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• UFC 104: So Lyoto is human, cut the man some slack.

  October 27, 2009 1 Comment

  When I saw that they were starting to raise Machida's hand and I heard Bruce Buffer saying "L-e-e-y-o-t-o-o..." I was extremely shocked, to say the least. I was distraught, I was surprised that Machida won but in my heart of hearts, I told myself: this is not a great way to win nor was it fair to let him keep the belt. At first, conspiracies ran through my head: political involvement, bribery, what have you. I mean, nearing the end of the fight, the defending champion was being battered by Rua from all sides. How could he have possibly won? How could Rua not get the belt? Please, trust me when I say I felt everyone and I definitely felt for Rua and Machida. I felt like Rua deserved the belt and now Machida's name will be laughed upon. But why would we resort to such things? Why would we lose respect for a fighter because of what the judges decided to do?

  It's quite interesting to see how many people have laid in wait for Machida to have a terrible performance. As soon as it happened people pounced on him like a lion on a zebra. Self alleged Machida fans abandon the Dragon's side and join the ranks of the Shogun. The hard core muaythai practitioners went back to being ignorant and started insulting Karate again in an attempt to launch it to the back seats of the bus once more, so to speak. What is all this? I'd like to think that most of us hardcore MMA fans would be more rational and understanding in controversial situations like this but I was totally proven wrong. It is quite obvious that we're not. Are we just gonna throw out all of Machida's past outstanding accomplishments on this one abysmal performance? It's sad to see many stopped calling Machida their hero and all of a sudden calling him a fraud. So Machida is a fraud for winning a decision he didn't judge? Give him a break, he did his job and so did Shogun.

  This was first of all, a very hard fought battle. Both fighters did not want to back down but at the same time did not want to throw out too many risks, just because both fighters knew what the other was capable of. I was very impressed with Shogun. He played it nice and slow and at times he fought like Machida, albeit using Muay Thai. He threw faints and he threw eluding strikes which led to his successful destruction of Machidas mobility. Machida played it like a Karate point tournament and Shogun played it cool with his brilliant strategy of taking out Machida’s secret weapons: his legs. Take the legs away, the elusiveness is mostly vanquished.

  This is one of those fights that you must look at with a very sharp eye. Judges are chosen for that reason. I refuse to believe that the judges or anyone in the organization of the UFC were “swayed” to look towards Machida. The UFC and MMA as a whole are looking for credibility within the sports world and to attempt to pull off a stunt like that is much too risky and will not only affect the UFC, but all other MMA organizations out there. It was honestly a very difficult fight to call, but in the end the judges made a just decision that should not be protested so much, at least not as much as it is being protested right now. It is also not the judges fault for having based their decisions on a criteria that they do not come up with.

  The first three rounds were unspectacular while the last two rounds were undisputedly Shogun’s and that dominant performance is what led most to say that Shogun definitely deserves the win. We forget sometimes who Shogun is and some of us don’t even know what he’s accomplished. Did we think that he would simply be knocked out by Machida just because he knocked out Evans and Silva consecutively? Simply put, we expected too much of Lyoto Machida. His previous performances garnered him two impressive knockouts and that’s exactly what everybody was looking for. We got lost in that vision of the knock out that we forgot that Lyoto is a human and humans make mistakes. We completely overlooked what he accomplished in the early rounds of the bout. Instead of thinking “Gosh, what happened to Lyoto’s abilities?” we should have been thinking “Wow, Shogun is very well prepared to counter Machida’s elusive fighting style!”

  We can of course try to defend either of the fighters. “Oh no, no, Lyoto wasn’t at a 100%. He was too distracted by his new found fame; he didn’t do enough training etc.” or “C’mon man! Shogun was robbed of the title and you know it!”, although, these types of responses will only bring negativity towards both fighters. Look at it positively. With a razor thin margin of victory, Lyoto secures his first title defense. He should not take this win for granted and train much more and learn from his mistakes as his next fight could very well be a rematch with Rua. Rua on the other hand should try to go in and finish it somehow because he has already implemented his strategy on Machida effectively.

  So in the end, I once again will reiterate that it was a tough call for the judges, based on the criteria they follow. Neither of the fighters looked overly spectacular and the win that Machida gained, was for lack of a better word, ugly. Shogun clearly inflicted the more effective shots, evidenced by the nasty visible injuries Machida went home with. But apparently, that is not in the judge's criteria. Wishing for a Japanese system of scoring MMA fights to score the Machida-Rua fight will remain what it is, a wish. Do not wail on the judges, do not wail on Dana White, don't wail on anyone. In fact, if you wanna wail on someone, it would be both fighters. Machida nor Rua did not go in for finishing blows. Neither fighter deserves insults or pity thoughts, both of them performed their best and it was their decision to leave it for the judges to decide their fate in the octagon. No one else.

  Although I know this won’t stop the war of words between MMA fans alike, I hope it helps people rationalize people's opinions over the night of UFC 104. And for you irrational Machida fans/haters and Rua fans/haters, just look forward to the rematch. Then who ever wins, wins. I can guarantee that they won't pull of a decision like this again. As for the winner, we know Rua is fully capable and Machida needs to rework a lot of things.

  I know I can't wait.

  Also on my MMA BLOG: http://ulti-mma.blogspot.com/

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