Shogun Rua vs. Lyoto Machida UFC 104 Recap

With Fight of the Night a foregone conclusion, all of the talk about the Lyoto Machida-Shogun Rua title fight at UFC 104 should be focused on whether or not it should walk away with Fight of the Year honors for 2009.

But the unfortunate part now is that virtually all of the talk will be about whether or not Machida’s unanimous decision win (48-47 on all three scorecards) was deserved.
Most fans and even the main analysts including commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg seemed convinced that Shogun won the fight after he landed flurry after flurry of devastating leg kicks on Machida along with some solid shots to his ribs.
By the end of the fight Machida wasn’t anywhere near his usual elusive self and continued to try his best to avoid Shogun.

Machida, the huge betting favorite (-450) at BetUS got in some shots of his own, including some heavy knees to the body, but Shogun definitely landed more significant strikes and seemed to take control in the later rounds.

Now, the talk is that the two should have an immediate rematch, and both seemed to agree to it in the Octagon. We can only hope that both fighters heal up fast enough to have it by UFC 108 at the latest.

In other UFC 104 main card results, Cain Velasquez took out Ben Rothwell via TKO in the second round. Some might argue that the stoppage was premature but Rothwell wasn’t able to defend himself pinned against the cage and was eating some serious shots to the face. Velasquez dominated the fight the whole was and was just a better athlete in the cage as he appeared to be just quicker and stronger.

Gleison Tibau also won a unanimous decision over Josh Neer by scoring repeated takedowns earlier in the night.

The Spencer Fisher-Joe Stevenson fight was very similar to the Rothwell/Velasquez as Fisher was outclassed all fight. Stevenson was able to get Fisher pinned in a crucifix type position and rained down elbows until the ref was forced to stop it.

The first fight of UFC 104 main card was another knockout loss for Yoshiyuki Yoshida as Anthony Johnson put him to sleep just 41 seconds into round one. Johnson came in six pounds overweight for the fight, however, drawing the ire of some fans.

While the undercard action and the final result of the Shogun-Machida fight left many fans feeling cheated in some way, watching the muay thai master in Shogun go up against the karate expert Machida for five rounds was well worth the price of admission for UFC 104 on pay-per-view.

The only people who didn’t enjoy the fight were Shogun’s fans and perhaps the people who bet on the underdog to win. They have every right to feel cheated out of a big win by what could go down as one of the worst decisions in the history of the UFC.

But to Machida’s credit, he was humble in victory and said he didn’t mind setting up a rematch.