MMA Hot Stuff

UFC 104 Machida vs Shogun Controversy CONTINUES

UFC 104: Machida vs. Rua

10/24/09 - Los Angeles, CA

CompuStrike Round-by-Round Stats

 Main Event

Lyoto Machida W 5 (Unan) Maurico Rua

View Round-by-Round Stats

 

Inside the Numbers: Rua outlanded Machida 89-50 in Total Strikes landed including 73 Leg Strikes landed. Rua dominated the fight and did just about everything he needed to do to beat the undefeated Machida, including out-landing Machida in every round, but apparently it wasn't enough for the judges. All 3 judges scored it 48-47 or 3-2.

The Arm Strikes were virtually the same as both fighters landed 16 total Arm Strikes but it was Rua who dominated every position by landing the damaging Leg Strikes. Rua was able to land 46 kicks when going toe-to-toe with Machida, and landing 27 knees when in the clinch. (thanks Compustrike for the info)

You can read more here: Machida vs Shogun Controversy

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UFC 104 Machida vs Shogun Controversy

I've let some time pass. I've even had a massage because I was so stressed out about last night's decision between Lyoto Machida and Shogun Rua. Okay, so maybe that's not why I had my monthly massage but I did think about it during my aromatherapy. 

I watched the same fight everyone else did. Mind you my seats were in front of a tv. I had perfect viewing pleasure - no toddlers or drunks in my way. Sure, I picked Shogun in my UFC Fantasy picks, but after watching all 5 rounds I thought for sure clear the judges would also vote unanimously for Shogun as the winner. The new Light Heavyweight champion, the first person to defeat Lyoto Machida. I just got up to get more guacamole as they started to read the judges scores. Before the fresh green spicy goop hit my plate Bruce Buffer announced that all three judges scored the contest for Machida, the winner by unanimous decision and "still the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion". You could hear everyone's jaw hit the floor in my living room in absolute shock. 

There was a flurry of internet activity from people like me calling bullsh!t. Throw the challenge flag! Open the ballot box! I demand a recount! There was NO way it could have gone that way.  Fighters and journalists took to twitter also saying they disagreed with the judges. Even Dana White expressed his dissatisfaction with the judges decision during the post fight press conference.

As it grew later in the evening and into the early morning, some people started calming down a bit. Then people started saying things like "this is why you never leave it up to the judges."  Even I made a very conscious effort to NEVER disagree with judge's decisions in a public forum. Sure, I've thought it many times. But I'd NEVER say so on my site. I thought doing so would be disrespectful. But I've been giving it a lot of thought. What are the judges for if not to render a decision on the outcome of a bout that is so evenly matched as Shogun Rua and Lyoto Machida? Isn't that what they're expected to do? Their job is to judge who was 'better' in these areas: Clean Strikes, Effective Grappling, Octagon Control and Effective Aggressiveness. So, why should it be that dangerous for a fight to go the distance? Why not leave it up to the judges? Not every fight is going to end in a submission or knockout. As much as we fans would like for it to be that way, it's not.

I certainly understand the concept of fighters wanting to control their own destiny. And it's such a great motivational speech to hear your coach say "don't leave it in the hands of the judges" or "don't rely on someone else to give you the win". However, the time we need judges reliable judges the most is in title fights like Shogun VS Machida. In fights that pit two very evenly matched fighters against each other. Fights that are determined by the closest of margins and the slightest details. We can't expect title fights to always end by submission or KO / TKO, and do we really want them to? Isn't it the goal of an organization to pit two amazing fighters against each other such that they fully test each others arsenal of skills?

Sure this was a close fight, and judges have a view that we the public really don't have. Also, all we know about their criteria are the basic areas we're told about by Mike Goldberg before each event. However, Dana White has always said that the reason MMA will become so popular across the globe is because fighting is something that everyone understands, regardless of nationality or language spoken. Unfortunately for Shogun, last night fighting was not something everyone understood, because those judges saw something drastically different over five rounds than the majority of the crowd and those of us watching at home.

Oh, and this talk about 'taking a belt from the champion'... I've given that some thought as well! How does that make sense? It's like implying that the defending champ doesn't have to do as much to win.It's like saying that beating the defending Super Bowl Champs by only one point isn't winning 'by enough'. A win is a win, even if you're the challenger and it's by a razor thin margin. Both fighters should walk into the cage with the same blank slate and not a +1 point for the reigning champion. 

All I ask is that the judges and the athletic commission give the fans and the sport what we want. That's the ability for a fight to be judged in an educated and consistent manner. Many more of these questionable decisions will start to make us lose credibility as a sport.

This is just my personal opinion. I know some of my friends (all of which I highly respect) will have a different opinion and I welcome the discussion. If you agree or disagree, feel free to leave me a comment, email or send me a message on Twitter!

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If you missed the fights I think you can find them here... UFC MAIN EVENT

Having said all of that, I'm looking forward to the rematch. 

Want to know who had more strikes/kicks? Go here: THIS SAYS IT ALL

UFC 104 Machida vs Shogun VIDEO

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.

UFC 104 Pay Per View Locations

In May, Lyoto Machida electrified the mixed martial arts world with a stirring knockout of Rashad Evans. On Saturday, October 24th, “The Dragon” will make the first defense of his UFC light heavyweight crown in the main event of UFC 104 against former PRIDE star Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who is coming off back-to-back knockouts of Chuck Liddell and Mark Coleman.

In the co-feature, two of the top young heavyweight contenders in the sport will clash, as unbeaten Cain Velasquez takes on former IFL star “Big” Ben Rothwell in what promises to be one of the most memorable bouts of 2009. 

UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun - Saturday, October 24th, live on Pay-Per-View from Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

List of bars/restaurants by city and state after the page break. See below!

If you want your bar/restaurant listed, please email me at rachel@mmahotstuff.com

 
 

Nominations for 2009 World MMA Awards closes on Wednesday

Who do you think was the BreakThrough Fighter of the Year? Best MMA Promotion? 

As a reminder, the nomination stage for the 2009 World MMA Awards closes this Wednesday (tomorrow), Sept. 30. 

The World MMA Awards, which is operated by Fighters Only magazine, is viewed as one of the most prestigious awards for the sport, awarding in 18 different MMA related categories

Nominees will be announced on Oct. 5, and final voting will then run until Dec. 5. Winners will be announced at a Dec. 30 "Oscars-style" black-tie ceremony, which streams live on Versus.com (and throughout January on Versus) from The Joint at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. 

"Response to the World MMA Awards has been huge this year with thousands of fans worldwide taking part," Fighters Only CEO Rob Hewitt recently stated. "Nominations have been very diverse, and ... most of the categories are still wide open." 

The categories range from Fight of the Year to KO and Submission of the Year to Best MMA Brand and best MMA Media Source. MMA equipment manufactures also vie for a variety of categories. 

But before you place your vote I encourage you to take a minute and think about things. What makes someone the Best Fighter of the Year? Is it the number of wins? Is it the most vicious KnockOut? The biggest upset? Or is it because of heart and dedication?

Another category is Best MMA Journalist. I've thought a lot about this one (for obvious reasons). Always keep in mind the best Journalist may not be the one that breaks every 'story'... Sadly, fact checking has taken a back seat more often than not over being the first to the party. And then there are times the stories are known weeks before the story actually gets out but can't be discussed for confidential reasons. I personally take pride in the fact that while I consider many Fighters (UFC, WEC & Strikeforce) my personal friends, a lot of the information I hear I keep to myself. I'm so proud of what my friends have accomplished and there are times I know the information is just best left unsaid or unwritten. I want them to have time to train in private for a fight before it's publicly announced who their next opponent is. Who do you consider to be a Journalist that writes funny or interesting stories? Gives a different perspective than the 12 other sites that covered the same thing the day before.

So now that I've given you something to think about, please hurry and vote. 

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/MMAHotStuff

Week in Review: UFC WEC And Everything In Between

Hi ladies
wow, where have I been?! My body was kind enough to turn a common cold into bronchitis during the weekend of UFC 98 and forced me to take a week "off". But I'm feeling much better and there has been a lot going on!

While UFC 98 has come and gone I need to fess up and say my picks were ALL WRONG. And to those of you that emailed me to point that out, thanks captain obvious(es) and good job in picking the favorites. I had the pleasure of taking my dad to the fights and he had a great time. While you may have better seats while watching the fights at home there's nothing like feeling the excitement in the arena.

Frankie Edgar did an outstanding job against Sean Sherk and I owe him mad props. While I knew Frankie would do well he showed everyone he is deserving of these great match ups. I'm definitely excited to see what is in store for him!

Ohhh so sad. That Matt Serra vs Matt Hughes fight was the fight I was really looking forward to. Hughes had his hands down half way through the first round. Neither of them did a stellar job, but it was a pretty good fight. I had the first round going to Serra, second round going to Hughes and the third round going to Serra. So when it came down to judge's decision, I really thought Serra had won. And frankly, by the expression and body language of both Hughes and Serra I think they both thought Serra had won as well. Everyone in the crowd around me and my Tweeps (people on Twitter) thought the same thing. I guess as the saying goes "Never Leave It Up To The Judges" is very fitting here in this situation. The judges probably saw something that the rest of us didn't.

The Evans vs Machida fight was great. While I thought Evans would have won the fight it was exciting for sure. When Machida knocked Evans out in the second round seeing Evans buckle like that left my mouth open for two minutes. Perhaps we'll be seeing Lyoto face off with Shogun Rua at UFC 104.

All old news but for me the highlight was not only taking my dad to his first UFC event but seeing him get into it and actually say to me stuff like "What a great take down" and knowing the specific hold and submission names really impressed me. I had a great time with him. Thanks for going dad!

Other news worthy items you should know about:

• Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (24-6-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) will return to the UFC and fight Mostapha Al-Turk (6-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at next weekend's UFC 99 event.
• EA Sports announced they will release a MMA-themed video game "EA Sports MMA" in 2010. This is another sign how mainstream MMA going. Video games will help reach the younger demographic even more than they are now.
• It was announced that Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans are the new coaches for The Ultimate Fighter.
• Tune in to WEC 41 to not only watch Mike Brown defend his title against Urijah Faber but our friend Kenny Florian will be the commentator. Super excited for this card.
• Frank Trigg signed a new deal with the UFC.

June is not only the month of my birthday (33, already?) but it's also a great month for MMA addicts.

EVENTS
June 5th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 10
June 6th - Strikeforce Robbie Lawler vs Jake Shields (oh yeah AND Andrei Arlovski vs Brett Rogers as well as Nick Diaz vs Scott Smith) YAY
June 7th - WEC Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber
June 12th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 11
June 13th - UFC 99 Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva (Marcus Davis vs Dan Hardy also on this card)
June 19th - Strikeforce Challengers: Santos vs Villasenor
June 19th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 12
June 20th - The Ultimate Fighter Finale 9 (Yes we'll get to see TUF finals but also on the card is Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez  and Nate Diaz vs Joe Daddy Stevenson) WTF Chris Lytle is on the prelim card? Breaks my heart. Hopefully he still tries for fight of the night honors!

All in all a great month for MMA fans. More to come. More frequently I promise.

 

UFC 97: UFC announces Silva VS Leites in Montreal

The UFC has officially announced UFC 97, taking place in Montreal on April 18th and featuring a middleweight title fight between the pound-for-pound king, Anderson Silva versus Thales Leites. This event will also feature a light heavyweight battle between Chuck Liddell and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Anderson Silva has been unstoppable at both middleweight and light heavyweight since coming into the UFC. He's on an 8 fight (UFC) win streak, and seven of those wins have come within the first two rounds. Only Patrcik Cote has lasted outside of the second round with "The Spider". Silva will be facing Leites, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, who is also on quite a win streak. Leites has won his last five in the UFC, including a split decision victory over Nate Marquardt.

Chuck "the Iceman" Liddell will be looking to get back to his winning ways with a long-awaited battle with Shogun Rua. Liddell is returning to the Octagon for the first time since his loss to the newly crowned light heavyweight champ, Rashad Evans. Rua on the other hand is coming off a very recent victory over Marc Coleman at UFC 93. These two fighters will finally meet about a year after they were originally scheduled to. Injuries had sidelined Rua and caused him to pull out of their first scheduled bout. Both men have something to prove in this fight!

UFC 93 Recap: Hendo & Franklin Battle... Rua & Coleman Struggle

UFC 93 has come and gone, and although the card wasn't what one would consider "stellar", it certainly didn't disappoint (well, almost). So for the first time, I've decided to start handing out MMAHotStuff awards for each UFC event. Here we go!

MMAHotStuff "MVP" Award- The Irish fans. European fans never disappoint. There's really nothing cooler than hearing the entire crowd break into song while the fight is going on. If I were a fighter I wouldn't be able to contain a smile. I'm just amazed that they break into song all at once and with the same song. How do they know what song to sing? How do they all jump into it at exactly the same time? It's not like when one poor section of the stands at a baseball game tries to start a "wave" and it takes a good 5 minutes of pathetic attempt before they get it going. It's like all the entire crowd at UFC 93 was a big group of drinking buddies that knew each other. Amazing... MMAHotStuff loves the Irish fans!

MMAHotStuff "Corner Man of the Night" Award- Without a doubt, this goes to Phil Baroni for his work in Mark Coleman's corner. Coleman was on the verge of collapse at the end of the first round, and Baroni probably knew it. Telling Coleman to "slip the jab and counter" or "set up your shots with some punches" probably wasn't going to get him anywhere, so Baroni stuck with the inspiring "great fucking fight... this is a great fucking fight!", which actually seemed to work. He would sprinkle in a few comments like "I know you're tired, he's tired too", but mostly he just kept saying "this is a great fucking fight". At first I was perplexed with this approach, but then I began to find it actually somewhat endearing. Great fucking job Baroni!

MMAHotStuff "This is painful to watch" Award- Hands down, Shogun VS Coleman. They easily snatched this award away from Horn VS Palhares who were the early front-runners. I'll give Coleman some leeway here as it was his first time down in the 205 lb class, and it couldn't have been an easy cut for that monster of a man, but Rua has no excuse. I know he states that he was sidelined for many months due to knee injury, and that fighting is different than training, but could he really not come in shape? And how many chances did he need to put Coleman away before he finally did? Rua's inability to put Coleman away when Coleman looked as gassed as an obese 3rd grader after running his first mile in PE class was pathetic, and only prolonged the agony of the fight. This was about as tough to watch as Dick Clark on his annual NYE Celebration show. Perhaps Shogun could take a lesson from Ryan Seacrest on how to jump in and put an end to the agony.

MMAHotStuff "Did he see the same fight I saw?" Award - This award goes to judge Chris Watts, who scored the fight 30-27 Franklin, giving all three rounds to Franklin. Now I wouldn't necessarily disagree if Franklin had been given the victory because it was a close fight, but to give all three rounds to Franklin??? What fight was he watching? By the way, judges, you know you did a bad job scoring the fight if the fighter you just gave three rounds to rolls his eyes in confusion when your scoring is announced.

So there you have it... the first ever "MMAHotStuff Award" presentation. What do you think? Any awards I missed?

UFC 93: Henderson VS Franklin; Rua VS Coleman to kick-off 2009!

Today the UFC announced that it will kick off 2009 in Dublin, Ireland with a card featuring Dan Henderson VS Rich Franklin and also Mauricio "Shogun" Rua VS Mark "The Hammer" Coleman.

Henderson and Franklin will meet in the main event for a light heavyweight showdown. Both fighters are coming off big wins, both at UFC 88. Henderson picked up his first win in the Octogon with a hard fought 3 round unanimous decision over a dangerous ground fighter in Rousimar Palhares. Although Palhares is not a well known fighter he presented a tough challenge for Henderson.

Franklin also picked up an important victory at UFC 88, knocking off Matt Hamill for his first fight back at the light heavyweight division. Franklin showed a disciplined game as he kept the fight standing and stayed away from Hamill's dangerous takedowns.

This will be a great fight! Both are true veterans and former champions, and both are well liked by the fans. I can't wait to see these two go to war, but am going to need to take some time to seriously analyze this match-up before making a prediction.