his career, as a matter of fact, he's doing really well. But his past three fights have all ended in anti-climatic fashion. His fight against Evan Stoijnic was awkwardly stopped. He landed a gazillion clean shots on Cheick Kongo but was never able to put him away, and Steve Mazagatti was the subject of yet another refereeing blunder as he curiously stepped in as Rothwell was regaining his feet. Don't get me wrong, I think Cain was going to finish Rothwell off at some point anyway, but there was no reason to stop the fight when Mazagatti did.

With that said, Cain Velasquez is a beast. He's one of the finest wrestlers in the division, and that's saying a lot, and he's arguably the most well conditioned fighter as well, which I feel is his biggest weapon. The pace he sets is unrivaled by anyone at heavyweight and I don't think there's a fighter who could keep up. He's showing great top control but his ground and pound seems to lack power. Still, Cain has so far proven to be worthy of the hype surrounding him.

However, I really don't think he should be fighting for the title quite yet. Despite his camp asking for a title shot, I think Cain needs every bit of in cage experience he could possibly get. And despite beating some very credible names in Kongo and Rothwell, Cain has yet to face someone who can stylistically trouble him. The four fighters who spring to mind are Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Minotauro Nogueira and Frank Mir. Ironically, they happen to be the top four fighters in the division. Lesnar and Carwin are fighting for the title early next year, and I think Minotauro should take on the winner of that fight, which leaves Cain with either the loser of Brock-Carwin, or Frank Mir (if he beats Kongo). In my opinion, the latter is the best fight for him at the moment.

With Mir, Cain will really be put to the test. Mir has shown some really improved striking recently and is a very dangerous fighter off his back. Cain would have to rely on his cardio to outwork Mir and look to finish him late in the fight.

Having said that, I don't like his chances against Brock Lesnar or Shane Carwin. Both fighters have the size and wrestling to deal with Cain, and his only chance would be to drag the fight into the championship rounds. He will have to improve his stand up dramatically in order to do that, as he needs keep moving, use his footwork and stay on the outside. Most importantly, he can't afford to get tagged with a big right hand by either fighter.

Lyoto Machida Vs Mauricio "Shogun" Rua

The controversy created by the decision overshadowed what I thought was a very solid fight and a great performance by Mauricio Rua. Granted the fight might not have been an action packed slugfest many would have hoped for, but it was a splendid technical, tactical battle.



Shogun's strategy was spot on. I honestly never imagined he would have been as effective as he was during the fight. The key thing in the fight for Shogun was taking away Machida's footwork. He didn't allow Machida to slip in and out like he loves to. He cut him off with a well placed leg kick or body shot. When Machida decided to engage, Shogun stuck his ground, threw a body kick, and as Machida backpedaled, he chased him momentarily and finished with a leg kick. I thought that was an extremely smart approach by Shogun.
He kept his distance when he needed to, and repeatedly landed vicious leg and body kicks. He also had moderate success in the clinch whenever he decided to close the distance.



Machida for his part also did well in the clinch, and reacted very well to Shogun's takedown attempts as he met him with a well timed knee and managed to stay vertical. He couldn't counter as well as he would have liked to in my opinion, but was still able to land some straight lefts as Shogun threw some body kicks. The biggest problem for the champion was that he was never able to get a hold of Rua's timing. You could hear his corner after the fourth round telling him "you're not timing his strikes" or something like that. Which is a huge testament to Shogun's gameplan as Lyoto is one of the best fighters to figure out his opponent's timing and counter. It is really telling that not one time Machida was able to catch a kick, and considering the fact that Shogun threw about sixty of them, that's saying a lot.



The most surprising aspect of Shogun's strategy was that he rarely aimed for Machida's head, which I think took "The Dragon" by surprise and really made life difficult for him as he had a hard time countering. Also, by taking away Machida's legs, Lyoto got noticeably slower, less explosive and didn't have as much pop in his hands as he would have liked to. Machida only went after him once in the entire fight, a flurry late in the third round, which is another testament to Shogun's success in limiting his movement.



And that brings me to the decision. To keep it short, I thought Shogun won. I'll be honest, it was closer on second viewing, but I still have no doubt about it, Shogun won that fight.

I've had a discussion with a fellow 411 writer whom I deeply respect and always enjoy his work. He told me - quite rightly - that at the end of the day, three professional judges were scoring the bout and they all saw it for Machida, and they certainly know how to score an MMA contest more than your average fan. It makes sense, and it's a very reasonable way to look at it. But then I stumbled upon comments made by judge Cecil Peoples. Here are some of the most noteworthy quotes:

"Although Rua threw a lot of low kicks they were not as damaging as Lyoto's diverse attack in the earlier rounds which is why I scored the first three rounds for Machida. You have to keep in mind we always the favour the fighter who is trying to finish the fight, and leg kicks certainly don't do that"

With all due respect to Mr. Peoples, this is just absurd. Now according to Fightmetric, Shogun Rua landed 48 power leg kicks. Are we supposed to ignore them just because "they don't finish fights"? Which by the way is another ridiculous statements as accumulated leg kicks can most certainly finish fights, or at the very least wear your opponent out completely. Ironically, those were the same leg kicks that earned Forrest Griffin the light heavyweight title a little over a year ago. Those leg kicks slowed Machida down considerably, so they had to count for something. Moreover, does Machida landing straight lefts (8 according to fightmetric) weigh more just because those punches were aimed to the head? Just because a punch is landed to the head doesn't mean it's more damaging than leg kick. Power, snap and damage has to be taken into consideration, and I don't remember Shogun being particularly hurt with any of Machida's punches, so were these punches close to finish the fight? I don't think so. Disregarding leg kicks (one of the most effective weapons in MMA) is totally unacceptable.

"Lyoto made Shogun come after him, he determined where the fight took place which in my opinion constitutes as effective Octagon control."

This comment really puzzled me. Well for starters I don't think Shogun stalked Lyoto that much, but I digress. But even if that was true, that would mean Peoples is rewarding the defensive fighter, rather than the fighter who pressed the action, which should count for aggression (another judging criteria). Plus at what point do you determine if a fighter is "making" the other fighter come after him? What if Shogun decided to go after Machida? He's pressing the action, he wants to be the aggressor, shouldn't that count as Octagon control?
Again, I don't think any of that happened as I didn't think Shogun went after Machida that much anyway, but I'm just trying to make sense of Peoples' logic.

"Rua did have a few takedown attempts during the course of the fight however Lyoto defended them all successfully which counts as effective grappling in his favour, where as unsuccessful takedown attempts are not scored at all. "

Stuffing takedowns scores you points now? The only reason fighter A stuffs a takedown is because fighter B attempted it in the first place. Granted, failed takedowns should certainly not be scored. Now if a fighter spent an entire round shooting for takedowns and the other one stuffed them, then I would understand Cecil's logic. But Shogun literally attempted about three takedowns in the entire fight, and none of them occurred in the same round, was that really that significant? If anything, again, he's pressing the action. I would have preferred if Peoples focused on the knees Machida landed when Rua went for those takedowns, or the following knees to the thighs landed by Shogun as he had Machida pressed up against the fence while working for that takedown.

To rap this up, I'm not trying to blame Shogun's loss on one judge's incompetence. Two other judges scored the bout for Machida as well and they may not share Cecil Peoples' logic. And to be honest, I found Nelson Hamilton scoring the fourth round for Machida much more mind boggling than anything Peoples mentioned. This however, should serve as a wake up call. We need a much clearer judging system in MMA. If every judge interprets the action anyway he likes, then we have a real problem on our hands.

That's it for this week, if you agree, disagree, or whatever with anything I had to say, please let me know in the comments section below.