Blood On The Mat 10.29.09: The Right Man Won

Posted by  on 10.29.2009

Not everyone believes that “Shogun” Rua should have won the decision at UFC 104. 411’s Adam Tool takes a second look at the fight and tells you why Machida deserved to win on the scorecards and keep his belt in this week’s Blood On The Mat!

Hello and welcome back to Blood On The Mat. My name is Adam Tool and I might as well get this out of the way up front. If you come back to this space in seven days you will see the next edition of this column. It will also be the last edition, as I'm going to be leaving 411mania at the end of next week. More on that in next week's column, now is there anything to talk about this week?


When the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the fifth round, I really had no idea who had won the main event of UFC 104. I was rooting for Lyoto Machida, but "Shogun" Rua had managed to inflict a good deal of damage on the champion. According to the commentary team the decision was essentially a foregone conclusion, but I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the result to be read.

When Machida was announced as the winner, I was mildly surprised. After that I was happy, but just for a brief moment. Any joy I might've felt was quickly replaced by an overwhelming sense of dread, as I knew this would be another razor-thin decision that would be hotly contested in the days and weeks to come.



What I couldn't have imagined at the time though was how one-sided the debate would be. Hardly anyone seemed to be agreeing with the decision, from the commentary team, to the fans in attendance, to the many fighters responding on Twitter, to the various members of the message/comment boards around the internet, all seemed to be crying out that the wrong man had won.

Here I am now at my weekly column. Could I possibly bypass this subject and talk about something else? For example, what the hell is the deal with Steve Mazzagatti?



No, the shitstorm was too strong. I had to talk about it. But then I asked myself this: could I really make a case for Machida getting the win? Well, you've already read this column's title so I guess you know the answer to that.

Here's the thing though, the title and these introductory paragraphs were actually the last things to be written for this article. I didn't know what direction my column would take until I watched the fight again. I needed to be sure that I was going to have a leg to stand on, especially since I'm going against a very vocal majority of fans.



Now, it's impossible to watch this fight a second time without any pre-conceived notions. I had seen it once, and of course I already knew how it would end. I've read countless articles and had numerous discussions about this very fight, so needless to say there was already plenty to think about before I sat down to watch it again.

I therefore set out to make myself as clean a slate as possible. I wanted to view each round objectively and see if I truly could make a case for the decision that was rendered. If not, then I guess I would have to add my voice to the rather deafening chorus that is screaming "robbery" to anyone that will hear them.

DISCLAIMER: I am not, nor have I ever professed to be, a competent judge of MMA. I've read up on the criteria used to judge North American mixed-martial arts, but that's about it. I am a fan that is fortunate enough to have a soundboard to share my opinions, and those opinions should be treated as such.

First thing I did to watch the fight again was to hit the mute button. Joe Rogan's commentary has been one of many focal points during the ongoing debates, and for good reason. With the amount of extreme nut-hugging throughout the fight, I think it's fair to say that if "Shogun" had been a bit uglier I would've sworn that Karo Parisyan was fighting.



Watching the first round, I don't see how you could possibly score it for "Shogun." Machida countered all of Rua's significant strikes, including the body kick he delivered when "Shogun" landed one of his first leg kicks. Machida stuffed the takedown attempts (Rua did drag him down for a split-second but Machida landed in the sitting position and got right back up) and landed more often.

I also believe Machida took round two. "Shogun" landed several kicks to the leg and body, but all of these kicks were either countered (usually with punches) by Machida, or they didn't land clean because Machida was moving away. Lyoto also threw several unanswered leg kicks and he connected with one of the biggest strikes of the round, delivering a knee to the midsection when Rua shot in.



Round three was the closest so far, but I believe Machida stole it at the end with his big flurry against the cage. Rua was able to keep covered up and block a majority of the strikes, but it was Machida showing the aggression and looking for the finish. I've also seen plenty of criticism that states Rua was the only one pressing forward and controlling the cage, but at least half the round was spent with Machida in the center stalking "Shogun."

The fourth round was close, as neither man landed any real significant shots. I would give it to "Shogun," simply on the basis that he was pushing the action. He also did a better job of blocking Machida's counter-punches and scored with several unanswered leg kicks. Heading into the final frame, Rua appears to be the fresher fighter.



It would be hard for anyone not to give the fifth round to "Shogun." Machida's total offense consisted of a few knees inside, but Rua was able to avoid just about anything else Lyoto could offer up. Rua had a couple of nice flurries, but nothing that looked like it was going to end the fight.

Once again, I'll state that my scoring is highly unofficial but in the end I agree with the decision that was rendered. Feel free to skip the rest of the article if you need to, because if you have a truly awesome flame to throw my way I wouldn't want you to forget it before you get to the comment box.

For those of you still with me, maybe we can try to figure out why this decision has caused so much controversy in the days that followed.



Some fans, not all of course, but some may have been just a bit swayed by the commentary team. For whatever reason, Joe chose not to talk as much about the things Machida was doing right. He's already said on his Twitter page that he's a fan of Machida but he thinks "Shogun" won. Naturally, Goldberg followed his lead and we got 25 minutes of convincing that Rua would be the next light heavyweight champion. After listening to them go on and on about "Shogun" for the whole fight, is there any reason why we, the viewers, shouldn't go along with them?

Let's go back to the fight itself. I was a fan of Machida before he went on a KO spree earlier this year, but I was glad to see him finishing fights and trying to shed his "boring" image. However with "Shogun" spending the whole fight working to counter a counter-striker, the end result is that Machida reverts back to that style of fighting. Had he been more aggressive at times it's fair to say that he would have more supporters getting behind the decision, but that's just speculation.



Here's a little more speculation. If "Shogun" had somehow known he was behind on all three cards before the fifth round, would he have abandoned his patient gameplan and gone back to being the aggressive fighter he's usually been? Does his corner deserve some of the blame for his loss, simply by virtue of telling him that he was ahead in the fight?

The first question is purely hypothetical, but as for the second I'm not so sure. The cornerman should be there to help the fighter in any way possible, and if they think their fighter is behind on the scorecards then they need to let him know. I prefer to think that Rua's corner was simply seeing the fight the way a lot of people saw it: with "Shogun" winning.

Is there a chance that some of us put too much into Rua's performance? What I mean by that is this: thus far in his UFC career Machida has been untouchable. He was never close to losing a fight, never close to losing a round, and he hardly ever got hit. "Shogun" showed the first chinks in Machida's armor, so are the strikes he landed worth more because they were against Machida? Not in any official sense, of course, but in terms of fan perceptions I think a few people may have added some bonus points to Rua's performance in this case. I could be wrong on that one though.



It comes down to this. This was a close fight. Even the most ardent "Shogun" supporters would have trouble scoring the fight 50-45 in his favor, so clearly this was not the kind of dominant performance some seem to believe it was. It was a razor-thin decision that happened to go the way of Machida. It wasn't a "robbery" by any means, but if you still can't accept the decision then I guess you'll just have to wait patiently for the rematch.

I for one am happy that Rua was able to put on the performance that he did. He proved that the current champion is not entirely unbeatable, and as a result he adds some much needed depth to the recently-depleted light heavyweight division. For now, I'll be content to cross my fingers and hope that the second meeting between these two ends in a more convincing fashion.

All photos courtesy of UFC.com

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