MMA FOR FANS

Dana knows he’ll make millions on Silva and Machida. I’m starting to think this is the reason. Anyone else agree?

2006 World Tang Soo Do Championships. 1st place Creative Demonstration by the Korean Martial Arts Institute

Fedor Emelianenko (27-1) 6 by ko 14 by submission 7 by decision and 1 no contest vs Mauricio Shogun Rua (16-2) 13 by ko 1 by submission and 2 by decision who also says he wants to fight at heavyweight next year who do you think wins? I say emelianenko would make him submit i love both fighters as well….and do you agree pride fighers are better than ufc look at rampage,shogun,emelianenko they would own the ufc well rampage do now but just wait till shogun comes and just think if emelianenko came and destroyed the heavyweights…

the 3 guys that answers this question are idiots, why would Dana White want Rashad to fight Machida again???? I think Ramage has a good chance against Machida, and WOW!!! Forrest Griffin losed to the best p4p fighter in the world!!!!! hes still on the top of the chain in the LHW division.

Koscheck-Daley Official for ‘Machida vs. Shogun 2’
World-ranked welterweights will face off when Josh Koscheck meets Paul Daley in a featured matchup at UFC 113 “Machida vs. Shogun 2” on May 8 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Seven bouts have been greenlit for the UFC’s return north of the border.

Read more on Sherdog

My thoughts: 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. 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 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. Neither of the fighters looked overly spectacular and the win that Machida gained, was for lack of a better word, ugly. Although I know this won’t stop the war of words between MMA fans alike, I hope it helps people understand why the judges judged the way they did. 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.

Machida, Shogun rematch at UFC 113
It was so good, the UFC® decided to do it again.

Read more on Fightnews.com

Watch Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua as he prepares for his upcoming UFC 97 fight against Chuck Liddell in Montreal, Canada on April 18, 2009. Hear what his trainers Sergio Cunha, Lucas Franca, and Eric Haddad have to say about Shogun's training in Sao Paulo, Brazil. For higher quality versions of this video, go to www.badboymma.com

Hes going to kill Forrest… Shogun should fight Ortiz it would be a better fight

See what Machida 'The Dragon' has planned to stop Shogun and maintain his light heavyweight title. UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun – Saturday, October 24th, live on Pay-Per-View from Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.