Lyoto Machida Soundly Defeats Shogun Rua

As it turns out, this “Shogun” guy is pretty good. He did what nobody else could – make Lyoto Machida look human. Despite losing the bout, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has gained more credibilty from this loss than from his last two wins. It just goes to show what kind of an aura Machida had in the UFC.

Now, Machida is the guy that got lucky. It's amazing how quickly things change in this company. After he won his last fight, he worked the crowd like Chuck Liddell in his prime. After UFC 104, people couldn't get off the Machida bandwagon fast enough. The man has ONE close fight in his MMA career and all of a sudden he sucks. One can only imagine how people will react when Machida actually loses.

Of course, most people think Machida didn't win this contest. Here's what really happened: Both men fought with a lot of discipline. With the exception of one flurry from Machida, neither fighter went for a knockout. Shogun had a lot of success with his kicks. It was a smart way to keep Machida on the defensive. Conversely, Machida used the same hit-and-run tactics he's become famous for.

Despite fighting intelligently, neither man heeded Dana's infamous words of wisdom - “Never put the fight in the hands of the judges”...Ever! If Shogun really wanted that belt, he would have picked 1 minute of the 25 he had to work with to really turn on the heat. Joe Rogan said Shogun was in “marathon runner” shape for this fight. If that's the case, Rua should have depleted his gas tank by the end of the fight. Maybe he wanted to save something for the after-party.

There's other things to consider too. For one thing, Joe was very biased towards Shogun. That made it hard for fans watching on PPV to remain objective about who was winning the fight. We also have a hard time of keeping track of every little punch thrown. Machida's punches weren't as thunderous as they could have been. Shogun's kicks made more noise, so they left a bigger impression in the minds of the fans.

As it turns out, all the belly-aching from Shogun followers is unwarranted. If Dana holds true to his word, he'll get an immediate rematch for the title. That's almost unheard of. Even Dana's buddy Rampage didn't get a rematch when he lost the belt to Forrest. I guess Dana doesn't want Shogun leaving to pursue an acting career.

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