Now that a couple days have passed, both Shogun Rua and Lyoto Machida have had the opportunity to watch their fight from UFC 104. Yesterday, Shogun said he thought he won four rounds, and guess what? Machida thinks he won four rounds too.
“I thought it was a very even and tough fight,” Machida said. “I had the opportunity to see the fight again and I thought I won four rounds and Shogun took the last one. Some people say he won the fourth and fifth round, but for sure I won at least the first three rounds. The American commentators were pretty much biased. If you see the fight without audio, you will probably see a different fight.
“Shogun was a great opponent and had a nice strategy. He deserves all my respect as a fighter, but I was superior. I had three or four chances to finish the fight, and he never put me in danger. I didn’t get (dazed) at any moment of the fight, but I put him in danger three or four times. He kicked my legs a couple of times, but he wouldn’t knock me out with that.”
If you’re worried his opinion means he’s no longer willing to give Shogun a rematch, don’t. The good news is he’s willing to face anyone the UFC puts in front of him, but the bad news is he injured his hand (probably during one of those times he almost finished the fight, wait, when were those again?) and it may need surgery.
“Anyone who has a mouth can talk. I respect [Dana's] opinion and I’m ready to fight Shogun or any other challenger UFC decides, but I would like to say that this fight was not judged by myself, my father or Anderson Silva,” Machida said. “This fight was judged by professionals, so I’m pretty much comfortable with the result.”
“It’s time to celebrate the win and relax from the hard training routine,” he said. “After that I will check what happened to my hand (it’s hurt), if it needs some surgery, then analyze my mistakes in this fight carefully with my family to restart my training routine. No matter who is my next opponent, I’ll give some rest to my mind and body and return 100 percent to the training to get ready for my next challenge. If it’s Shogun again, I’ll study his game and make a different strategy to please the fans with a better fight.”
I think we were all hoping the rematch would happen sooner rather than later. UFC 109 on Feb. 6 seemed a realistic card to book it for, but if his hand injury turns out to be serious, we can probably throw that date out the window and expect it sometime in the spring.
Image via Sherdog
Update: Bloody Elbow is passing along information from Dave Meltzer that Dana White would like to capitalize on the rematch while the iron’s hot and book it for UFC 108. Apparently, Shogun has already agreed to it, but Machida still has to figure out if he’s healthy enough to fight that soon (I’m assuming the hand injury is the issue). If it works out for UFC 108, Anderson Silva-Vitor Belfort would be bumped to another card, and Rashad Evans-Thiago Silva would round out the triple header.
Update 2: You can pretty much scratch the above idea off the list. Machida has been medically suspended for 60 days without contact for the laceration on his upper lip, meaning he couldn’t even spar until a few days before a Jan. 2 fight. Shogun didn’t receive a suspension.
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Though I don’t agree that he won 4 rounds i gotta agree that joe rogan and mike goldberg spent the whole time talking about shogun. I watched it again and ignored their commentary and it didn’t seem like shogun controlled the whole fight like it seemed before
Bullshit
I used to like the guy but that’s turning annoying now. I’m fed up of seeing karate kid walking backwards and running around the cage to avoid contacts. I wish Shogun could stomp or soccer-kick this kind of bad faith once and for all.
well he couldnt get machida down to stomp him as evident of the fight (he tried unsuccessfully 3 times to take him down) and its not PRIDE. stomping and soccer-kicks are illegal in the UFC
I knew he would puss out of the rematch…hold on to that belt while u still can
im sorry but if you watch that fight in mute its a total different fight. I gotta agree with tweak there. also shogun said how he never felt stunned or rocked but usually when some one drops and stumbles from a punch its because they got rocked. The judges scored that fight perfectly. So stop whining all you shogun nuthuggers
killa 123, you’re wrong, I hope you tivo’d the fight go back and slow motion those times shogun stumbles back, you will see that the majority of that was because he was off balance from throwing his kick, and watch Machida’s punch in slow motion, majority of those miss or hit elbow. With or without sound doesn’t matter, you can ignore the fightmetric and compustrike if you want, go and count each strike yourself like i did, there is no way it can be scored for Machida, no justification.
I really earned a lot of respect for Machida after his back to back KO’s to get the belt, and for his discipline and training. I figured he may really be on to something with this “Karate is back!” slogan. You would think this traditional martial artist would have something to say about honor. I’m totally disillusioned with him, and don’t trust anything he says, because he is strait up lying to the public when he sees he was superior. There should be polls from Brazilian and Japanese fans, see what they think. They need to ask Machida’s dad what he thinks, no release on that statement yet. There is no honor for Lyoto Machida until he admits he lost and hands over the belt, instead of hiding behind his injury, suspended or not, believe me he will be in the gym trying everything he can to never be hit in the legs again, but I don’t think it will matter. Those judges need to be interviewed, and reviewed by a board or something, they wont admit to their error for fear of their jobs, but they should all three be forced to watch the fight again and each round explain how Machida “won” If they can overturn Nick Diaz’s submission victory to NC because of pot, if BJ Penn can lead a campaign against Nevada Athletic Comission for the greasegate, despite his loss, then there should be a campaign to overturn Machida’s victory into Shogun’s victory, and I bet if you get enough votes of people this will happen. Machida would be retaining more fans if he was honorable, people would have rooted for him to get back in there and earn his rematch for the belt, but now, he has made himself a target, and his running style isn’t helping him here with the fans. How can the true winner be medically suspended for cuts on his face, and still have a hand injury as well, and have visibly bruised legs and body. People unite, Machida is skilled, but he has turned himself into a farce with his post fight actions. Let the judges take most the blame here, but Machida is fake, his words can’t be trusted.
I’m not sure about California, but I know there is legislation in Nevada that forbids over-ruling a decision victory. I would imagine it’s not much different in California, so it would be useless anyway. I think Shogun won, but it was close. give it up. If Shogun is as game as he looked, he’ll be back with a title shot in no time. Until then, we’ll all be okay.
If you want to compare “honor”, Shogun would have given his fight bonus back to the UFC after his terrible performace against Coleman. That’s a little stupid to say Machida should give his belt away. Nobody would do that. You don’t see The Florida Gators calling their win over Arkansas a loss because the refs fucked up. They just take it as a win as I, you, and appartantly Machida would too.
[...] Lyoto Machida mentioned earlier this week that he had injured his hand during the Shogun fight, but he wasn’t sure if it needed surgery. Well, according to Dave Meltzer, the verdict is in, and unfortunately it looks like it does. UFC officials have confirmed that Lyoto Machida will need surgery on one of his hands, thus delaying the planned middleweight championship rematch with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (18-4). Machida injured his hand during his controversial win over Rua during UFC 104 Saturday in Los Angeles. [...]